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Sarasvati is associated with speech, poetry, music and culture and is known as the Goddess of Learning and the Patroness of the Arts and Music. She is revered by both Hindus and Buddhists. To Buddhists, she is the consort of [[Manjushri]], the bodhisattva of wisdom. Buddhists appeal to Manjushri for intelligence, wisdom, mastery of the teaching, the power of exposition, eloquence and memory. He works with [[Lord Maitreya]]. The two are sometimes depicted in a triad with [[Gautama Buddha]] in which Manjushri represents the wisdom aspect and Maitreya the compassion aspect of Buddhist teaching. Like Sarasvati, Manjushri brings the gift of illumination. | Sarasvati is associated with speech, poetry, music and culture and is known as the Goddess of Learning and the Patroness of the Arts and Music. She is revered by both Hindus and Buddhists. To Buddhists, she is the consort of [[Manjushri]], the bodhisattva of wisdom. Buddhists appeal to Manjushri for intelligence, wisdom, mastery of the teaching, the power of exposition, eloquence and memory. He works with [[Lord Maitreya]]. The two are sometimes depicted in a triad with [[Gautama Buddha]] in which Manjushri represents the wisdom aspect and Maitreya the compassion aspect of Buddhist teaching. Like Sarasvati, Manjushri brings the gift of illumination. | ||
== | == The river Sarasvati == | ||
In the earliest Hindu texts, the Vedas, Sarasvati is a river goddess. The Vedas say that Sarasvati was the greatest river in India. For years the Sarasvati was believed to have been a myth, but an archaeological survey in 1985 found an ancient riverbed that matched the description of the Sarasvati. It was a great river, four to six miles wide for much of its length. It flowed westward from the Himalayas into the sea. Frawley believes that the Sarasvati was the main site of habitation at the time the Vedas were composed thousands of years ago. | In the earliest Hindu texts, the Vedas, Sarasvati is a river goddess. The Vedas say that Sarasvati was the greatest river in India. For years the Sarasvati was believed to have been a myth, but an archaeological survey in 1985 found an ancient riverbed that matched the description of the Sarasvati. It was a great river, four to six miles wide for much of its length. It flowed westward from the Himalayas into the sea. Frawley believes that the Sarasvati was the main site of habitation at the time the Vedas were composed thousands of years ago.<ref>David Frawley, ''Gods, Sages and Kings: Vedic Secrets of Ancient Civilization'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: Passage Press, 1991), pp. 72–76, 354–57 nn. d–g.</ref> | ||
The Rigveda calls Sarasvati “the best mother, the best river, [and] the best Goddess.”<ref>Rigveda 2.41.16, 1.3.12, quoted in | Frawley says that the Sarasvati, “like the later Ganges, symbolizes the Sushumna, the river of spiritual knowledge, the current that flows [through the spinal canal] through the seven [[chakra]]s of the subtle body. She is not only the Milky Way or river of Heaven, inwardly she is the river of true consciousness that flows into this world.”<ref>Ibid., p. 219.</ref> | ||
The Rigveda calls Sarasvati “the best mother, the best river, [and] the best Goddess.”<ref>Rigveda 2.41.16, 1.3.12, quoted in Frawley, ''Gods, Sages and Kings'', pp. 70, 71.</ref> It also says, “Sarasvati like a great ocean appears with her ray, she rules all inspirations.”<ref>Sri-sukta 1, 6, 13, 4, in Rigveda, cited by David Kinsley, ''The Goddesses’ Mirror: Visions of the Divine from East and West'' (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1989), p. 55.</ref> | |||
Her sacred “seed syllable,” or bija, is ''Aim'' (pronounced ''ah-eem''). A [[bija mantra]] encapsulates the essence of a [[cosmic being]], of a principle or a [[chakra]]. Sarasvati’s mantra is ''Om Aim Sarasvatye Namaha''. | Her sacred “seed syllable,” or bija, is ''Aim'' (pronounced ''ah-eem''). A [[bija mantra]] encapsulates the essence of a [[cosmic being]], of a principle or a [[chakra]]. Sarasvati’s mantra is ''Om Aim Sarasvatye Namaha''. | ||