Goddess Saraswati symbolizes wisdom

Goddess Saraswati symbolizes wisdom

Text and photo by Susi Andrini

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): "We offer these fresh, sweet-smelling
flowers in full bloom to thee. We worship thee in solemnity. Oh,
Lord, please give us your blessings...."

That's the opening of Kakawin Saraswati, which marks the
beginning of a rite to worship goddess Saraswati held every 210
days in the Balinese Calendar.

Who is Saraswati? In Sanskirt, Saraswati consists of two
words: saras meaning something flowing, an utterance; while wati
means owner, possessor. So Saraswati represents something that
flows, the source of knowledge and wisdom.

Therefore, Saraswati is a symbol of the God of Wisdom or
Knowledge, the source of language, literature, science and the
arts. According to the Hindu Holy Scripture, the Veda, Saraswati,
is a name of a river or the River God worshiped for his endowment
of vitality and health to the believers.

According to the Javanese/Balinese Calendar, the ceremony is
performed on Umanis wuku Watugung Saturday, or every 210 days.

"Formerly, the rite was conducted only by pedande, or high
priests, however, since the inception of Parisade Hindu Dharma
(the Brotherhood of Hindu Dharma/PHDI), it has also been
celebrated at schools," said Ketut Repiyit, principal of Sumerta
7 elementary school in Denpasar.

He further explained that as the rite normally involved
offerings and a litany of prayers solely dedicated to the
Creator, the celebration was intended to educate children to
remember and respect God.

Divinity

For the sake of followers' inner feelings and a simple grasp
of Divinity, in their worship of gods and goddess, the Hindu
people need personification of sorts. This goes some way toward
explaining why gods and goddesses, like Saraswati, are always
symbolized as statues.

Saraswati is the wife of Brahma, the universe's creator. She
has four hands, in which one of them is holding a jatamala or a
rosary, symbolizing unlimited wealth of knowledge, while it is
also a symbol of prayers and concentration of thought.

Another hand is holding a kropak -- a palm-like leaf to store
knowledge, while the two hands are holding wina, a guitar-like
instrument symbolizing Rta, musical tunes of the universe
signifying that knowledge is of beauty and grace.

Saraswati is always pictured as a goddess standing or
occasionally sitting on lotus petals with two peacocks on her
sides.

The holy lotus, whose essence is white, indicates that
knowledge is meticulously clean -- untarnished by untruth, while
the sitting position signifies wisdom, an indication that the ego
must be suppressed. Given that a peacock is usually thought of as
a bird with beautiful plumage, this simply means that regardless
of beauty, one must not be haughty and give prominence to one's
ego.

Her other vehicle is a white swan, the symbol of wisdom.
Although it lives in a muddy place, a swan can pick up the right
food for its sustenance. It can also separate milk from water
before it finally drinks the milk.

Spiritual Saraswati

However, not many Saraswati statues can be found, not even in
the Balinese Art Center, the venue for the annual Balinese Art
Week, or in schools.

School children usually pray together at padmasana, a Hindu
temple at school. They may also pray at large Hindu temples like
Jaggathnata in Denpasar, close to Puputan Square.

A book on Saraswati by IB. Kd. Sindhu is one of many books
providing more information about this goddess.

Sindhu writes that the symbol of Goddess Saraswati has been in
existence in Bali for scores of years but that it is not quite
popular in the community. This symbol is not held to be sacred as
it is only decorative in nature. It is not a statue to be
sanctified, he adds.

In terms of symbolism, goddess Saraswati is also known in Bali
as Wagi-Swari or Dhatridewi. The symbol is made of Balinese
characters. These characters generally symbolize sound, but some
of them are believed to posses magical power, such as the modre,
or lokanatha characters.

Now, here is the legend about Goddess Saraswati that Ni Ketut
Purniti told her pupils at the Saraswati Day celebration on the
Saturday of Umanis Watu Gunung.

In days of yore, Dewi Nayang Ratih had a handsome baby boy.
Her husband left her for long time, meditating in a deep jungle.
He was still away when the baby boy grew into a naughty boy. The
boy kept asking about his father. One day, while she was cooking,
Dewi Nayang Ratih could no longer control her anger and hit the
head of her naughty son. The boy, wounded in the head, was later
told to leave the house.

Naturally, the boy was very sad. He went into the forest and
found a large slab of stone shaped like a mountain. He meditated
there and later got the name of Watugunung, which literally means
"a mountain-like stone". This stone he was meditating on was
occupied by 30 gods and goddesses, and two of them were Sinta and
Landep.

After meditating for quite a long time, Watugunung, by then a
strong and handsome young man, finally acquired some magical
powers. He left the forest and met Dewi Nayang Ratih.

This legend closely resembles the West Javanese legend of
Tangkuban Perahu, where a son falls in love with his mother.
Watugunung fell in love with his own mother. One day, Dewi Nayang
Ratih saw a scar on Watugunung's head and realized he was her own
son.

Unfortunately, Watugunung did not believe what Dewi Nayang
Ratih told him. Desperate, Dewi Nayang Ratih kept mentioning
the name of God Vishnu and this greatly angered Watugunung.

Enraged, he destroyed everything he could lay his hands on. To
stop him, Vishnu had to kill Watugunung and his corpse was
carried in a procession by the gods.

As a result of this legend, Hindu teachings prohibit gamye
gemana (incest, or marrying one's own parents or siblings),
parade gemana (adultery) or guruang gemana (marrying the wife of
one's teacher).

Lord Budha took pity on Watugunung and brought him to life but
then Vishnu did not like this idea and killed him again. Then he
was brought to life again, this time by Begawan Udaspati, but
again, Vishnu killed him. For one whole week he had to go through
a repeated process of being brought to life and killed again. On
a Saturday of Umanis Watu Gunung, Vishnu set a condition. He
would be brought to life but he had to repent and admit that
beyond him there was an omnipotent Being.

So, the life of Watugunung is manifest in the form of
Goddess Saraswati, the feminine personification of the Creator
and the Mother of Knowledge and Wisdom.

Balinese people strongly believe that the Saraswati rite must
best be conducted before the sun moves to the west as this will
affect the level of intelligence that the people conducting the
rite may have.

The Saraswati rite continues to the next day, called the
day of Banyu Pinaruh, on which people will be sprinkled by
holy water, and therefore, wisdom. Whoever receives this holy
water is believed to have better knowledge and become wiser. This
rite later continues, with the recital for one night of poems or
other works of literature inscribed on palmyra leaves, followed
by a discussion of its contents.