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.