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SARASWATI - Goddess of Music, Learning and Creativity, Framed Poster - $25 (East Village)
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The name Saraswati appears both as reference to a river and as a significant deity in the Rigveda. where she is called the best of mothers, of rivers, of goddesses. Saraswati is celebrated as a feminine goddess with healing, purifying powers of abundant, flowing waters.
The word eventually evolves in its meaning from "waters that purify," ultimately into a spiritual concept of a goddess that embodies knowledge, arts, music, melody, muse, language, eloquence, creative work and anything whose flow purifies the essence and self of a person. Saraswati is invoked to remind one to meditate on virtue, the meaning and essence of one's activity, one's action.
She is called the mother of the Vedas, and is the active energy and power of Brahma.
Saraswati images are depicted with much symbolism.
The goddess Saraswati is often portrayed as a beautiful woman dressed in pure white, often seated on a white lotus, which symbolizes light, knowledge and truth. She not only embodies knowledge but also the experience of the highest reality. Her iconography is typically in white themes from dress to flowers to swan -- the color symbolizing purity, true knowledge, insight and wisdom.
She is generally shown to have four arms, symbolically mirroring her husband Brahma's four heads, representing mind / sense, intellect / reasoning, imagination/ creativity, and self consciousness / ego. Brahma represents the abstract, she action and reality.
The four hands hold items with symbolic meaning -- a book, a mala (rosary), a water pot and a musical instrument (vina). The book symbolizes the Vedas representing the universal, divine, eternal, and true knowledge as well as all forms of learning. A mālā of crystals, representing the power of meditation, inner reflection and spirituality. A pot of water represents powers to purify right from wrong, clean from unclean, and the essence from the misleading. It's also symbolism for soma - the drink that liberates and leads to knowledge. The musical instrument, or vina, represents all creative arts and sciences, and her holding it symbolizes expressing knowledge that creates harmony. Saraswati is also associated with emotions and feelings expressed through the love for and rhythm of music.
A swan is often near her feet. In Hindu mythology, the swan is a sacred bird, which if offered a mixture of milk and water, is said to be able to drink the milk alone. It thus symbolizes discrimination between the good from the bad, the essence from the superficial. The swan is also symbolism for spiritual perfection and transcendence.
A peacock is often shown beside the goddess, symbolizing colorful splendor, a celebration of dance, and the peacock's ability to eat poisonous snakes yet create from it a beautiful plumage.
She is usually depicted near a flowing river or near a body of water, which may be related to her early history as a river goddess.
Well . . . if this whets your appetite for the beautiful, framed Saraswati image, just contact me.
$25. Kali poster also available, same size and price. Take either for $25, both for $45.
Pick up East 14th St.