Saraswathi: The river of Consciousness

Photo: Saraswathi by Barbie Robinson

Saraswathi—the one who is uniquely filled with Consciousness (chethana),

You flow from the mountain peaks of lucid Consciousness towards the ocean of delusion.

Ever present to the multiplicity of earthly manifestation,

for those who flow with you, you bring them gifts of distilled perception.

-Rig Vedic hymn

Saraswathi is a unique deity, a space of movement, refined perception and the most profound revelation of the nature of poetic perception in contemplation.

In the oldest invocation of Saraswathi in the Rig Vedic hymns, she is a river, the movement that crashes through the towering mountains of our architecture of reality. Fluid, purifying (by washing away the murkiness that blinds us to Consciousness) and ever moving, Saraswathi is the practice of Satthvika or of connecting with those feelings inside and outside that hold spacious presence, dynamic equilibrium and movement.

More than any other deity, Sarawathi points to the vitality of movement as the practice of Sattvika. The flow of the river is the ongoing movement of contemplative perception which can move through the domains of multiplicity but still bring us to the unifying essence of experience. In the Rig Veda, this is symbolised by Saraswathi bringing ghee and butter to those that dwell close to her. Ghee and butter are essences distilled from milk. So also, Saraswathi brings to those who choose to travel with her the nourishing vision of Truth, or Sat, or Reality unpainted by self-interested narratives.

Saraswathi is the poetic vision. The Rig Vedic poet (Kavi) is not a poet as we understand this word today. Kavi is a seer, greater even than the Rishi or the intellectual sage. The Kavi is the conduit of Consciousness and is uniquely endowed with the power to express what is essentially inexpressible. Consciousness is outside the domains of all languages, even those of artistry. The Kavi is not just an artist, but one who discerns that nature of art that renders it the language of Consciousness. This is Saraswathi’s practice.

Saraswathi is artistic movement that generously invites a fragmented and disordered world to dwell with her and share the nourishment that she brings into our perception. This is only possible as a Kavi’s movement towards sublime beauty, beauty that is not created but evoked, and that is not known but given in Saraswathi’s presence.