Saraswathi: The Hindu Goddess of Knowledge

        So recently my best friend sent me a statue of the Hindu Goddess Saraswathi. Funny, I’ve actually been researching Hinduism to understand my spiritual side. Not so uncommon for Sufis to do this, While I understand other religions spiritual path. I know still Islam is the path for me. Why? Perhaps I’ll explain that in another post. So, in Hinduism there is an ultimate God or one God, Brah
man. This Brahman is not the God Brahama, do not get them confused. This Ultimate God is more parallel with God in the Muslim thought or Jewish thought. All Gods and Goddess in Hinduism represent a trait of God. The doctrine of the chosen deity or Ishhta Devata means a person has the freedom to choose or invent a form of Brahman that satisfies their own spiritual cravings and make it an object.

       In Ibrahimic faiths we have One God, but God has attributes or traits. Some of these traits can be known to us humans, such as jealous or the 99 names of God in Islam. Image if we took Gods trait of Compassion or Gods ability to control the water and we made two images out of it. We call these images Bob of Compassion and Susan of the waters. While we know these just represent God, we can assign names and attributes to the traits of God so we can focus better on what we need. The problem here is that God in the Bible and the Quran is very specific on idol worship, very specific. So, is Hinduism doing idol worship? Yes and no, you see in the Ibrahimic train of thought idolatry is the worship of something or someone other than God as if it were God. It can be considered worshiping false gods. In Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism idols are symbols of the absolute but not the absolute or icons of spiritual idea or the embodiment of the divine.

       In these South Asian religions, a river or rock could also be use as icons. The Bhagavad Gita says that few people have the time to ponder and fix on the Absolute or God and it is much easier to focus on qualities, virtues, and aspects of a manifested representation of God. Do I personally believe in doing prayers to an aspect of God, no because I choose Islam. Islam focuses on all aspects of God through none image, because humans like to forget the God behind the statue. There are Hindus who forget that their Gods and Goddess all represent one thing, and that falls into the category of idolatry in the Abrahamic thought. There are plenty of Muslims who obsess with the day to day activities that us Muslims should follow for reward, so much so that they forget God and in fact are practicing shirk. There are Muslims that treat the Quran like an idol and Christians and Jews who do the same. Humans are just……….dumb?

        Okay back to Saraswathi…I had to diverge because I know someone out there has no idea about Hinduism. My definition of Hinduism is just from research and I remind you that, it comprises of more complex thought and definitions. I remind the Abrahamic people, us Muslims, Jews and Christians, that even using worshiping concepts of God or words of God can be spiritual idolatry. That’s right every definition of God leads to heresy and God is just, even the word God is just a definition. I will make a later post on the concept of God around the world and in Muslim thought.  Okay Saraswathi is the Goddess of knowledge, music, art, wisdom, and learning…. basically everything I like. She is apart of the trinity that includes Lakshmi and Parvati. Lakshmi seems to be the most popular, probably because she is the Goddess of prosperity and beauty. The male forms are Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.  Sara (I’m shortinging it) was mentioned in the Rigveda and has remained a significant Goddes from the Vedic period until modern times. Actually, her holiday lies on the fifth fay of spring or better known as Vasant Panchami or Saraswati Puja and Saraswati Jayanti, this year it lies on Feb 10. The day before my birthday. Just saying. If your Chinese you might recognize that the Hindus also celebrate New Years with you, as Saraswat Puja is the fifth day of the Chinese New Year. Jains and Buddhist also claim Sara as their deity. In Japan she is called Benzaiten and was brought over from India. Japanese also depict her with a musical instrument, wearing white, and on a swan.  Also, fun fact saras means “pooling of water” or “speech” and vati means “she who possesses”. So, her name could mean “she who has ponds, lakes, and pooling water” or “she who possesses speech”. She is invoked to remind the reader of the Upanishads and Dharma sastras to meditate on virtue and the very essence of one’s actions.

       So, if you want to celebrate today, the day of Puja, please do so by writing or doing something intellectual. Maybe go to a local temple to join worship her and join in festivities. If you are like me and Muslim, just go “Cool, today is another religions Holiday.”, or even better use to today as an excuse to read the Quran or study hadiths. If your Jewish or Christian, read the Bible take time out for God. If your atheist, read one of your favorite books or write in your journal. If you’re from another religion, go pray or read or write. Holidays for other religions are great days to reflect on your own spirituality. Happy Saraswathi Puja!