Saraswathi: Wisdom dawns when there is offering

Blaze the purity within us Saraswathi, the pulsation of your wisdom renders us the swiftest of steeds within

My fire offering rich in devotion strengthens your light within me.

-Rig Veda

In the Rig Veda, the oldest text on Indian philosophy, Saraswathi is the great movement of the waters of Consciousness. She is the great flood that bursts through the rocks of our blindness to Reality, if we dwell in her presence.

Wisdom is a dynamic perception, as swift, as pulsating and as energetic as the winged speed of horses. In the Rig Veda, Saraswathi’s gifts are frequently compared to the electric presence of horses. Wisdom is the electricity of complete Presence, emptied of all the structures we have given it in our blindness to its most subtle but most vigorous and most pervasive domain. Wisdom is the lightning bolt that renders in an instant the experience of Truth.

Saraswathi’s light occurs when approached though yagna or the attitude of devotional offering. In the Rig Veda, Yagna is ever present in all invocations of Saraswathi. Yagna, the ceremonial “sacrifice” of all action into the fires of the deities, is the devotional surrender of individuation. It is only when approached through Yagna that the blaze of Saraswathi moves within us.

The great waters of Consciousness, Saraswathi, is the infinite flow that lies within the rock of our misreading of reality. Through Yagna, when the waters burst forth, the throbbing of wisdom and insight reveals the essence of Reality and of our eternal unity with its abundance and flow.