Brahma, Saraswati and Symbolism

There are lots of prevalent confusions about Hindu gods and goddesses. A majority of those are confusions because absurd interpretations have been repeated for centuries now; while the corrections are few and muted. The righteous becomes introvert; while the empty-vessels keep making sounds – is one eternal law of nature. And when we have had centuries of stagnation, when research on ancient Indian epics became a work for foreign researchers alone while Indians fought to keep ends met, there are bound to be some digressions. These thoughts are coming to me because the topic I have chosen for this post is the relationship between Brahma and Saraswati.

According to a version of the myth, it is said that Brahma, the God of Creation, created Saraswati from his own body and then fell in love with her and also married her. According to many, it amounted to marrying one’s ‘daughter’ and hence this story is made as a point to ridicule our gods. Very plainly, this confusion is because we take our gods like other human beings, with bodies like us, and with passions like us. Much of the philosophy of Sanatan Dharma was explained in Symbolism. We gave our gods human characteristics and wrote stories around them – the purpose was to send the right message to the masses who needed simpler lessons to use in day to day life and not serious philosophies to ponder over. All the confusions happen when we take gods as characters and judge them on our standards, forgetting the symbolism and purpose why the legend was shared. It is the same case with Krishna, it is the same with Indra and in this case, it is the same with Brahma and Saraswati.

I just read a very good article titled “Symbolism and Literalism”, which explains the real symbolism behind the relationship between Brahma and Saraswati. I am presenting a portion of it here:

Brahma is (the name of creative aspect of the Divine) the God of Creation. As Creator, Brahma brought to life Existence itself. Which logically means, he thought of creating the physical world that we perceive through our sense organs and our mind. If you talk about the physical world of shapes and forms you need to give it a definition, or a name or label. This is known as the world of Rupa (Form/Shape) and Nama (Name), both inseparable from each other. In plain language, you look at a tree and your mind can’t be satisfied unless it finds a word (nama) to define it clearly so that when you say “tree” you know exactly what it is without having to actually look at it with your eyes. And this process of defining the physical world lies in the realm of thought. Thought then is expressed through speech.

What follows from this is rather simple. The shapes and forms that Brahma gave to his thoughts became the physical world. When he expressed it in language, it became speech. Which is Saraswathi, his daughter. And which is perfectly in line with Saraswathi worshipped as the Goddess of Speech (or vaak), language, and learning. However, we’re yet to hear of a word which has no meaning at all. As someone said, every word is an idea – it represents something: a thought, an object, anything. In other words, a word cannot be divorced from its meaning. Even in case of names of people – if I say out the name of a person, it conjures up an image or some sort of memory or association related to that person. This meaning is again Saraswathi, now donning the role of Brahma’s wife. As the meaning of the word, Saraswathi is Brahma’s wife just like a wife who stays with her husband for life through good and bad times. This symbolism is pretty much true of all Gods and their wives. As the wife of Vishnu the Preserver of the world, Lakshmi is the Goddess of Wealth. You cannot hope to attain peace and order in the world without prosperity. This then is the symbolism behind Saraswathi as both Brahma’s daughter and wife.

Read full article here:
http://www.sandeepweb.com/2010/03/16/symbolism-and-literalism/

So the confusion ends if we understand the symbolism. I think if we take Brahma’s thoughts on creation and then Saraswati as Speech – she is his daughter. But if we take or Saraswati as meaning/knowledge – she is his wife and consort, because they both always go together.

Here is another explanation:

Brahma is the Lord of creation. The creator must necessarily possess the knowledge to create. Without knowledge no creation is possible. Hence Brahma is said to be wedded to the goddess of knowledge, Saraswati. Brahma and his consort Saraswati, represent the vedas, their spirit and meaning.

Taken from: http://veda.wikidot.com/brahma

Let us also look at the symbolism of both Saraswati and Brahma:

Symbolism of Saraswati

Saraswati represents intelligence, consciousness, cosmic knowledge, creativity, education, enlightenment, music, the arts, eloquence and power. According to Vedanta she is considered to be the feminine energy and knowledge aspect (Shakti) of Brahman, as one of many aspects of Adi Shakti.

• Goddess Saraswati is often depicted as a beautiful woman dressed in pure white often seated on a white lotus, which symbolizes that she is founded in the experience of the Absolute Truth. She is mainly associated with the color white, which signifies the purity of true knowledge.

• She is not adorned heavily with jewels and gold, unlike the goddess Lakshmi, but is dressed modestly — representing her preference of knowledge over worldly material things

• She is generally shown to have four arms, which represent the four aspects of human personality in learning: mind, intellect, alertness, and ego. Alternatively, these four arms also represent the 4 Vedas, the primary sacred books for Hindus.

• She is shown to hold the following in her hands:
• A book, which is the sacred Vedas, representing the universal, divine, eternal, and true knowledge as well as her perfection of the sciences and the scriptures.
• A mālā (rosary) of crystals, representing the power of meditation and spirituality.
• A pot of sacred water, representing creative and purification powers.
• The vina, a musical instrument that represents her perfection of all arts and sciences.

• Saraswati is also associated with anurāga, the love for and rhythm of music which represents all emotions and feelings expressed in speech or music.

• A hansa or swan is often located next to her feet. The sacred bird, 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 and the bad or the eternal and the evanescent. 

• Sometimes a peacock is shown beside the goddess. The peacock represents arrogance and pride over its beauty, and by having a peacock as her mount, the Goddess teaches not to be concerned with external appearance and to be wise regarding the eternal truth.

Taken mainly from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saraswati

How wonderful is the symbolism in Saraswati’s representation! All is created to give us a message. If her picture has a peacock besides her or the colour of her saree is white – both mean something serious and enlightening. If we have knowledge of these facts, it would be wonderful, but even if we don’t have knowledge of true symbolism, still we can follow the lessons if we try to follow her.

Now let us see the symbolism behind Lord Brahma:

Symbolism behind Lord Brahma

• Lord Brahma is shown with four hands: Brahmā's four arms represent the four cardinal directions: east, south, west, and north. Also, the back right hand represents mind, the back left hand represents intellect, the front right hand is ego, and the front left hand is self-confidence.

• He is shown to carry a mala or prayer beads. This symbolizes the substances used in the process of creation. It also symbolises meditation.

• He is shown carrying a kamandalu, which represents sanyasa and renunciation (kamandalu is water pot used by sanyasis, men of renunciation).

• He is shown as carrying a book. The book symbolizes the universal, divine, eternal, and true knowledge as well as perfection of the scriptures.

• The Gold. Brahma’s symbol is golden egg or aura. Gold symbolizes activity; the golden face of Brahmā indicates that He is actively involved in the process of creating the Universe.

• The Swan - Brahmā uses the swan as his vāhana, or his carrier or vehicle. The swan is the symbol of grace and discernment. It symbolizes discrimination between the good and the bad or the eternal and the evanescent.

• The Lotus - The lotus represents the reality. Brahma sitting on the lotus indicates that he is ever-rooted in the infinite reality. Reality is the foundation on which his personality rests.

• The Beard - Brahmā's black or white beard denotes wisdom and the eternal process of creation.

• The four faces of Brahma represent the four Vedas. They also symbolise the functioning of the inner personality which consists of thoughts. They are the mind (manas), the intellect (buddhi), ego (ahamkara) and conditioned consciousness (chitta). They represent the four ways in which thoughts function.

• Brahma is also shown riding a chariot drawn by seven swans, representing the seven worlds.

Taken from many websites including:

http://www.iloveulove.com/spirituality/hindu/hindudeities.htm

http://singaporehindutemples.com/hindugod/lordbrahma/lordbrahma.html

There is another confusion. There are not many temples of Brahma on this earth. This has given rise to many myths. Some one says it was because the Asuras (demons) had started worshiping Brahma and hence to mislead them Devs (gods) stopped the practice of Brahma worship and the demons followed it. There can be many others. But the symbolism behind this is as follows:

Why Brahma is not worshipped?

Here is one good explanation:

As creation is the work of the mind and the intellect, Lord Brahma symbolizes the Universal Mind. From the standpoint of an individual, Brahma symbolizes one's own mind and intellect. Since an individual is naturally gifted with the mind and intellect, he or she may be said to have already realized Brahma. For this reason the worship of Brahma is not very popular among all Hindus. He is, however, worshipped by seekers of knowledge, such as students, teachers, scholars and scientists.

Taken from: http://www.iloveulove.com/spirituality/hindu/hindudeities.htm

Another wonderful way of putting it is in the below text:

The true philosophical reason why Brahma is not worshiped like the other deities is as under: Worship involves faith and faith to certain degree means accepting supremacy of someone without questioning. Brahma, on the other hand, represents true knowledge. The knowledge and faith are philosophically antithetical concepts. Knowledge blooms in self-doubt, constant questioning, criticism and discussions and it lapses in faith. Ichnographically,  Brahma  is shown sitting on a blue lotus flower (Pushkara in Sanskrit). Anyone who is familiar with lotus will know that they bloom through a complicated network of root system submerged in the soft mud. This muddy foundation of the Lotus  flower is an artists pictogram of  intellectual ferment.

Ritualistic  worship of Brahma who is an embodiment of the true knowledge, would have been a philosophical contradiction.

Read the full article here:

http://surinusgaonkarsays.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/01/why-lord-brahma-is-not-worshiped-.htm

I will again borrow Sandeep’s words to put the purpose of symbolism in Hinduism:

There is a reason symbols and myths in Hinduism have an enduring quality about them: they make highly abstract philosophies and concepts readily accessible to us by making them part of our daily life. It’s easier telling a child about the importance of learning by narrating the importance of worshipping Saraswathi than it is to threaten it to “study or else!” Equally, it is easier to explain abstract concepts of thought, words and meanings to a layman using a story than conduct an academic session/seminar.

I think now is the time when we should stop taking things as they are told to us and should go deep and apply our thinking. As I read in one of the above web-links:

Sage Aniruddha in his digest Vrutti (1.26) says:

na hy aaptavacanaan nabhasonipatanti mahaasuraaH |

yuktimad vacanam graahyam mayaanyaishca bhavadvidhaiH ||

(Huge giants do not drop from the skies simply because a competent person/s says so. Only sayings which are supported by reason should be accepted by me and others like yourselves.)

Let us learn lessons from our worship of Goddess Saraswati. Let us learn from meaning of symbolism of Lord Brahma. Let us all be warriors on the path of knowledge and enlightenment…

- Rahul