For My Hindu Friends
A beautiful image of the enlightened Saraswati painted in Indian style. Click image to download high resolution file or click here for more free images for download.
Description
(Top to bottom): Saraswati and Dorje Shugden.
Deity: Saraswati (Sanskrit)
Alternative names: Yangchenma / Yangchen Drolma (Tibetan); Goddess of Song and Music (English)
Saraswati is a well-known deity in both the Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. In both religions, she is considered by many great masters to be the goddess and patron of the arts, music, language, literature, poetry, philosophy, and for all those engaged in creative endeavours.
Within Tibetan Buddhism, Saraswati is known as the Buddha of music, wisdom and learning. She is widely regarded as both the emanation of Tara as well as the consort of Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom, to whom she is deeply connected with due to her wisdom-bestowing nature. While she is depicted here in her leisurely peaceful form, she also emanates in a more wrathful form known as Vajravetali (Sanskrit) or Dorje Rolangma (Tibetan) who is the consort of Vajrabhairava (Yamantaka), a wrathful form of Manjushri whose practice belongs to the Highest Yoga Tantra classification. In the form of Vajravetali, she is said to have revealed the Vajrabhairava Tantras to the great Indian master Lalitavajra who consequently spread the practice.
Furthermore, Saraswati was the yidam or personal meditational deity of the 14th Century Tibetan master Je Tsongkhapa who founded the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. He composed a beautiful devotional poem titled “Prayer to Saraswati” based on the pure visions that he had of her. Saraswati is believed to have frequently appeared to Je Tsongkhapa on his travels, offering counsel and inspiration throughout his years of study and contemplation.
In the Hindu tradition, Saraswati is part of the female trinity (Tridevi) together with Lakshmi and Parvati. This trinity assists their consorts Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva respectively to create, maintain and destroy the cyclic systems of the universe. In Hinduism, Saraswati’s name means ‘She Who Possesses Speech That Purifies’. As such, she is a celebrated female deity with powers of healing and purification. The earliest mentions of her occur in Rigveda, the oldest of the Hindu scriptures. In it she is said to be the “best of mothers, best of rivers, best of goddesses, Sarasvati”.
Like her Buddhist counterpart, the Hindu version of Saraswati also manifests in wrathful forms who are propitiated in the practice of Tantra. One of her most well-known is Nila Saraswati or ‘Blue Saraswati’. In this form, she is said to be part of the 10 Mahavidyas or Knowledge-Holders who are 10 aspects of the ultimate divinity in the form of goddesses. Her ferocity is said to be second only to Kali, the most wrathful of all Hindu goddesses. Her wrath is said to be the manifestation of her loving-compassion, like a mother who scolds a child to protect them from playing with fire and hurting themselves.
Prayers to Saraswati are usually recited at dawn for a spiritually-fulfilling day or the beginning of academic or creative endeavours for a successful project or school day.
Deity: Dorje Shugden (Tibetan)
Alternative name: Vajra Bhagawan Rudra (Sanskrit)
Dorje Shugden is recognised to be an emanation of Manjushri and arose from a long line of incarnated lamas who strove to proliferate and protect the teachings. He is a protector of recent origins, arising 350 years ago, and due to his strong affinity with beings of this time, he is widely renowned to be efficacious and powerful in overcoming our obstacles and creating favourable conditions for our spiritual practice.
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Beautiful painting of Saraswati. It is vintage and I wanted to share with everyone.
Matangi Mahavidya, the tantric form of Saraswati and the goddess who rules intelligence and eloquence of speech. In the Purashcharyarnava Tantra it is described how the siddhi (attainment of a certein power) Matangi Devi gives is that whenever posed with a question Matangi Devi will whisper the answer in to her devotees ear.
Sri Saraswati
Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, arts, wisdom and nature. She is a part of the trinity of Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati. All the three forms help the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in the creation, maintenance and destruction of the Universe. The Goddess is also revered by believers of the Jain religion of west and central India. Saraswati is strongly associated with flowing water in her role as a goddess of knowledge. She is depicted as a beautiful woman to embody the concept of knowledge as supremely alluring. She possesses two arms, four arms, six arms and many other variations depending on her tradition and is usually shown wearing a spotless white sari and seated on a white lotus or riding a white swan. Of course there are many traditions and versions of how Saraswati is depicted.
When shown with four hands, she hold items with symbolic meaning — a pustaka (book or script), a mālā (rosary, garland), a water pot and a musical instrument (vīnā). The book she holds 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 the purifying power to separate right from wrong, the clean from the unclean, and essence from the inessential. In some texts, the pot of water is symbolism for soma – the drink that liberates and leads to knowledge. The most famous feature on Saraswati is a musical instrument called a veena, represents all creative arts and sciences, and her holding it symbolizes expressing knowledge that creates harmony. 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 hamsa or swan is often located next to her feet. In Hindu mythology, the hamsa 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 the ability to discriminate between good and evil, essence from outward show and the eternal from the evanescent. Due to her association with the swan, Saraswati is also referred to as Hamsavāhini, which means “she who has a hamsa as her vehicle”. The swan is also a symbolism for spiritual perfection, transcendence and moksha.
Sometimes a citramekhala (also called mayura, peacock) is shown beside the goddess. The peacock symbolizes colorful splendor, celebration of dance, and – as the devourer of snakes – the alchemical ability to transmute the serpent poison of self into the radiant plumage of enlightenment.
She is usually depicted near a flowing river or other body of water, which depiction may constitute a reference to her early history as a river goddess.
Saraswati Puja is undoubtedly the most popular festival in the eastern region. Saraswati is the goddess of learning, arts and crafts. According to her different specialities she is known by different names like Bakdevi, Biraj, Sarada, Brahmi, Satarupa, Mahasweta, Sarbasukia, Prithudar, Bagiswari and of course, Saraswati Devi.
The religious Hindu festival of Saraswati Puja, also called Shree Panchami; the seasonal spring festival of Vasant Panchami observed in many regions; the Basant Festival of Kites of the Punjab region; observance in Gurdwaras as a Sikh festival; the birthday of the Deo-Sun God in Bihar and a harvest festival. The festivals are celebrated on the fifth day of Magha.
Source: Wikipedia
I really find the Indian devotional songs (bhajan) to the various manifestations of divinity so beautiful. Being such an ancient culture they have hundreds of traditions of these bhajans. Basically bhajan is the human being expressing in music the faith, devotion, loyalty, love, gratitude and prayer to the various Gods. They are done at home, with a group, on holy days, in temples or special ceremonies. They can be done daily to invoke the presence of the particular God you are invoking. Here are two beautiful bhajans to Goddess Saraswati for you to sample the richness of this tradition.
Sri Saraswati Sahasranama Stotram Full (With Lyrics) Must listen During Navratri (Nine night festival of the Goddesses-Where you chant the thousands names of Saraswati)
Saraswati Vandana with lyrics- This ‘Stotra’ recites about a hundred sacred names of Goddess Saraswati
The Hindu god Ganesha. Click on image to enlarge or click here for more beautiful thangkas.
Brahma, the Hindu God of creation and Dorje Shugden. Click on image to enlarge or click here for more beautiful thangkas.
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Wow…..for our Indian friends who will surely love this beautiful picture of the enlightened Saraswati painted in Indian style. It paints a thousand words by looking the images. Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, wisdom, and learning but is well known in both the Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. A beautiful devotional poem titled “Prayer to Saraswati” composed by greatmaster Je Tsongkhapa who founded the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. It show that Saraswati and Dorje Shugden are very closely connected.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
The paintings are nice and i think that buddism is closely related to the hindu.