Learn as You Celebrate

SITAKANT MAHAPATRA





In my school days, Saraswati Puja was a major festival. At school, we students decorated the idol of Saraswati with flowers; the priest performed puja and we made flower offerings, chanting a hymn in chorus, “Thou who has the whiteness of kunda flowers, the moon and snow, who is seated on a white lotus, draped in white and wielding a veena in thine hands; thou whom Brahma, Achyuta, Shankara and other gods worship in divine prayers; O Saraswati, Bhagwati, we pay obeisance to you.“At the time, I knew nothing of Markandeya Purana's Devi Mahatmyam, Skanda Purana or Madhusudan Stotra wherein the white goddess is described with all her attributes and powers. The Purana elaborates on the manner in which she is to be venerated. The Devi Mahatmyam speaks of her as Mahasaraswati, and describes her beauty in great detail, “She is effulgent like the moon shining at the fringe of a cloud.“
When in deference to entreaties of the gods she is required to kill formidable demons, Shumbha and Nishumbha, she transforms herself into a ferocious goddess with her eight lotus-like hands holding bells, trident, plough, conch, mace, discus, bow and arrow. In the Markandeya Purana, she appears at the final phase of the vanquishing of the brood of demons who troubled the gods.
She is Vagdevi, the goddess of the word that is the foundation of the universe, which creates us, gives us our identity and imparts meaning to our existence.