Saraswati /Essence: from mind to wisdom & flow
There is a glue of ‘I, Me, Mine’ which is like an energetic bond that makes us become identified (meaning become blinded to the wider perspective and neutral view) with thought movements and action stories in our minds. It is not just thoughts and ideas that make up the ‘maya mind’. It is also deep seated feelings and emotions. The feelings may be harder to detect, as compared to thoughts, but they are constantly affecting how we act and respond in life. For e.g. feelings of guilt about how we should treat others (like, ‘I must be loving’, ‘I must be non-judgmental’, etc) are like a thick ‘feeling layer’ of identification that goes undetected mostly and because of this, we cannot scientifically or clinically view what’s happening and thus remain identified. What happens as a very quick reflex/mechanism is that when a certain response/action happens that we feel guilt towards (e.g. being unloving, in our perception), the feeling layer will unconsciously cause us to project an alternative in which we will not feel the guilt. For e.g. we will project an image of ourselves as ‘loving’ and then our actions will follow this suggestion and we will start to instead behave lovingly. This is the mechanism of ‘unconscious reaction’.
However, this entire time, we have not left the mind space.
How does Saraswati fit into all this? Well if we are using Her as a metaphor for consciousness, then her symbolisms give us many directions about how our true nature sees everything. The word ‘love’ is not really associated with Saraswati as it is in so much spiritual language. Her associations are with wisdom and the ‘flow’ or ‘essence’ of life. This is good in a way because of the great misunderstandings the word ‘love’ creates in the human mind, including the ‘feeling layers’ of identification described above. The trouble arises because while love is an expression of our true nature, it is also what the ego craves, to perpetuate itself. That’s why we see how often in the world, fear, jealousy, need etc. masquerade as ‘love’.
The point of non-duality or knowing our true Self is that when for e.g. ‘unloving’ thoughts arise, to not be motivated towards ‘loving’ ones instead, as a denial reflex, but to “wake up”. To switch out of the storyline. To recognise our place as unidentified consciousness. This discernment and wisdom of the Being becomes stronger in us over time and gives us our true eyes and vision back.
The last line of the famous Saraswati Vandana (part of a longer stotram) beseeches the goddess to remove complacency/sluggishness (nihshessa jaaddyaapahaa) which leads to ignorance i.e. the lack of vigilance which leads to falling back into identification.
From here life flows in its true Beauty. Saraswati is the goddess of creative expression which is the movement of life from the Source. As Saraswati represents, true Love is seen in expressions of art, drawing one into the deeper Beauty. True Love, which is beyond human relating and is simply the absence of resistance. Freedom in flow.
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