All photos in this blog post are taken by Meady's Musings Production but are photos of Art created by other artists (unfornuately their names unknown to me at this time)
In Hinduism you have to admit it's tough for a girl to get centre stage!:) I've always conceptualised God through Hinduism's eyes to be like a big huge diamond that had so many faces when it was cut and so many glittering rays reflecting off the diamond as it shone in the light that basically there were countless faces and rays. And each of these faces and rays could be conceptualised further...iconified and worshipped...so not many Gods really but many faces and rays of this infinite huge diamond that is the Universal spirit!:) But as we iconify and break them out...Boy does it get crowded and as I said in my opening line it's tough for a girl to take centre stage! :) She has to be pushing and elbowing her way up there! LOL!
But as I said at the kick off of the Leadership series we here on UCP were going to celebrate the nine days of Navraatri using the format of the first 3 days for Durga, the second three for Lakshmi and the final three for Saraswati. Making our way in a cycle on the three stops...facing and killing our demons....sustaining our self on the material plane and then reaching for the knowledge that is our pure and peaceful souls! Now having said that one can't count out the day like today though when Durga is worshipped in a big pooja normally in some parts of India and indeed here in Trinidad. It's Durga Ashtami folks! So here is how we here at UCP will reconcile it. We will upfront give Saraswati her day and then talk about the Ashtami after! OK...everybody happy! :)
SARASWATI FOR PURITY
Saraswati in Hinduism represents purity...dressed in her white sari with the innocent Hans (swan) as her celestial vehicle of choice. By the way isn't it cool in Hinduism how all the forms have their divine vehicles all being these animals!:) But now back to the devi hereself...I've often pondered on her peaceful form growing up as a child...I must say you can almost feel her presence and she must most appropriately sit and appear to I'm sure many a traveller at the side of beautiful, fresh flowing streams and brooks!:)Once in my teens I had woken up a early morning and decided on my own accord to do a hawan in our pooja room and I could swear almost hidden a step away or just as I turned I saw a lady in a white sari seemingly peeping out from some plane to peek at me and then hide or run off before I could really see her or catch her!:) Who knows I must have a vivid imagination...or perhaps it is the natural hallucinogen that is prayer or maybe just maybe she really did come to peek at me from some other plane or place?!:) When I told my mum she simply said...So Blessed! and smiled:) Isn't it lovely though whatever it maybe?
So I'm so so happy to recall her here today on UCP! :) :) :) That lovely lady!:) Now after having come upon a picture on a wall while renting a house with friends a few years ago in San Francisco. I am in this moment convinced that if she my beloved Saraswati was a devi in Japanese and Chinese cultured Buddhism she would be the lovely goddess and beautiful bodhisattva-Quan Yin! As seen below here in the image I took of the picture that adorned the wall of my bedroom in that vacation rental in San Francisco:
DURGA ASHTAMI
On my reading and research about this special day and celebration what jumped out at me was how they celebrated all the devis and 64 yoginis for Durga Ashtami and not just the demon bashing Universal mother herself! :) I'd love to find out more about these 64 yoginis...who are they? Can I one day become one? LOL! :) But they must be what I'd call the divine light rays reflected off the diamond faces...not quite the Divine Mother herself in potentence but a ray...a small subset of her divine presence indeed! And I'm glad their beauty, love and radiant presence is also celebrated on this day!:) I will one day research and write more on this yoginis in this space but for now you can read more about this celebration here!
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