Some information about Vasant Panchami

To all
Today is Vasant Panchami in India . It is a Hindu festival to celebrate Sarasvati Mata (Mata means Mother in sanskrit which comes from the root maatr) , a hindu goddess of knowledge, music and art. Usually celebrated every year on the fifth day of the Indian month Magh(Spring season- january 21 to february 19 ) , that is why it is called Vasant (Spring) panchami (fifth day) .
A little bit about Mata Sarasvati
Mata Sarasvati is the consort of Lord Brahma( the creation aspect of the GOD ) as hindus identify that when GOD created male and female both aspects of male and female should represent him ( I am referring to GOD as HE , but kindly accept it for the time being until I come up with something else )
Similarly the other aspect of GOD; viz sustainence and destruction are represented by Lord Vishnu(with consort Laxmi), and Lord Shiva(with consort Parvati or Durga) respectively
Maa Sarasvati is mentioned in the Rig Veda as a mighty river flowing in the Rigvedic hym mentioning her as a mighty river with creative, purifying, and nourishing properties.




She has four hands representing four aspects of human personality in learning: mind, intellect, alertness and ego. She has sacred scriptures The Vedas in one hand and a rosary — in the second. With her other two hands she plays the music of love and life on a string instrument called the veena. She is dressed in white — the symbol of purity — and is usually depicted with a white swan that symbolises Sattwa Guna or purity and discrimination. Notice the river which is usually shown. It symbolizes Sarasvati river of the Rigveda which shows her to be the river goddess.
What do hindus do :
It is on this day children are taught to write their first words; brahmins are fed; ancestor worship is performed; the god of love is worshipped; and most educational institutions organise special prayer for Saraswati. The color yellow also plays an important role in this festival, in that people usually wear yellow garments, Saraswati is worshipped dressed in yellow, and yellow sweets are consumed within the families.
I rememeber the time when all of family members used to assemble in our in-home temple and my grandmother used to carry on the proceedings of the day . We used to make food yellow in color(by adding tumeric powder) and wore yellow clothes. I miss those times here in the USA. I was made to realize that I should pray a lot more since I am good at singing and studying ....... lol !!! Today after bathing, I prayed to her asking me to bless with all the goodness and I promised her that I would be a better human being in my life :)
This day is also celebrated in countries like Nepal with which we have strong and historic religious affiliation, and also in Bangladesh which has a fairly good Hindu population. The essence remains same but with regions, some traditions may vary.

May Mata Sarasvati give us all her blessings and let there be peace in this world -something it needs so badly these times.

Regards,
Manu

PS: I would like to aknowledge and thank Wikipedia for the information and to several other sites I took the images and material from

The Creation Hymn - Rigveda

Folks,

Just remember for the time being that what Bible is to Christians is the Rigveda in part to the Hindus( I say so because there are myriad other books , but Rigveda is the earliest and preserved text of the Indo-European language, roughly dating back to 1700 B.C although the tradition of passing the hymns through oral tradition dates back much further in history ) In its current form, it consists of 10 books with 1028 hyms varying in age and length( means they were compiled at diff times throughout history)

Rigveda is a compound of rig + veda(veda comes from sanskrit root vid meaning 'knowledge' ) which is a collection of sacred Sanskrit hymns dedicated to the demi-gods in Hinduism.
The following is an English translation of the Creation hymn from the Rigveda(Book 10, hymn 129) which I thought to be a good point to start...

"A time is envisioned when the world was not, only a watery chaos (the dark, "indistinguishable sea") and a warm cosmic breath, which could give an impetus of life. Notice how thought gives rise to desire (when something is thought of it can then be desired) and desire links non-being to being (we desire what is not but then try to bring it about that it is). Yet the whole process is shrouded in mystery.

Where do the gods fit in this creation scheme?

The non-existent was not; the existent was not at that time. The atmosphere was not nor the heavens which are beyond. What was concealed? Where? In whose protection? Was it water? An unfathomable abyss?

There was neither death nor immortality then. There was not distinction of day or night. That alone breathed windless by its own power. Other than that there was not anything else.

Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning. All this was an indistinguishable sea. That which becomes, that which was enveloped by the void, that alone was born through the power of heat.

Upon that desire arose in the beginning. This was the first discharge of thought. Sages discovered this link of the existent to the nonexistent, having searched in the heart with wisdom.

Their line [of vision] was extended across; what was below, what was above? There were impregnators, there were powers: inherent power below, impulses above.

Who knows truly? Who here will declare whence it arose, whence this creation? The gods are subsequent to the creation of this. Who, then, knows whence it has come into being?

Whence this creation has come into being; whether it was made or not; he in the highest heaven is its surveyor. Surely he knows, or perhaps he knows not."

Regards,

Manu

Hi !!!

I woke up at 6: 45 AM today( I am trying to do it on a regular basis ). Listened to some spiritual songs and decided to pen down some thoughts. This blog creation is a result of many things which went into consideration :

1. Lots of thoughts in my mind like politics, national integrity, achieving peace and calm in the world, eliminating differences between caste system prevalent in India, achieving our generation to learn their past(which would give them a better understanding of current situation) and be proud of it yet not complacent about it and turn blind eye towards other faiths prevalent around you, analysis of modern days wonder of science and technology and my thoughts on it ( because I am a part of it as well ), and lastly (but certainly not the least important) my personal thoughts on my heritage and how do I view it in modern day context. Hmm...a lot of them in my spectrum which would certainly find a good means by this blog to come out, and I hope ppl around me would give me good suggestions on it.

2. I happened to meet an American girl on Orkut (which seemd to be weird at first 'cos they hardly use orkut and ususally swarm facebook, but anyways) which did seem to me an Indian before. We talked for sometime and she urged me to write my thoughts on the experience here during these 2 years in the United States. I will try my best.

I look forward to an increasing activity on this blog and will try to reach as many people as I can through it .

Wait for my first post.

Regards

Manu