SARASVATI Card

(Tibetan: Yang can-ma) Sarasvati, meaning 'flowering water', is both a Hindu and Buddhist goddess of learning and knowledge, and is especially venerated within the arts of music, singing, poetry and speech. The Sarasvati was once a great Indian river which has now dried up, but its invisible presence is identified with the media nerve or central channel (sushumna) of the 'subtle body'- where the lunar and solar channels unite as the rivers Ganges and Yamuna. As a Hindu deity Sarasvati is a consort of both Brahma and Vishnu, and as a Buddhist goddess is the consort of Manjushri- the bodhisattva of wisdom. Sarasvati's vehicle is a white swan, and with her four arms she holds a vina or lute, a rosary, and a text on the 'perfection of wisdom' (prajnaparamita-sutra).