About Saraswati Devi from
Devi Bhagavatam Book 9 chapter 1
"This third Shakti is named Sarasvatī. She is all the learning of this endless Universe and She resides as medhā (intelligence) in the hearts of all the human beings; She is the power in composing poetry; She is the memory and She is the great wit, light, splendour and inventive genius. She gives the power to understand the real meaning of the various difficult Siddhānta works; She explains and makes us understand the difficult passages and She is the remover of all doubts and difficulties. She acts when we write books, when we argue and judge, when we sing songs of music;
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| She is the time or measure in music; She holds balance and union in vocal and instrumental music. She is the Goddess of speech; She is the Presiding Deity in the knowledge of various subjects; in argumentations and disputations. In fact all the beings earn their livelihood by taking recourse to Her. She is peaceful and holds in Her hands Vīnā (lute) and books. Her nature is purely Sāttvic (S’uddha Sattva), modest and very loving to S’rī Hari. Her colour is white like ice-clad mountains, like that of the white sandal, like that of the Kunda flower, like that of the Moon, or white lotus. She always repeats the name of Paramātmā S’rī Krisna while She turns Her bead composed of jewels. Her nature is ascetic; She is the bestower of the fruits of the ascetism of the ascetics; She is the Siddhi and Vidyā of all; She grants always success to all. Were She not here, the whole host of Brāhmins would always remain speechless like the dead cluster of persons. What is recited in the Vedas as the Third Devī is the Holy Word, The Third S’akti, Sarasvatī."
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Lord Krishna sends Saraswati Devi to Vaikuntha to be Lord Hari's (Narayana) whife.
Devi Bhagavatam Book 9 Chapter 4:
The amorous Devī Sarasvatī sprang from the end of the lips of Rādhā and so she desired to marry Krisna out of amorous feelings. S'ri Krisna, the controller of the hearts of all, knew it instantly and addressed the Mother of the people in true words proper to Her and beneficial to Her in the end. O Chaste One! The four-armed Nārāyana is born from My parts; He is young, of good features and endowed with all qualifications; so much so, he is like Me. He is a Knower of amorous sentiments of women and He fulfils those desires; what to speak of His beauty, ten millions of the God of love are playing in His body. O Beloved! And if you desire to marry and remain with Me, that will not be of any good to you. For Rādhā is near to Me; She is more powerful than you. If a man be stronger than another, he can rescue one who takes his shelter; but if he be weaker, how can he then, himself weak, protect his dependant from others. Though I am the Lord of all, and rule all, yet I cannot control Rādhā. For She is equal to me in power, in beauty, in qualifications, equal to Me in every respect. Again it is impossible for Me to quit Rādhā for She is the presiding Deity of My life. Who can relinquish life? Though a son is very dear to his father, still it may be questioned, is he dearer than his father's life? So, O Auspicious One! Go to the abode Vaikuntha; you will get your desires fulfilled there. You will get for your husband the Lord of Vaikuntha and you will live ever in peace and enjoy happiness. Though Laksmī is residing there yet like you she is not under the control of lust, anger, greed, delusion and vanity. She is also equal to you in beauty, qualities, and power. So you will live with her in great delight and Hari, the Lord of Vaikuntha, will treat both of you equally
On the decending to earth of Lakshmi Ganga and Saraswati.
Devi Bhagavatam Book 9 Chapter 6
12-15. Nārada said :-- ”O Lord! How did the Devī Sarasvatī quarrel with the Devī Gangā and how did she by Her curse turn out in India, into a holy river in giving virtues. I am becoming more and more eager and impatient to hear about this critical incident. I do not find satiety in drinking your nectar-like words. Who finds satiety in getting his good weal? Why did Gangā curse Sarasvatī, worshipped everywhere. Gangā is also full of Sattva Gunas. She always bestows good and virtue to all. Both of them are fiery and it is pleasant to hear the cause of quarrels between those two. These are very rarely found in the Purānas. So you ought to describe that to me.“
16-21. Nārāyana said :-- Hear, O Nārada! I will now describe that incident, the hearing of which removes all the sins. Laksmī, Sarasvatī and Gangā, the three wives of Hari and all equally loved, remain always close to Hari. One day Gangā cast side-long glances frequently towards Nārāyana and was eagerly looking at Him, with smile on Her lips. Seeing this, the Lord Nārāyana, startled and looked at Gangā and smiled also. Laksmī saw that, but she did not take any offence. But Sarasvatī became very angry. Padmā (Laksmī) who was of Sattva Guna, began to console in various ways the wrathful Sarasvatī; but she could not be appeased by any means. Rather Her face became red out of anger; she began to tremble out of her feelings (passion); Her lips quivered; and She began to speak to Her husband.
22-38. The husband that is good, religious, and well qualified looks on his all the wives equally; but it is just the opposite with him who is a cheat.
O Gadādhara! You are partial to Gangā; and so is the case with Laksmī. I am the only one that is deprived of your love. It is, therefore, that Gangā and Padmā are in love with each other; for you love Padmā. So why shall not Padmā bear this contrary thing! I am only unfortunate. What use is there in holding my life? Her life is useless, who is deprived of her husband's love. Those that declare you, of Sattva Gunas, ought not to be ever called Pundits. They are quite illiterate; they have not the least knowledge of the Vedas. They are quite impotent to understand the nature of your mind.
O Nārada! Hearing Sarasvatī's words and knowing that she had become very angry, Nārāyana thought for a moment and then went away from the Zenana outside. When Nārāyana had thus gone away, Sarasvatī became fearless and began to abuse Gangā downright out of anger in an abusive language, hard to hear :-- ”O Shameless One! O Passionate One! What pride do you feel for your husband? Do you like to show that your husband loves you much? I will destroy your pride today. I will see today, it will be seen by others also, what your Hari can do for you?“ Saying thus Sarasvatī rose up to catch hold of Gangā by Her hairs violently. Padmā intervened to stop this. Sarasvatī became very violent and cursed Laksmī :-- ”No doubt you will be turned into a tree and into a river. In as much as seeing this undue behaviour of Gangā, you do not step forward to speak anything in this assembly, as if you are a tree or a river.“
Padmā did not become at all angry, even when she heard of the above curse. She became sorry and, holding the hands of Sarasvatī, remained silent. Then Gangā became very angry; Her lips began to quiver frequently. Seeing the mad fiery nature of the red-eyed Sarasvatī, she told Laksmī :-- ”O Padme! Leave that wicked foul-mouthed woman. What will she do to me? She presides over speech and therefore likes always to remain with quarrels. Let Her shew Her force how far can she quarrel with me. She wants to test the strength of us. So leave Her. Let all know today our strength and prowess.“
39-44. Thus saying, Gangā became ready to curse Sarasvatī and addressing Laksmī, said :-- ”O Dear Padme! As that woman has cursed you to become a river, so I too curse her, that she, too, be turned into a river and she would go to the abode of men, the sinners, to the world and take their heaps of sins.“ Hearing this curse of Gangā, Sarasvatī gave her curse, ”You, too, will have to descend into the Bhurloka (the world) as a river, taking all the sins of the sinners.“ O Nārada! While there was going on this quarrel, the four-armed omniscient Bhagavān Hari came up there accompanied by four attendants of His, all four-armed, and took Sarasvatī in His breast and began to speak all the previous mysteries. Then they came to know the cause of their quarrels and why they cursed one another and all became very sorry. At that time Bhagavān Hari told them one by one :--
45-67. O Laksmī! Let you be born in parts, without being born in any womb, in the world as the daughter in the house of the King Dharma-dhvaja. You will have to take the form of a tree there, out of this evil turn of fate. There S'ankhachūda, the Indra of the Asuras, born of my parts will marry you. After that you will come back here and be my wife as now. There is no doubt in this. You will be named Tulasī, the purifier of the three worlds, in Bhārata. O Beautiful One! Now go there quickly and be a river in your parts under the name Padmāvatī. O Gange! You will also have to take incarnation in Bhārata as a river, purifying all the worlds, to destroy the sins of the inhabitants of Bhārata. Bhagiratha will take you there after much entreating and worshipping you; and you will be famous by the name Bhagirathī, the most sanctifying river in the world. There, the Ocean born of my parts, and the King S'āntanu also born of my parts will be your husbands. O Bharatī! Let you go also and incarnate in part in Bhārata under the curse of Gangā. O Good-natured One! Now go in full Amsas to Brahmā and become His wife. Let Gangā go also in Her fullness to S'iva. Let Padmā remain with Me. Padmā is of a peaceful nature, void of anger, devoted to Me and of a Sāttvika nature. Chaste, good-natured, fortunate, and religious woman like Padmā are very rare. Those women that are born of the parts of Padmā are all very religious and devoted to their husbands. They are peaceful and good-natured and worshipped in every universe. It is forbidden, nay, opposed to the Vedas, to keep three wives, three servants, three friends of different natures, at one place. They never conduce to any welfare. They are the fruitful sources of all jealousies and quarrels. Where, in any family females are powerful like men and males are submissive to females, the birth of the male is useless. At his every step, he meets with difficulties and bitter experiences. He ought to retire to the forest whose wife is foul-mouthed, of bad birth and fond of quarrels. The great forest is better for him than his house. That man does not get in his house any water for washing his feet, or any seat to sit on, or any fruit to eat, nothing whatsoever; but in the forest, all these are not unavailable. Rather to dwell amidst rapacious animals or to enter into fire than remain with a bad wife. O Fair One! Rather the pains of the disease or venom are bearable, but the words of a bad wife are hard to bear. Death is far better than that. Those that are under the control of their wives, know that they never get their peace of mind until they are laid on their funeral pyres. They never see the fruits of what they daily do. They have no fame anywhere, neither in this world nor in the next. Ultimately the fruit is this:-- that they have to go to hell and remain there. His life is verily a heavy burden who is without any name or fame. Never it is for the least good that many co-wives remain at one place. When, by taking one wife only a man does not become happy, then imagine, how painful it becomes to have many wives. O Gange! Go to S'iva. O Sarasvatī! Go to Brahmā. Let the good-natured Kamalā, residing on the lotus remain with Me. He gets in this world happiness and Dharma and in the next Mukti whose wife is chaste and obedient. In fact he is Mukta, pure and happy whose wife is chaste; and he whose wife is foul-natured, is rendered impure unhappy and dead whilst he is living.
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