Venkat Raman –
venkat@indiannewslink.co.nz
The installation ceremony of Goddess Saraswathi, known as ‘Noothana Saraswathi Devi Kumbabishegam’ was an intense religious and pious engagement at Thiru Subramaniyar Aalayam in Auckland last fortnight.
The Goddess of Knowledge was installed with due honours at the Temple (located at 69, Tidal Road, Mangere) on Saturday, September 3, 2016 by Temple Priests Maharajan, aka Manikandan (or Mani) and Ganapathy Subramaniam Karthik.
Ilango Krishnamoorthy, President, New Zealand Hindu Temple Society, which owns and manages the Temple and his wife Sakthi led the ceremonies which began on August 14 with daily prayers and other formalities associated with Kumbabishegam.
Hundreds of people attended the prayer meetings, music sessions and other events which have endeared the Temple to the Hindu community across the country.
Thiru Subramaniyar Aalayam is stated to be among the few in the world to have a statue of Goddess Saraswathi duly ‘energised.’
The Dignitaries
Auckland Mayoral candidate Phil Goff, Mangere Labour MP Su’a William Sio, former Labour MP for Manukau East Ross Robertson and current Deputy Chair of the Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board, former Labour List MP Dr Ashraf Chaudhary, Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Labour Policy Council Member and a number of the local board members and candidates were present at the main prayers.
The programme included a special Bharata Natyam dance invoking the blessings of Goddess Saraswathi, known to be associated with knowledge, music and arts.
Hindus believe that appeasing Goddess Saraswathi is highly beneficial in countering Planet Mercury for removing problems in education and career.
The River
Exoticindia.com says that Goddess Saraswathi has priority over Mahadevi and Mahalakshmi, other two Deities of the Puranic Trio manifesting the Divine Female.
“The Rig Veda seems to have a dual perception of Saraswathi, one as the Sacred River, and the other, as the Deity pervading all three worlds. They discovered that the Goddess had a parallel in Iranian River Haraihvati, which in contemporary Iranian rituals and literature was similarly lauded for being benign, humid, heroic, and immaculate. The scholars argue that the term ‘Saraswathi,’ a combination of ‘Sara’ or ‘Svara’, meaning ‘to go’, and ‘Swathi’, meaning ‘tending’ or ‘inclining’, that is, one that has the tendency of going or moving, is more characteristic of a River.”
The scholars quoted as examples Sarayu, Saranyu, Sarita and Sansara; first two being the names of two Rivers, third, a River in general, and fourth, the Transient World.
They however concede that the Rig-Vedic Saraswathi, with Her origin in Heaven, could have been a celestial flood, not a terrestrial stream.
Invoked by sages to redeem them from drought it descended on the earth across vast aerial region pervading it, and hence its all-pervasive character.
“In similar vein, the scholars interpret Saraswathi’s other Rig-Vedic attributions. Her long arms by which Saraswati carves her path are interpreted as her long banks through which she had her course. To them, Saraswathi’s form as the deity is a mere apotheosis of the river of that name.”
