GODDESS SARASWATI
“Yaa Kundendu tushaara haaradhavalaa, Yaa shubhravastraavritha
Yaa veenavara dandamanditakara, Yaa shwetha padmaasana
Yaa brahmaachyutha shankara prabhutibhir Devaisadaa Vanditha
Saa Maam Paatu Saraswatee Bhagavatee Nihshesha jaadyaapahaa “
Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music and the arts, is the river of consciousness that enlivens creation; the dawn-goddess whose rays dispel the darkness of ignorance. Without her there is only chaos and confusion. She is often depicted as a beautiful, white-skinned woman dressed in pure white seated on a white lotus (although Her actual vahana is believed to be a swan), which symbolizes that she is founded in the experience of the Absolute Truth. Thus, She not only has the knowledge but also the experience of the Highest Reality. She is mainly associated with the color white, which signifies the purity of true knowledge. Occasionally, however, She is also associated with the colour yellow, the colour of the flowers of the mustard plant that bloom at the time of her festival in the spring. She is not adorned heavily with jewels and gold, but is dressed modestly — perhaps representing her preference of knowledge over worldly material things. The symbols have been explained in esoteric texts as possessing philosophical connotations:
• The lotus is a symbol of the Supreme Reality, and a white lotus also denotes supreme knowledge. By sitting on a lotus, Saraswati signifies that She is Herself rooted in the Supreme Reality, and symbolizes supreme knowledge. The white color symbolizes purity and knowledge. The white sari that the Goddess is wearing denotes that She is the embodiment of pure knowledge.
• The four arms denote Her omnipresence and omnipotence. The two front arms indicate Her activity in the physical world and the two back arms signify Her presence in the spiritual world. The four hands represent the four elements of the inner personality. The mind (manas) is represented by the front right hand, the intellect (buddhi) by the front left hand, the conditioned consciousness (chitta) by the rear left hand, and the ego (ahankara) by the rear right hand. Alternatively, these four arms also represent the 4 Vedas, the primary sacred books for Hindus which in turn, represent the 3 forms of literature: Poetry — the Rigveda contains hymns, representing poetry Prose — Yajurveda contains prose Music — Samaveda represents music. The left side of the body symbolizes the qualities of the heart and the right side symbolizes activities of the mind and intellect.
• The Goddess is shown playing a musical instrument veena that is held in Her front hands, which denote mind and intellect. This symbol conveys that the seeker must tune his mind and intellect in order to live in perfect harmony with the world. Such harmonious living enables the individual to utilize acquired knowledge for the welfare of all mankind.
• Saraswati is also associated with anurāga, the love for and rhythm of music which represents all emotions and feelings expressed in speech or music. It is believed that children born with that name will prove to be very lucky in their studies. Anurag is a great believer in Maa Saraswati.
• Two swans are depicted on the left side of the Goddess. A swan is said to have a sensitive beak that enables it to distinguish pure milk from a mixture of milk and water. A swan, therefore, symbolizes the power of discrimination, or the ability to discriminate between right and wrong or good and bad or the eternal and the evanescent Saraswati uses the swan as Her carrier. This indicates that one must acquire and apply knowledge with discrimination for the good of mankind. Knowledge that is dominated by ego can destroy the world. Her mount, the swan, personifies pure knowledge . A 'white swan' (Sanskrit: hansa) is often located next to her feet.. Due to her association with the swan, Goddess Saraswati is also referred to as Hamsa-vahini, which means "she who has a swan as her vehicle".
• A peacock , a symbol of the arts is sitting next to Saraswati and is anxiously waiting to serve as Her vehicle. The peacock represents arrogance and pride over its beauty, and by having a peacock as her mount, the Goddess teaches not to be concerned with external appearance and to be wise regarding the eternal truth. This signifies that one should overcome fear, indecision, and fickleness in order to acquire true knowledge. It also depicts unpredictable behavior as its moods can be influenced by the changes in the weather. Interestingly, the Saraswati idol in the Admin Block has a rosay in her hand , signifying concentration, meditation, and contemplation, leading to samadhi, or union with God. It conveys that true knowledge acquired with love and devotion melts the ego and results in liberation (moksha) of the seeker from the bondage to the physical world.
And the Saraswati photograph in our Vice Chancellor’s office, that he has been carrying along with him since 1992 has an Ankush –a small axe, signifying administrative powers . Both are righteously placed at their respective places with the roles.
Akshi Maheshwari,2nd yr,CE
DON’T REVILE THE REFORMS
It is heartening to take due notice of the fact that India engenders 6 lakh engineering graduates spanning the entire country per year. You might get the impression that despite the blues of the inexorable recession and the blows dealt by negative inflation, India in its own sense is on a path to recovery. But what is feigned about this pretense is the truth that out of the legion of the engineering graduates only twenty-five percent are of employable quality! Economic and political decentralization, combined with the rise of coalition politics, has sharply reduced the central government's domain of economic influence. But the one area where it retains influence - or rather strangling control with disastrous economic consequences is higher education. This last bastion of the license-quota-permit raj is crying out for reform. There is political, administrative and regulatory interference in virtually every aspect of higher education, be it admissions policies, internal organization, fees and salaries, and the structure of courses and funding.
Agreed, reforming higher education will not be easy. First, the human capital resources that educational institutions will need to draw upon for teaching and research are globally mobile, posing severe challenges to India's ability to attract and retain these resources. Unfilled faculty position, up to 30-40 per cent even in our premier educational institutions such as the IITs demonstrate how difficult it will be to create quality educational institutions on the scale that India needs. Second, there are few clear analytical criteria to the central question of what is "good" higher education. Consequently, a system that emphasizes diversity, flexibility and experimentation (and a lot of failure) - never the government's comparative advantage - is in the long run most likely to succeed. Financial sector reforms will always have their moneyed, articulate, influential, and sometimes over-the-top, champions. Roads too will eventually get built because the middle class, having acquired cars, will not tolerate keeping them idle. But "exodus" by the influential rich and middle class, who increasingly send their children abroad or to private institutions, has attenuated the pressure for reform in education. The Yash Pal committee was assimilated to bring about systemic reforms to the educational infrastructure but all it has managed to do until now is garner a lot of criticism despite proposing radical reforms in the educational sector. What the educational system needs today is not only more competency and accountability as attributes attached to it, but also more autonomy and freedom in fields concerning recruitment of professors, admission of students, and requisite global exposure so as to affirm their presence in the liberalized world. True, I am talking about giving the educational sector a more corporate look with the advent of entrepreneurs and professional firms but isn’t education already a multi-billion dollar industry today? With colleges for professional courses sprouting up in each and every district of the country, isn’t it wise to have a single, centralized regulator which can look into the matters regarding the quality and transparency of the institutes? And besides, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the University Grants Commission don’t possess a clean slate and are nefarious for using corrupt measures in order to grant affiliations to new universities even if the latter haven’t produced a single batch of qualified graduates! Even the Union minister for Human Resource Development, Mr. Kapil Sibal has expressed interest towards the adoption of a more autonomous, regulation free and a more streamlined educational sector. Even the basic amenities such as water, food and health come at a premium. The only thing is that they are under the patronage of well regulated and accountable corporate firms which are competent enough to operate in tandem. Isn’t access to education enlisted as one of the fundamental rights of the Indian citizen?
Prateek Gupta,3rd yr,ECE