Sri Swami Satyananda’s Ode to Mother Saraswati
Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati,
Ganga Darshan Yogapeeth, 15th February 2013, morning
Today is the birthday, the 50th birthday, of this institution called Bihar School of Yoga, which is the first vision and the mission of our beloved guru, Sri Swami Satyananda Saraswati.
It was on this day 50 years ago that our gurudev, Sri Swami Satyanandaji lit the akhanda jyoti, the eternal flame of yoga, and when he lit this akhanda jyoti he recited a poem.
I am going to read that poem to you, and this will be given to you as the prasad of Basant Panchami today.
Maha Saraswati
Saraswati, Maha Saraswati
Goddess of real knowledge and true beauty,
Inspire our minds and awaken our hearts.
In your service man is liberated,
His dull mind becomes bright
And wisdom manifests within him.
Your gift to the world is yoga,
The path to freedom, love and creative life.
Oh, Mother Saraswati,
Source of all the sacred scriptures and vedic chants
Mistress of the sixty-four fine arts,
All the arts of living.
You symbolize the essence of tantra,
Of liberated consciousness,
Expansion of all our human capacities.
You are creativity and intuition,
The expression of Brahma who created the cosmos.
Oh Saraswati, seated within the white lotus on the swan
With book and veena, hands in the gesture of blessing,
It is your great work we do.
In ajapa japa when the mantra changes itself
From soham to hamso,
This represents discriminating wisdom,
The swan on which you sit.
There, immersed in meditation
On the lotus of detachment
All our samskaras, good and bad,
Begin to rise and be eliminated.
In your hands you hold the veena,
Its vibrations resound throughout the whole world
Directing the emotions of man.
Its tuning keys are the senses of this body,
Through which we are able to attain balance in life.
As the scale ascends the sushumna,
It makes a background through the chakras
To our expanding consciousness.
Your face is full of love and compassion.
Radiant and white
Like the kund flower or the moon
You draw inspiration
From the deep well of spirituality
And through you
It pours out to the thirsty world.
Our order of sannyasa is Saraswati,
Inspired by your intuition
Which bestows cosmic knowledge.
The akhanda jyoti, eternal light,
Burning in this ashram since its foundation in 1964
On your day of celebration,
Symbolizes the removal of all darkness and disease
Both mental and physical,
Through the science of yoga.
This is your work,
The inspiration of Saraswati,
The spreading of light through yoga.