Story of Saraswati Maa

Goddess Saraswati is the deity of learning and on the auspicious occasion of Saraswati Puja, students, writers, musicians and anyone related to the field of knowledge worship her. Small children begin to write alphabets on this sacred day. The deity is a paragon of knowledge and there is an interesting story of Saraswati Maa.

The Story of Saraswati Maa Unfolds as Follows:

After creating the universe, Brahma wanted to create life on it and hence he created a female from his thigh. This female was Saraswati. She was an epitome of grace and beauty and on seeing her, Brahma fell in love with Saraswati’s beauty and wanted to marry her but as she was part of Brahma’s body, she was considered his daughter. She did not appreciate the idea of getting married to her own father but Brahma was totally smitten by her and captivated by her charm.In order to look at Saraswati from different angles, Brahma grew three more heads. Saraswati escaped to heaven, to avoid Brahma’s amorous glances. Brahma followed Saraswati to heaven where he convinced her to marry him assuring her that only through them life would begin on earth.

Many years later Brahma wanted to conduct a yagya where he invited all the Gods. During a yagya, a man is always accompanied by his wife. Brahma too wanted his wife Saraswati to join him and sent Brahmins to call her. She refused to join the yagya with her husband right away as Parvati and Lakshmi still had not arrived and she was uncomfortable of entering a hall with only men. Her refusal to join the yagna vexed Brahma and he commanded Indra to bring him another bride. Indra was told to choose the first spinster he comes across as the bride of Brahma and he chose a cow shepherdess, Gayatri.

While the marriage rituals were going on, Saraswati entered the room with Parvati and Laksmi and was infuriated to see Brahma marrying again. A furious Saraswati cursed Indra for looking for a bride for Brahma. She cursed him to be ill treated by his enemies. Saraswati cursed Vishnu for offering a bride to Brahma. He cursed Vishnu that he would live apart from his wife. She even cursed Shiva that he would lose his manhood and the Brahmins would always remain poor for conducting marriage between Brahma and Gayatri.

She cursed Brahma by saying he would only be worshipped once in a year. After cursing the Gods she left the hall with Parvati and Lakshmi. After walking with Saraswati for some distance, Lakshmi amnd Parvati wanted to return to their husbands. This irked Saraswati and she cursed Lakshmi and Parvati too. She cursed Lakshmi by saying that Goddess Laksmi would be desired by greedy men and when Indra’s kingdom would be seized by conqueror, he would desire Parvati’s visit and wish to be treated like Indra. Saraswati even cursed the wives of Brahmins stating that they would remain infertile.

One version of the story of Saraswati Maa states that after the wives came back to the hall, Gayatri reversed the curses. Yet another version of the story of Saraswati Maa states that Saraswati realized her mistake and came back to the hall after sometime to revoke the curses but once a curse is made, it cannot be changed.