The literal meaning of Saraswati is “the essence of the self” as sara means “essence” and swa means “self” in Sanskrit. She is perceived in three major rules: as river, as Vak (speech), and as goddess. She wears white sari and seats on a white Nelumbo nucifera lotus.just like lotus that roots in mud but blooms with purity, Saraswati with her lotus seat suggests her transcendence of physical world. It inspires people to transcend physical limitations to receive true knowledge. Saraswati is often portrayed as a beautiful, modest woman with four arms. The two front arms, holding a book and a mala in another, indicate her presence in the physical world and the two back arms, holding a lute called veena. Her mount, the sacred swan has a sensitive beak that enables it to distinguish milk from a mixture of milk and water. Therefore swan symbolizes the power to discriminate between good and bad, right and wrong, the valuable and useless.
