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Some scholars have tried to divide off the Buddhist from the Hindu Goddesses saying the former
represent wisdom (prajna) and the latter represent power (shakti). However, we see in the Vedic
system that the Goddesses have three aspects, wisdom (Saraswati), love (Lakshmi) and power
(Kali). These three always go together and do not exclude each other.
True power is through wisdom which is love. Hence the power we see worshipped in the Hindu
Goddesses is always the power of consciousness or wisdom (Chit-Shakti).
Saraswati : Vak
Saraswati is worshipped along with any study or
learning. Chants to her often begin and end classes on Vedic
studies. She is the Goddess of the Word. She is purity itself and
always wears white. She hold a vina, a book and a rosary. Her sacred
syllable is Aim. She represents the stream of wisdom, the free flow
of the knowledge of consciousness. She is the form of the
Goddess most mentioned in the Vedas as she is Vedamata, the mother
of the Vedas, the mother of knowledge. She also appears in
Buddhist iconography as the consort of Manjushri, the God of wisdom.
Ganga
All rivers are forms of the Goddess.
They represent the river of knowledge. Ganga, the Goddess of the
Ganges river, is much like Saraswati. After the Saraswati river went
dry in ancient times, much of the reverence attached to it was
transferred to the Ganges as the center of the culture shifted
slightly to the east.
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