When winter comes, can spring be far behind? asked Shakespeare. Post- Makara Sankranti, when the earth begins to get closer to the sun, the cold winter begins to yield to delightful spring.
Basant Panchami marks the beginning of Basant or spring, when it is time for every bush and bower to spring to life with blooms and bursts of colour and fragrance, vibrant as sparklers in festive display.
The flower is a beautiful symbol of life and regeneration for it leads to seed and then another plant, bush or tree. Hence, Basant is propitiated as Kusumakar or Rituraj, the king of seasons.
On another plane, it is said that the finest flower of human life is jnana, which is not just information gathering but understanding of the fundamentals of existence — our own and that of the entire universe — which is essential for achieving the goal of human life, that is, achieving perfection and liberation. Scriptures call this tattva jnana. Krishna says in the Bhagwad Gita that in seasons He is Basant, ‘Ritunam Kusumakarah’.
The festival of Basant is celebrated on the fifth day of the Shukla Paksha and so is called Basant Panchami, but the concept behind it goes deeper than mere calculation of the days of the moon.
To understand the significance of the festival it would be instructive to understand the essence of Goddess Saraswati, the presiding deity of learning, aesthetics and creativity. Offering prayers to her is customary on Basant Panchami.
For most people, Saraswati is a memory of their past, like an old teacher, respectable but irrelevant today. According to a legend, she was one of the five children of Brahma, who represents the primeval creative power of the Supreme Being; creation of the world is ascribed to him.
The remaining four children of Brahma are the Vedas, representing that corpus of timeless knowledge, principles and systems that regulate the functioning of the universe.
As Brahma’s daughter, Saraswati is represented as the goddess of vidya or applied knowledge; she represents the spread of fundamental knowledge, its principles and systems through the process of application, in short, technology.
The essence of the concept of Saraswati is in the power that provides the insight for facilitating the application of fundamental knowledge, to make it useful for all. From this perspective, Saraswati represents technology as well as creativity and, therefore, she is regarded as the presiding deity of the five arts. The significance of panch or five affirms this understanding of the nature of Saraswati.
The root word panch, in Sanskrit, implies ‘elaboration, extension or manifestation’. Appropriately, therefore, Basant is celebrated on the Panchami of the Shukla Paksha, the day that signifies spread of knowledge through application in practice, innovation and creative adaptation.
The receding severity of the winter at this time of the year made it conducive for holding the upanayan samskar, which was, in turn, sanctified as the commencement of the process of developing authentic insight into the nature of existence.
What Saraswati represents remains and shall remain relevant for mankind as long as there is need for acquiring knowledge and extending it in practice through creativity. In veneration of this spirit of learning — to achieve nothing less than the aim of life itself — Basant is an appropriate time to revive our bonding with the tattva, the element symbolised by Saraswati.
SHASHI MISRA