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Upanishads · Sarasvatīrahasya 3.1
॥
Devanāgarī
चतुर्मुखमुखाम्भोजवनहंसवधूर्मम । मानसे रमतां नित्यं सर्वशुक्ला सरस्वती
Transliteration (IAST)
caturmukhamukhāmbhojavanahaṃsavadhūrmama | mānase ramatāṃ nityaṃ sarvaśuklā sarasvatī
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
चतुर्-मुख-मुख-अम्भोज-catur-mukha-mukha-ambhoja-the wild-goose bride of the lotus grove
वन-हंस-वधूः ममvana-haṃsa-vadhūḥ mamaof the lotus-face of the Four-faced, in my
मानसे रमतां नित्यंmānase ramatāṃ nityaṃmind, may she always rejoice
सर्व-शुक्ला सरस्वतीsarva-śuklā sarasvatīall-white Sarasvatī
Translation
The wild-goose bride of the lotus grove — of the lotus-faces of the Four-faced — the all-white Sarasvatī, may she always rejoice in my Mānasa [-mind/lake].
Version
7cc15078d963 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
A hymn of ten verses begins, and its first is a play on words worth examining, for it is well made. The word mānasa means both "mind" and, as a proper name, Lake Mānasa in the Himalayas, to which, by tradition, wild geese fly. And it is said: may she rejoice mānase — that is, both in my mind and in Lake Mānasa at once.
It is composed so both meanings hold together; it cannot be translated, only noted. Let us add the rest: Brahmā's faces are called lotuses, the four faces a lotus grove, and Sarasvatī a wild goose in that grove. That is, the whole verse is a single picture: a lake, lotuses, and a white bird.
And all of this means: speech lives beside thought. The Vaiṣṇava side loves such interweavings and holds them her own art; and it is worth saying why wordplay was so valued in this literature. The reason is that the word was held not the garment of thought but its body; and so what was said twice with one word was considered said more truly than what was said twice with two.
Let us add that the goose fits here to the point: of haṃsa and the capacity to separate milk from water it was said when reading the Varāha (5.52). Speech, which separates the true from the false, is precisely that bird.