Yājñavalkya's Stotra to Sarasvatī

Yājñavalkya’s Stotra to Sarasvatī is the hymn that Maharshi Yājñavalkya sang in praise of Devī Sarasvatī, the śakti (power) of speech and knowledge. He sang it on the instruction of Bhagavān Sūrya. It is found in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakriti Khaṇḍa, chapter 5.

The stotra comes from a turning point in Yājñavalkya’s life, when his guru’s śāpa (a curse) took away the Vedic knowledge he had learned. It goes through the many names, forms and cosmic works of Sarasvatī.

The setting: Vaiśampāyana’s śāpa

Yājñavalkya was one of the most accomplished disciples of Vaiśampāyana, the great ṛshi who handed down the Kṛshṇa Yajurveda. Guru and disciple came to a severe disagreement. Vaiśampāyana grew angry and put a śāpa on Yājñavalkya: all the Kṛshṇa Yajurveda knowledge that he had gathered through years of study would leave him.

Yājñavalkya now had lost his Vedic mastery. He turned to Bhagavān Sūrya, the direct source of all knowledge that gives light. He went to the tīrtha of Koṇārka, on the eastern coast, where Bhagavān Sūrya is worshipped at the highest, and did hard tapas (austerity) in the presence of the Sun.

Bhagavān Sūrya was pleased and appeared before him. He gave Yājñavalkya the Śukla Yajurveda, a recension that had not existed before. He also told Yājñavalkya to praise Sarasvatī Devī. She is the śakti through which any Vedic knowledge enters a human mind, stays in it and flows out from it. The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa tells this in Prakriti Khaṇḍa, chapter 5.

The stotra

Yājñavalkya then composed this stotra and sang it in praise of Sarasvatī. The hymn goes through her many names and aspects.

The names and aspects of Sarasvatī

Vāgīśvarī: the sovereign mistress of speech (vāk) in all its forms. These are human language, the divine syllables of mantra, the śrutis and smṛtis, poetry and music. She is praised as the one without whom no speech has meaning, no text holds together and no recitation has power.
Brahmapatnī: the eternal consort of Brahmā, the feminine partner without whom Brahmā’s power to create cannot bring forth anything. Yājñavalkya praises her as the one who makes Brahmā’s creation able to speak. A creation without order, classes and names would be only confusion, and her presence gives it form and structure.
Gāyatrī: here she is the most sacred of all Vedic mantras. Gāyatrī is not only a mantra to recite but a living form of Sarasvatī, and Yājñavalkya calls on her in this form in the stotra.
Vedamātā: the mother of the four Vedas, the six vedāṅgas and the upāṅgas. All that makes up the Veda comes from her, is held up by her, and goes back into her at the time of pralaya (the dissolution of the world). She is the source that never runs dry and the final place where it is kept.
Śāradā: the devī of autumn (śarad). She is linked with harvest, with clearness, with the clean sky after the monsoon, and with the flowering of poetry and thought. Śāradā is the grace that comes after effort, the light that follows discipline.
Bhāratī: the devī who presides over the land of Bhārata and its long tradition of learning, yajña and dharma. In this form she guards the heritage of learning of Bhārata.
Vāṇī: the most personal form. Vāṇī simply means voice, the stream of speech that flows through each living being. Every spoken word is Vāṇī, and Vāṇī is Sarasvatī.
Brahmavidyā: the highest form, the knowledge of Brahman itself. She is not only the devī who helps a person learn texts. She is the same as the knowledge of the final reality. Brahmavidyā, the knowledge that gives moksha (liberation), is her highest form.
Buddhi-rūpiṇī: the one whose own form is buddhi (higher intelligence, the power to discern). She is present in every act of true understanding and in every moment of clear discernment.
Jñāna-svarūpiṇī: the same as jñāna (pure knowing). Knowledge does not only point to Sarasvatī. She is knowledge, and wherever true knowing arises, she is there.

Those who received her grace

Yājñavalkya’s stotra also calls to mind the great beings who earlier received Sarasvatī’s grace by praising her with devotion.

Brahmā praised Sarasvatī at the beginning of creation. By this he received the power to create the worlds and the beings in them.
Ananta (Śesha) praises her without stopping at the base of the cosmic egg. Through her śakti of knowledge he bears the weight of all the worlds.
Vālmīki, after he had been changed, received from Sarasvatī the śakti to compose the Rāmāyaṇa, the first poem (ādikāvya) in human language.
Vyāsa received her grace to arrange, divide and hand down the Vedas, the Mahābhārata and the eighteen Mahāpurāṇas.

The phalaśruti

The phalaśruti (the fruit of reciting) says that one who recites this Sarasvatī Stotra with devotion and faith receives these gifts:

He becomes a great paṇḍita, a scholar of deep and wide learning in all the śāstras.
He becomes a mahākavi, a poet of the highest order, able to write works that light up the deepest truths.
He receives vāk-siddhi: what he speaks is well ordered, clear, beautiful and in the end true.
His learning never leaves him. Sarasvatī’s presence makes sure that knowledge once gained stays and grows with time.

Sources

Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakriti Khaṇḍa, Chapter 5