TheSarasvati-rahasya Upanishad (Sanskrit:सरस्वती रहस्य उपनिषत्,IAST: Sarasvatī-rahasya Upaniṣad), meaning “the Secret Knowledge of the Wisdom Goddess”,^[8] is a late medieval era Sanskrit text and one of the minorUpanishads ofHinduism.^[9] The text is classified as one of the eightShakta Upanishads and embedded in theKrishna Yajurveda.^[4][10]

The Upanishad is notable for glorifying the feminine as theShakti (energy, power) and as the metaphysicalBrahman principle, and extensively uses a combination ofBhakti andVedanta terminology.^[7][11] Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus state that the underlying philosophical premise of this text corresponds toAdvaita Vedanta.^[12] The text is important to the Goddess traditions of Hinduism.^[13][14]

The author and the century in whichSarasvati-rahsya Upanishad was composed is unknown. It is a late Upanishad, likely from thelate medieval period.^[15] The text was likely composed, in the same period as other Shakta Upanishads, between the 12th- and 15th-century CE.^[1] The text, along with other Shakta Upanishads, has been dated to 16th-century, according to C Mackenzie Brown – a professor of Religion and writer of books on Hindu goddesses.^[2] Even though this text is of relatively late origin,Sarasvati as goddess is traceable toVedic literature from the 2nd millennium BCE.^[16][17][18]

The text has been influential in theShaktism (Goddess) tradition of Hinduism. Many of its verses are found incorporated in later Shakti texts such as theVakyasudha, a treatise on non-dualist Vedanta school ofHindu philosophy.^[19] This link had been a basis for dating this text to be from the 1st-millennium, by Maurice Winternitz andLouis Renou, because they credited the 8th-centuryAdi Shankara to have composedBalabodhani, which some scholars such as Windischmann considered to have been also titled asVakyasudha andDrigdrishya Viveka.^[19] However, 20th-century scholarship doubts that Shankara was the actual author of several secondary works attributed to him, and thus it is unclear ifVakyasudha or this Upanishadic text existed before 8th-century CE.^[20][21]

Manuscripts of this text are also found titled asSarasvati Upanisad,Saraswati Rahasyopnisad,Sarasvatyupanishad andSarasvatirahasyopanisad.^[22][23] In the Telugu languageanthology of 108 Upanishads of theMuktika canon, narrated byRama toHanuman, it is listed at number 106.^[24]

The text has two chapters each in a distinct format. The first is structured in the style of litany hymns found in theRigveda toDevi (goddess Sarasvati), the second part is in theShloka (metered verse) format.^[23] The wording of the text has been layered in a way that it can be interpreted in two ways,^[25] first of dualisticBhakti (devotional worship),^[23] second of a discourse between the devotee and the goddess representing a steady journey of the devotee towards the Vedanta philosophy, with the text's final verses climaxing with non-dualism premises, a style that Wilke and Moebus call as "code switching".^[7]

The text opens with benediction unto goddess Saraswati.^[26] This benediction, also found in other Upanishads of Krishna Yajurveda, begins with "Do thou protect us, do thou preserve us".^[3][27] She is praised as the essence of truth, universal empress, who manifests in all things, nourishing minds and souls, and asking for her blessing.^[28] She is called the goddess of wisdom, radiant, resplendent in white, who manifests as syllables, words, sentences, meaning and understanding, thereby purifying and enriching the soul of man.^[29] She is, according to Sarasvati-rahasya Upanishad, the goddess of anything that flows, of music, of poetry, of voice, of language, of art, of imagination.^[30] The chapter 1 of the text presents the devotee's litany with words such as, "Oh Goddess, increase my understanding", "Sarasvati! make me like yourself" and "Sarasvati, may we remain immersed in you!"^[31][3]

The text presents the conversation between Sarasvati and the devotee in the second chapter.^[3] Here, she is stated to be the power, inspiration and knowledge source for Brahma, the latter credited with authoring theVedas.^[32] Thereafter, the text presents its theory of changing reality (Maya) and unchanging reality (Brahman). Sixteen of the text's verses from this chapter are referenced and found in their entirety inVakyasudha (literally "A Nectar of Sayings"), an Advaita Vedanta text, as verses 13, 15–20, 23–28 and 30–32.^[33] The theme of these verses, states Dhavamony, is that "Brahman, the Absolute, is the ultimate ground of the objective world, and the innermost self (soul) of the subjective consciousness structure of man".^[34] It is the Vedantic theology of spiritual unity in everything.^[35]

The verses ofSaraswati-rahasya Upanishad present a discussion ofMaya as the changing reality, andBrahman as the unchanging reality. For example, the following verses appear in both this Upanishad and theVakyasudha:^[37]

तथा सर्गब्रह्मणोश्च भेदमावृत्य तिष्ठति
या शक्तिस्त्वद्वशाद्ब्रह्म विकृतत्वेन भासते ।
अत्राप्यावृतिनाशेन विभाति ब्रह्मसर्गयोः
भेदस्तयोर्विकारः स्यात्सर्गे न ब्रह्मणि क्वचित् ।

In the same way, this power is used to conceal the distinction between Brahman and the phenomenal universe; by its efficacy Brahman appears as being of the nature of modification. Even in this case, with the destruction of concealing, the distinction between Brahman and the phenomenal universe becomes manifest. Therefore change can exist only in the phenomenal universe, but by no means in Brahman.

The text, after its ontological discussion, presents six methods of Dharana-Samadhi (concentration-union),^[6] andmeditation is a means to self-knowledge and the realization of the Goddess within oneself as self-luminous, free from duality and endowed with "Being, Consciousness and Bliss".^[39][25]

स्वानुभूतिरसावेशाद्दृश्यशब्दाद्यपेक्षितुः
निर्विकल्पः समाधिः स्यान्निवान्तस्थितदीपवत् ।

Once the mind becomes freed from false ideas arising from the attachment to empirical objects, the mind becomes steady like a sheltered lamp and the practitioner experiences the highest bliss in realizing his true self.

Dualism is speculation and false, asserts the text in its closing verses, and the realization of oneness of the individual soul and goddess Saravati isMukti (freedom, liberation).^[36][12][41]

• Atharvashiras Upanishad
• Devi
• Devi Upanishad
• Mahanarayana Upanishad

• Cush, Denise; et al. (2007).Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Routledge.ISBN 978-0700712670.
• Deussen, Paul (1997).Sixty Upanishads of the Veda. Motilal Banarsidass.ISBN 978-81-208-1467-7.
• Dhavamony, Mariasusai (1970). "Vakyasudha".Gregorianum.51 (4).JSTOR 23574748.
• Dikshitar, V. R. Ramachandra (1999).The Lalitā Cult. Motilal Banarsidass.ISBN 978-8120809192.
• Hattangadi, Sunder (2000)."श्रीसरस्वतीरहस्योपनिषत् (Saraswati Rahasya Upanishad)"(PDF) (in Sanskrit). Retrieved26 January 2016.
• Johnsen, Linda (2002).The Living Goddess. YI Publishers.ISBN 978-0936663289.
• Mahadevan, T. M. P. (1975).Upaniṣads: Selections from 108 Upaniṣads. Motilal Banarsidass.ISBN 978-81-208-1611-4.
• Tinoco, Carlos Alberto (1996).Upanishads. IBRASA.ISBN 978-85-348-0040-2.
• Wilke, Annette; Moebus, Oliver (2011).Sound and Communication: An Aesthetic Cultural History of Sanskrit Hinduism. De Gruyter, Berlin.ISBN 978-3110181593.
• Warrier, AG Krishna (1967).Śākta Upaniṣads. Adyar Library and Research Center.ISBN 978-0835673181.OCLC 2606086.

• Upanishads

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