ಸರಸ್ವತೀ ಸ್ತವಮ್

[Verse 1:] Yājñavalkya spoke: O Mother of all worlds — show grace to me who have been thus robbed of my brilliance, who have lost my memory by the guru's curse, who am devoid of learning, and who am sorrowful.

[Verse 2:] Grant me knowledge, memory, and learning; the power to enlighten disciples; the power of authorship [of great works]; a good and well-established disciple.

[Verse 3:] Grant me poetic genius in the assembly of the learned, and the auspicious ability for creative reflection. Make all that was lost by divine ordination fresh and new once again.

[Verse 4:] Just as a divine being makes a sprout spring up again even from ashes — O you of the form of Brahman, the Supreme, of the form of light, the eternal one —

[Verse 5:] She who is the presiding Goddess of all knowledge — salutation, salutation to that Vāṇī! She who is the very presiding presence in the visarga and bindu marks [of written Sanskrit] —

[Verse 6:] Salutation, salutation to that Vāṇī who is the presiding Goddess there! That Goddess who is the very form of commentary — who takes the form of the presiding deity of all explanation —

[Verse 7:] She without whom even the most learned mathematician cannot calculate — she who is the very form of temporal reckoning — salutation, salutation to that Goddess!

[Verse 8:] She who is the very form of the resolution of misconceptions — salutation, salutation to that Goddess! She who embodies the powers of memory, knowledge, and intellect —

[Verse 9:] And she who is the power of creative imagination — salutation, salutation to her! [Illustrative story:] When Sanatkumāra once asked Brahmā about knowledge —

[Verse 10:] [Brahmā] became like a mute, incapable of resolving the matter. Then the Lord Himself — Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Self — came there.

[Verse 11:] He [Kṛṣṇa] said: "Praise that Vāṇī — the sweetest one — O Lord of Creatures!" And Brahmā praised her by the command of the Supreme Self.

[Verse 12:] By her grace, [Brahmā] then composed the excellent doctrine. [Second story:] When Ananta (the cosmic serpent) once asked the earth for a single piece of knowledge —

[Verse 13:] [The earth] became like a mute, incapable of resolving the doctrine. Then, frightened, [Ananta] praised [Sarasvatī] by Kaśyapa's instruction.

[Verse 14:] Then [the earth] composed the pure, error-dispelling doctrine. [Third story:] When Vyāsa once asked Vālmīki about the Purāṇa-sūtra —

[Verse 15:] [Vālmīki] fell silent and recalled the very Mother of the World [Sarasvatī]. Then by her boon, the foremost of sages composed the doctrine.

[Verse 16:] Receiving the pure knowledge — the lamp that dispels the blindness of confusion — and hearing the Purāṇa-sūtra, Vyāsa, born of a fraction of Kṛṣṇa —

[Verse 17:] Knew that auspicious Goddess; meditated on her for a hundred years at Puṣkara [lake]. Then having received a boon from you, he became the foremost among good poets.

[Verse 18:] Then [Vyāsa] composed the division of the Vedas and the Purāṇas. [Fourth story:] When Mahēndra (Indra) once asked Sadāśiva for the knowledge of truth —

[Verse 19:] [Sadāśiva] recalled that Goddess for a moment and then gave [Indra] the knowledge. And when Mahēndra asked Bṛhaspati about śabda-śāstra (grammar/linguistics) —

[Verse 20:] [Bṛhaspati] meditated on you for a thousand divine years at Puṣkara. Then having received a boon from you [for a thousand divine years] —

[Verse 21:] He taught the śabda-śāstra and its meaning to the lord of gods [Indra]. And the disciples who were taught by him, and by whom the great sages learned —

[Verse 22:] All of them, meditating on that Goddess, proceed in their work. O Surēśvarī — you are praised and worshipped by the great sages, by Manu, and by all humanity.

[Verse 23:] And by the lords of demons, by the gods, by Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva, and others; [before you] even the thousand-mouthed Ananta, the five-faced Śiva, and the four-faced Brahmā become speechless —

[Verse 24:] How can I — a single-mouthed human — praise her whom even these cannot praise? Having said this, Yājñavalkya, with his neck bowed in devotion —

[Verse 25:] Bowed down in prostration, fasting, he wept again and again. The Great Māyā of the form of light, seen by him, spoke to him:

[Verse 26 — Sarasvatī speaks; phalaśruti begins:] "You will become the foremost among good poets!" — having said this, she went to Vaikuṇṭha. Whoever reads this Vāṇī stotram composed by Yājñavalkya —

[Phalaśruti:] Will become the foremost poet, a great orator, equal to Bṛhaspati. Even a great fool of poor understanding, if they read for one year — will certainly become a scholar, mentally sharp, and the foremost among good poets.