[Advaita-l] Saraswati is Shiva's sister?

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Subbu prabhuji
Hare Krishna


O devi, I know that you are the consort of brahmA and the sister of
Paramashiva, deity of learning and speech, that for the protection of the
world you take incarnation such as Lakshmi etc. and that you are of the
form of Consciousness.

>  mAdhaveeya, chidvilAseeya, vyAsAchAleeya biographies would give 
different account with regard to 'sarasavANi' / 'ubhaya bhArati' :-) As 
you know here in mAdhaveeya, shankara arrests saraswati (mandana's wife) 
through 'araNya durgA maNtra' and asked her to stay back and ubhaya 
bhArati wanted to have a debate with parapurusha, jagatkAraNa and sarvajna 
shankara bhagavatpAda :-))

The questions that arise are:  If brahmA is the 'son' of Vishnu as per
popular belief, how is Saraswati the source for Lakshmi who is the consort
of Vishnu? 

>  some popular story ( according to madhva-s) lakshmi is ksheerOdaje, 
born from ksheera samudra during maNthana.  And vishNu promptly taken her 
& accepted as his consort :-))

And how is Saraswati the sister of Shiva? 

>  and the subsequent question is,  if at all it is true (atleast it is 
true in mAdhaveeya that ubhaya bhArati is dUrvAsa shApagrastha saraswati) 
how can a sister saraswati asks question on kAma shAstra to his brother 
shankara bhagavatpAda, who is incarnation of shiva :-))

There is a belief that Parvati is the sister of Vishnu. There is also a 
vaishnava belief that
Shiva is the son of brahmA. 

>  I have also heard the story that trimUrthy-s are sons of Adi parAshakti 
:-))


If Saraswati is Shiva's sister, she has to be brahmA's daughter too. There 
is also a belief that Lakshmi is Shiva's
sister.  And a brother-sister relationship will make both of them 
offspring of some other entity.  Then, Vishnu and Shiva will have to be 
sons of someone.

>  Best advice is dont do the scrutiny of these relationship, if you do it 
you would get more contradictions than clarifications :-))  purANik 
episodes would always convey some enigmatic tattva-s while narrating 
comical events...One should not read & try to understand  these events on 
its face value and try to see these stories with the vedAnta siddhAnta in 
mind. 

>  On the lighter side, why we should scratch our heads on these 
relationships after all it is confidential personal family matter of 
trimurthy-s and their families :-)) Let them sort it out themselves :-))

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar