Ilaa - Mahii - Sarasvati 

 - a blog on Divine Mothers

 

Ā no yajñaṁ bhāratī tūyam etu,  iḷā manuṣvad iha cetayantī,
tisro devīr barhir edaṁ syonam   sarasvatī svapasaḥ sadantu.  (Rig Veda 10.110)

“May Bharati come speeding to our sacrifice and Ila hither awakening our consciousness (or, knowledge or perceptions) in human wise, and Sarasvati,—three goddesses sit on this blissful seat, doing well the Work.”

"As Sarasvati is an awakener of the consciousness to right thinkings or right states of mind, cetantī sumatīnām, so also Ila comes to the sacrifice awakening the consciousness to knowledge, cetayantī. 

Mahi (Bharati), then, is the luminous vastness of the Truth, she represents the Largeness, bṛhat, of the superconscient in us containing in itself the Truth, ṛtam. She is, therefore, for the sacrificer, like a branch covered with ripe fruit.

As Sarasvati represents the truth-audition, śruti, which gives the inspired word, so Ila represents dṛṣṭi, the truth-vision. If so, since dṛṣṭi and śruti are the two powers of the Rishi, the Kavi, the Seer of the Truth, we can understand the close connection of Ila and Sarasvati. 

Bharati or Mahi is the largeness of the Truth-Consciousness which, dawning on man’s limited mind, brings with it the two sister Puissances. 

We can also understand how these fine and living distinctions came afterwards to be neglected as the Vedic knowledge declined and Bharati, Sarasvati, Ila melted into one."  

(Sri Aurobindo, Secret of the Veda - Sarasvati and her Consorts)