Lately I’ve noticed sustaining a regular practice of painting, doodling, yoga, meditation or daily walking requires more than sheer stick-to-ativeness (isn’t that a great word?). It can be difficult to rely on just me to get into the stick-to-ativeness because such sheer determination rests in my mind rather than heart and spirit. I was musing about this when painting today: what keeps me coming back to the art studio?

Enter Saraswati. But before I tell you about her, know this: I love chanting. It’s a vocal meditation, offers my voice, body and spirit good energy, fills the space with healing vibration and connects me to all that is divine. I learned and studied chanting before this century began from a magnificent woman, Pat Moffitt Cook. Since then, chanting has become a part of my life.

Saraswati is the Hindu Goddess of knowledge, music, the arts and wisdom. And like all the Goddesses and Gods of Hinduism, she has a lot of arms and hands to hold her sacred tools, four hands to be exact: A book for knowledge in one, mala for wisdom in the other, a lyre for music, and a water pot for the river of consciousness that stimulates creation. I imagine a fifth hand holding a paint brush every time I sing her sacred mantra: Om Eim Saraswatiyei Namaha.

I rely on the spiritual world to help me in the physical world. Chanting is part of that help. When I step into the art studio, the string of love goes beyond what I can see, hear or know. I count on that mystery to give me stick-to-aliveness plus a whole lot of other stuff.

Here’s what the mantra sounds like.   Enjoy!