There is in the Rig Veda a goddess who is not the best known to the Western public, but who is perhaps the most relevant for understanding what we are living through today. Sarasvatî. The goddess of the river, of speech, of knowledge, of poetic inspiration.
In the oldest hymns, Sarasvatî is first a river — the great river of the civilization of the 7 Rivers, the one that irrigated the plains where Vedic culture flourished for millennia. A river now disappeared — dried up by the climate changes of the era, swallowed by the desert. But in the hymns, this river is also speech — the flow of knowledge that irrigates minds as the river irrigates lands.
Sarasvatî is she who allows truth to circulate. She who gives the just word, the true word, the word that illuminates rather than obscures. And in a world where press freedom is retreating everywhere, where truth has become a battlefield, where words are weapons — Sarasvatî has something urgent to tell us.
What Sarasvatî Embodies in the Hymns
In the Rig Veda, Sarasvatî is invoked to purify speech — so that the words leaving the rishi’s mouth are in accord with ṛta, the fundamental truth of the world. She is not the goddess of rhetoric or persuasion. She is the goddess of true speech — that which says what is, not what is convenient to say.
This distinction is fundamental. There are words that flow like the pure water of a river — that nourish, that illuminate, that allow those who receive them to better understand the world. And there are words that flow like polluted water — that poison, that confuse, that serve particular interests while disguising themselves as truth.
Sarasvatî is the force that distinguishes the two. And her invocation is a request — that the speech I pronounce be on the side of truth, not on the side of manipulation.
Press Freedom — The Current State
Reporters Without Borders publishes an annual world press freedom index. The trends of recent years are concerning.
In countries that claim democratic values, press freedom is declining. Journalists are prosecuted for revealing information of public interest. Laws on business secrecy or national security are used to silence investigations. Media owners close to political power orient editorial lines. Algorithms favor disinformation because it generates more engagement than reliable information.
In authoritarian regimes, the situation is more directly brutal. Journalists are imprisoned, exiled, murdered. Independent media are closed. Information becomes a state monopoly — a tool of control rather than a tool for understanding the world.
And everywhere — in democracies as in authoritarian regimes — disinformation spreads at a speed that traditional journalistic tools cannot counter. Social networks amplify false news more effectively than true news, because the spectacular lie generates more emotions — and therefore more clicks — than nuanced truth.
Sarasvatî is dried up. Her river no longer flows freely.
Speech as Sacred Act — and as Responsibility
In the Vedic vision, speech is not neutral. It creates. The hymns of the Rig Veda are acts — they do not describe the world, they participate in maintaining it in order. The word pronounced in the context of sacrifice is not a description of reality — it is active participation in reality.
This conception of speech as creative act — found in other traditions, notably in « in the beginning was the Word » — implies considerable responsibility. The one who speaks, writes, publishes, broadcasts — does not merely transmit information. He participates in constructing the collective reality in which others live.
A journalist who tells the truth participates in maintaining ṛta — the order that allows society to function on real foundations. A propagandist who distorts facts participates in creating a world of lies in which collective decisions become impossible — because one cannot make good decisions on the basis of false information.
Press freedom is not only a right — it is a condition of collective health. As Sarasvatî is a condition of the fertility of lands.
What Threatens Sarasvatî Today
The threats against press freedom are multiple and mutually reinforcing.
The concentration of media ownership first — which we discussed in a previous article. When a handful of billionaires control the bulk of a country’s media, Sarasvatî no longer speaks freely. She speaks with the voice of those who own her.
The precariousness of journalism next. Newsrooms are shrinking. Journalists are increasingly often precarious — freelancers without protection, contractors without independence. Investigative journalism — the kind that takes time, costs money, makes powerful enemies — is the first victim of this precariousness.
The judicialization of silence finally. Powerful companies and personalities use courts — not to obtain justice, but to financially exhaust media or journalists investigating them. These SLAPPs — Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation — are a modern form of censorship that does not speak its name.
And industrial disinformation — financed by states, corporations, political interests — that floods the public space with false information to the point of making it difficult to distinguish the true from the false.
Sarasvatî as Resistance
But Sarasvatî resists. As her river disappeared from the surface to continue flowing underground — the subterranean Sarasvatî, invisible but real — true speech continues to circulate despite everything.
In independent media that survive thanks to their readers’ support. In journalists who continue to investigate despite pressures. In whistleblowers who take considerable risks so that information of public interest sees the light of day. In researchers who publish data that power would prefer to keep hidden.
And in each person who takes care to verify their sources. Who refuses to share information without having cross-checked it. Who prefers the slowness of verification to the speed of diffusion. Who treats the speech they pronounce and share as an act — with the awareness that each word they put into circulation contributes to building or destroying the common world.
Invoking Sarasvatî today is not a religious practice. It is an ethical commitment — to truth, to rigor, to the responsibility of the one who speaks.
In a world saturated with noise and lies, this commitment may be the most revolutionary of all.
The river still flows. Beneath the surface.
Le Rig Veda 
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