Shri Vishnu

Who Shri Vishnu is

Vishnu is the preserver in the Hindu trinity. Where Brahma creates and Shiva dissolves, Vishnu sustains the world, and whenever dharma (righteous order) is seriously threatened, he comes down to earth in an avatar to restore balance. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna puts it plainly: whenever righteousness declines, he takes birth age after age to protect the good. For Vaishnava traditions, which include most Ram and Krishna devotees, he is the Supreme Lord himself, called Narayana, Hari and Bhagavan.

Where he comes from in scripture

In the Rigveda, Vishnu is the god who measured the universe in three great strides. His later mythology is told in the Vishnu Purana, the Shrimad Bhagavatam and the epics. The Vishnu Sahasranama, his thousand names, which Bhishma taught Yudhishthira in the Mahabharata, is one of the most widely recited hymns in Hinduism.

The ten avatars (Dashavatara)

Ten avatars are traditionally counted:

• Matsya (the fish), who saved Manu and the Vedas from the great flood;
• Kurma (the tortoise), who held up Mount Mandara during the churning of the ocean;
• Varaha (the boar), who lifted the earth from the cosmic waters;
• Narasimha (the man-lion), who protected the boy devotee Prahlada;
• Vamana (the dwarf), who asked King Bali for three steps of land and covered all the worlds in them;
• Parashurama, the warrior-sage;
• Ram and Krishna;
• Buddha in many traditions (some lists name Balarama instead);
• Kalki, the avatar yet to come at the end of the current age.

Each avatar answers a particular crisis rather than following a fixed pattern, which is part of why Vishnu is seen as endlessly adaptable in the service of dharma. His grace is not only for battles: the stories of Dhruva and of the elephant Gajendra show him coming to a single devotee who calls on him sincerely.

Iconography

Vishnu is shown dark blue, reclining on the many-headed serpent Shesha on the ocean of milk (Kshirasagar), with Lakshmi at his feet and Brahma seated on a lotus that grows from his navel. Standing, he holds four emblems: the conch Panchajanya, the discus Sudarshan Chakra, the mace Kaumodaki and a lotus. He wears the Kaustubha jewel and the Shrivatsa mark on his chest, and his vehicle is the eagle Garuda.

How he is worshipped

Vishnu is worshipped directly and, very often, through his avatars, so a Ram or Krishna devotee is a Vishnu devotee too. His day is Thursday, when devotees wear yellow and offer yellow sweets and flowers (see Thursday Vishnu Bhakti). Tulsi is indispensable to his worship (see Tulsi Jal Arpan), as is the fast of Ekadashi twice a month. Many homes worship him as the shaligram, a sacred black ammonite stone from the Gandaki river. His core mantras are Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya and "Om Namo Narayanaya", along with the Vishnu Gayatri Mantra, the Vishnu Chalisa and the aarti Om Jai Jagdish Hare, sung in nearly every Hindu household.

Festivals and temples

The four months of Chaturmas, from Devshayani Ekadashi to Prabodhini Ekadashi, are the time of Vishnu's cosmic sleep. His waking is celebrated with Tulsi Vivah. Vaikuntha Ekadashi is the holiest day in South Indian Vishnu temples. His great temples include Tirupati (as Venkateswara), Badrinath in the Himalayas, Jagannath in Puri, Ranganathaswamy at Srirangam and Padmanabhaswamy in Thiruvananthapuram, and the Tamil Alvar saints sang of 108 sacred Vishnu shrines, the Divya Desams.