Vishnu

Narayana · Hari · Jagannatha

The preserver who sustains cosmic order and descends as avatars to restore dharma.

Abode: Vaikuntha
Consort: Lakshmi
Vahana: Garuda the eagle
Colour: Dark blue, like a rain cloud
Arms: 4

Vishnu is the preserver within the trimurti and the supreme being of the Vaishnava tradition. He sustains the cosmos and, whenever dharma declines, descends into the world as an avatar, most famously as Rama and Krishna. He is depicted reclining on the serpent Shesha upon the cosmic ocean, holding conch, discus, mace, and lotus.

Mantra

ॐ नमो नारायणाय

Om Namo Narayanaya

Salutations to Narayana, the one in whom all beings rest: the eight-syllable ashtakshara mantra.

रूप और प्रतीक

How Vishnu is shown

Standing upright or reclining on the coils of the serpent Shesha on the cosmic ocean, crowned, in yellow silk.

Panchajanya (conch): The primal sound Om, calling the world back to dharma.
Sudarshana chakra (discus): The mind and time, turning to cut through evil.
Kaumodaki (mace): Strength of knowledge and the power to uphold order.
Padma (lotus): Purity and creation unfolding from the cosmic waters.
Shrivatsa mark on the chest: The seat of Lakshmi, who never leaves him.

कथाएँ

Stories

The three strides

The asura king Bali had conquered the three worlds. Vishnu came to him as a small brahmin boy, Vamana, and asked for as much land as he could cover in three steps. Granted it, he grew to cosmic size, spanned earth and sky in two strides, and Bali offered his own head for the third.

Asleep on the cosmic ocean

Between ages of creation Vishnu sleeps on Shesha as Anantashayana. A lotus grows from his navel, and from it Brahma is born to make the next world: the image is of preservation holding creation within itself.