Shri Vishnu is the preserver and upholder of dharma. 'Vishnu' means the giver and provider of things. In Vashnavism, he is the Supreme Self and the Lord of the universe, who manifests variously as part of His obligatory duty. The Vedas recognise him as a solar deity, Aditya, and extol him as the god of three strides, upholder of law and giver of boons.
In course of time he became Narayana, which literally means, the dweller of waters and dweller of human beings. The word nara means both water (naram) and human (nara).
Shri Vishnu resides in the milky waters of Vaikunth on a bed made of the coils of the the thousand hooded great serpent, Adishesha of infinite dimensions. Symbolically the ocean stands for bliss and consciousness, the serpent for time, diversity, desire and illusion, and the goddess Lakshmi for the material things and powers of the creation.
His dark blue color is the color of the sky, denoting his cosmic dimensions and his connection with the Vedic gods of rain and thunder and his relationship with the earth. He is usually depicted with four arms, usually in a standing posture or in a resting posture. Theshivatribe. He wears a necklace made of the famous Kaustubha gem that rests on his left chest and another garland of flowers and gems by name Vaijayanti.
His four arms hold sankha (a conch), chakra (discus), gada (mace) and padma (lotus) respectively. The conch stands for the five elements, the sound of AUM, salagrama, goddess Lakshmi, the waters, purity and perfection. The discus is the terrible weapon of Shri Vishnu which he uses to destroy the evil and protect the righteous. It symbolically represents the light bearing sun, which illuminates and removes darkness. It also stands for higher consciousness which destroys all illusions. The mace represent the power of knowledge while the lotus symbolizes beauty, harmony, purity, water element, creation and self realization.!
Om Namo Narayana ~ Jai Shri Vishnu! ๐๐ป๐๐ป๐๐ป
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