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Lord Vishnu
Lord
Vishnu represents the aspect of the Supreme Reality that preserves and
sustains the universe. Although there are variations in images and pictures of
Lord Vishnu, He is generally symbolized by a human body with four arms. In His
hands He carries a conch (shankha), a mace (gada), and discus (chakra). He wears
a crown, two earrings, a garland (mala) of flowers, and a gem around the neck.
He has a blue body and wears yellow clothes. The Lord is shown standing on a
thousand-headed snake (named Shesha Nag), and the snake stands with its hoods
open over the head of the Lord.
 The
Vishnu Form
The four arms indicate Lord's omnipresence and omnipotence. The two
front arms signify the lord's activity in the physical world and the two back
arms signify His activity in the spiritual world. The right side of the body
represents the creative activities of the mind and the intellect. The left side
symbolizes the activities of the heart; that is, love, kindness, and compassion.
A conch in the upper left hand indicates that
the Lord communicates with His devotees with love and understanding. When
blowing His conch, He reminds his devotes to live in this world with kindness
and compassion towards all living beings. A chakra in His upper right hand
conveys the idea that the Lord uses this weapon to protect His devotees from
evil. The mace denotes energy and a mace in the Lord's left lower hand signifies
that He sustains the manifest world by the energy that He holds in Himself. His
front right hand is depicted bestowing grace on His devotees.
The snake denotes the mind and the thousand
heads of the snake signify innumerable desires and passions of an individual.
Just as a snake destroys its victim by its venom, an uncontrolled mind destroys
the world by the venom of its possessiveness. The Lord has controlled all
desires, and this is symbolized by showing Him seated on the two coils of the
snake. When a sincere devotee of the Lord controls his desires, the Lord
fulfills the devotee's genuine desires and helps him on his path.
The blue sky in the background of the Lord
suggests that He pervades the entire universe. The blue color symbolizes
infinity. The blue body of the Lord signifies that He has infinite attributes.
He is nameless, formless, and immeasurable. The color yellow is associated with
earthly existence and the yellow clothes of the Lord signify that He incarnates
Himself on this earth to uphold righteousness and destroy evil and
unrighteousness.
A flower garland around the Lord's neck is a
symbol of the devotee's adoration for the Lord. A gem decorating His neck
signifies that the Lord fulfills all genuine desires of His devotees and
provides for their needs. The crown is a symbol of the Lord's supreme power and
authority. The two earrings signify the dual nature of creation, such as
knowledge and ignorance, happiness and unhappiness, and pleasure and pain.
Worship
The worship of Lord Vishnu is very popular among Hindus, especially among the
followers of the Vaishnava tradition (Vaishnavism). He is the second member of
the Hindu Trinity, with Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva as the other two. Lord Vishnu
is also known by other names, such as Vasudeva and Narayana. The following ten
incarnations of Lord Vishnu are described in Hindu mythology and are popular
among Hindus. These incarnations reveal the help rendered by God during various
stages of human evolution. As shown below, the first two incarnations are in the
animal form, the third one is half-human and half-animal, and the fourth and the
subsequent ones are all in human form. These incarnations relate to human
evolution from aquatic life to human life, and are consistent with the modern
theory of evolution suggested by science:
- Matsya
(fish)---saves Sage Manu from floods and recovers the Vedas from demons.
- Kurma
(tortoise)---sustains the earth on his back.
- Varaha
(boar)---brings the earth back from the bottom of the ocean where it was
dragged down by a demon, known as Hiranyaksha; Varaha kills the demon.
- Narasimha
(man-lion)---kills the demon King Hiranyakashipu, who was planning to kill
his own son, a devotee of Lord Vishnu.
- Vamana
(dwarf)---the first human incarnation of the Lord, kills the demon King
Mahabhali, who had deprived the gods of their possessions.
- Parasurama
(the warrior with an axe)---saves Brahmins from the tyranny of the arrogant
Kshatriyas.
- Rama---kills
Ravana, the demon king of Lanka.
- Sri
Krishna---the most popular incarnation; Krishna's contributions
throughout his life include the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna.
- Buddha---Hindus
consider Buddha as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and accept his teachings,
but do not directly worship him.
- Kalkin
(a man on a white horse)---this incarnation is yet to come and will mark the
end of all-evil in the world.
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