Lord Vishnu's description

God Vishnu, the Preserver of the humankind.

 Vishnu means the giver and provider of things. In popular Hinduism, he is the preserver and upholder of dharma and part of the Hindu Trinity.In Vashnavism, he is the Supreme Self and the Lord of the universe, who manifests variously as part of His obligatory duty.

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. Goddess Lakshmi, his consort attend upon him. 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.

The color of Vishnu is the color of a dark blue cloud. It 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 one face, four arms, usually in a standing posture or in a resting posture. 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 Vishnu which he used 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.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 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. 


                                       


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