Vishnu, sometimes also called Hari, Vasudeva, Narayana and Jagannatha (only some of the best known among his thousands of names) is one of the main deities of the Hindu pantheon, he represents the protector and preserver aspect of the supreme being and sometimes represents being supreme tout court

Despite having Vedic origins, in reality in these ancient texts his role was not at all prominent, and he had to wait for the development of his figure in the Puranas so that he assumed the very high role he now holds in Hinduism .

In the Vishnuite current of Hinduism, it represents, as mentioned, the supreme being itself, the Absolute and magnanimous which is both transcendent and immanent .

Not for nothing etymologically Vishnu means " one who resides in everything ". Vishnu is closely linked to the phenomenon of avatars, the embodiment of the absolute in human form to protect the dharma and cyclically save the world from darkness.

The most famous of his avatars are Rama, Krishna and Buddha, but in many more modern currents also the figures of Jesus and Ramakrishna are considered to be avatars of Vishnu.

Iconography of the god Vishnu

Vishnu is often considered the most benevolent of the three aspects of the Trimurti : if Shiva tends to be the most violent and Brahma the most detached, Vishnu is the loving father, friend and lover of creatures, and it is not by chance that the current flourished around him bakhti, or religion based totally on devotion, on the impetus of the heart, on ecstasy and bliss, in a context in which spirituality was generally based on mantric rites and knowledge obtained through austerity.

Vishnu generally appears with light blue skin, radiant and bejeweled. It has four arms with which it supports Panchajania, or blowing shell in which it generates the sound OM and starts the creation of the universe; Kaumodaki, a golden war bat, the instrument with which it removes the obstacles of evolution ; Sudarshana, a chakra or energy circle, symbolizing divine vision, is used as a weapon to destroy demons (the ego) ; Padma, the lotus, the awakening of consciousness from the void and the personal aspect of the Divine from impersonality.

Vishnu is in fact, through devotion, reachable from the human heart as a personal aspect of the Divine, the soul can embrace it in a form, it is not just an Absolute without forms that requires the detachment of the world. He pervades the world.

Figures related to the god Vishnu

Several figures are related to Vishnu. First Lakshmi, his companion or active energy, Shakti . Lakshmi is the goddess of prosperity, fortune and beauty, and generally incarnates with Vishnu when she takes the form of avatars: she was Sita when Vishnu descended as Rama, and took the form of Radha when Vishnu incarnated in Krishna.

Vishnu rests blessed on a serpent known as Shesha or Anatha, with infinite heads, king of all naga and symbol of the infinite itself, on which Vishnu rests. Another creature linked to Vishnu is Garuda, his winged mount. With his appearance as an eagle man, Garuda represents the martial power of the Divine, the glow of the supreme light that rushes to enemies, to darkness; golden, with red feathered wings that produce the OM sound.

Visnhu is associated above all with Krishna, one of his best known avatars and the origin of the devotional current Hare Krishna. Krishna, a little shepherd who rises to the rank of head of his clan and adviser to the Pandavas, the family faithful to the Divine during the epic battle of the Mahabharata, is known for his playing the flute thus attracting souls to himself; to carry a peacock feather on his head, symbol of divine bliss.

At the extremes of the Bakhti philosophy, he himself becomes the first creator of the universe, the one who emanates Vishnu himself from which he then emanated, in a chain of space-time paradoxes that transcends the mind and remembers the symbol of Brahma (the creator) emerging from 'umbilical of Vishnu, who thus becomes the creator of his own creator.

These symbols at the limit of the three-dimensional possibilities of the mind are games to blink a multidimensional reality in which the universes interpenetrate and the opposites unite, flow into one another and regenerate in a third absolute position.

The mastery of opposites is also represented in Vishnu by his earrings and by being friends with both the king of snakes and the king of birds, bitter enemies among them.