Vishnu | the supreme godhead of Vaishnavism

Vishnu is part of the Trimurti, a conception of the "three figures" very well known in Hinduism. This consists of three aspects of the divine, which are related to the fundamental principles or forces of the cosmos:

• Creation: Brahma
• Conservation: Vishnu
• Destruction: Shiva

In the trinity the tasks are distributed: Vishnu is the divine form of preservation, as he maintains the Dharma in terms of a just cosmological and human order and for this purpose incarnates again and again as animal or human. Shiva, on the other hand, destroys and dissolves to make a new beginning possible, while Brahma is responsible for creation. In the Trimurti concept, these opposing values enter into a complementary union. Outside this Trimurti, however, both Vishnu and Shiva combine all three aspects. Vishnu too can be destructive: He uses the throwing disc (chakram), one of his four symbols, as a destructive weapon.

Shiva also contains all aspects outside the trinity. For those devotees who worship him as the supreme, the Shivaites, he is also regarded as the saviour, the benevolent one, as his name indicates. A divine form that unites the aspects of Vishnu and Shiva is Harihara.

Vishnu is usually depicted holding four insignias in his four hands:

• Throwing disc (chakra), which is hurled at the enemies in the course of a battle.
• snail horn (shankha), on which he blows on various occasions
• lotus flower (padma), among other things the symbol of wisdom and purity, because it is radiantly pure even in the dirtiest pond
• Mace (gada) with which he fights asuras.

Other

• On his head Vishnu wears a pot-like crown.
• His mount (vahana) is the half-man, half-eagle Garuda.
• In many depictions he rests as Narayana on the cosmic serpent Ananta or Shesha.