Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Hinduism One of the principal Hindu deities, worshiped as the protector and preserver of worlds. Vishnu is often conceived as a member of the triad including also Brahma and Shiva.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Inlater Hind. myth., the god who with the other two great gods, Brahma and Siva, forms the trimurti, or trinity; the Preserver, considered by his worshipers to be the supreme god of the Hindu pantheon. In the vedas he appears only as a manifestation of the sun. The myths relating to Vishnu are chiefly characterized by the idea that whenever a great disorder affected the world Vishnu descended to set it right. Such descents are called
avatâras or avatars, and consist in Vishnu's assuming the form of some wonderful animal or superhuman being, or as being born in human form of human parents, and always endowed with miraculous power. These avatars are generally given as ten, nine of which are already past, the tenth, the Kalki-avatâra, being yet to come, “when the practices taught by the Vedas and the institutes of the law shall have ceased, and the close of the Kali or present age shall be nigh.” Vishnu is sometimes represented as riding on Garuda, a being half bird and half man; as holding in one of his four hands a conch-shell blown in battle, in another a disk as emblem of supreme power, in the third a mace as the emblem of punishment, and in the fourth a lotus as a type of creative power.
Wiktionary
- n. Hinduism One of the Trimurti (trinity) in Hindu mythology, and the most popularly venerated god in Hinduism. Vishnu is commonly depicted as being blue in colour and having four arms: with each hand holding either a lotus, a mace, a conch shell or Chakra weapon. Vishnu is the Supreme being or Ultimate Reality for Vaishnavas and a manifestation of Brahman in the Advaita or Smarta traditions of Hinduism.
- n. A male given name used in India.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Hindu Myth.) A divinity of the modern Hindu trimurti, or trinity. He is regarded as the preserver, while Brahma is the creator, and Siva the destroyer of the creation.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the sustainer; a Hindu divinity worshipped as the preserver of worlds
Etymologies
- From Sanskrit विष्णु (Víṣṇu). (Wiktionary)
- Sanskrit Viṣṇuḥ. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Vishnu is a middle child of an influential family.”
“Thus the visitor to Angkor Wat who walks the causeway to the main entrance and through the courtyards to the final main tower, which once contained a statue of Vishnu, is metaphorically travelling back to the first age of the creation of the universe.”
“Inside is a six-meter-long gold statue of the divinity for whom the temple is named: Sree Padmanabhaswamy It's another name for Vishnu, whom Hindus name "the protector.”
Voice of America: India's Supreme Court Deliberates Fate Of Temple Treasure Worth Billions
“Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
“This all might be in Vishnus mind of course, because we are just seeing everything through his mind.”
“Now, The Death of Vishnu is part of a trilogy that will also comprise The Life of Shiva and The Birth of Brahma.”
“In the Vedas, the maintainer of all is called Vishnu, and his Shakti (the female energy), his female accomplice, is Lakshmi—also known in English as Lady Luck (from lak).”
“Which is a little weird, because I always supposed that the “knucklehead theory” was pretty much a mainstream view: Belief is a prerequisite for salvation, and not just any old Belief — in Vishnu or Allah or Baal or even Jehovah-sans-messiah, but the Jesusy kind.”
NewsFlash: Christians Think the “Believing in Jesus” Thing Important
“Vishnu is the embodiment of mercy and goodness, the self-existent, all-pervading power that preserves the universe and maintains the cosmic order Dharma.”
“In the basic Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the Hindu god Vishnu is the preserver and protector of creation.”
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