Viṣṇu Sahasranāma

विष्णु सहस्रनाम

VishnuDevotion

Sanskrit Text

ॐ विश्वं विष्णुर्वषट्कारो भूतभव्यभवत्प्रभुः। भूतकृद्भूतभृद्भावो भूतात्मा भूतभावनः॥१॥ पूतात्मा परमात्मा च मुक्तानां परमा गतिः। अव्ययः पुरुषः साक्षी क्षेत्रज्ञोऽक्षर एव च॥२॥ योगो योगविदां नेता प्रधानपुरुषेश्वरः। नारसिंहवपुः श्रीमान् केशवः पुरुषोत्तमः॥३॥

Transliteration

oṃ viśvaṃ viṣṇurvaṣaṭkāro bhūtabhavyabhavatprabhuḥ| bhūtakṛdbhūtabhṛdbhāvo bhūtātmā bhūtabhāvanaḥ||1|| pūtātmā paramātmā ca muktānāṃ paramā gatiḥ| avyayaḥ puruṣaḥ sākṣī kṣetrajño'kṣara eva ca||2|| yogo yogavidāṃ netā pradhānapuruṣeśvaraḥ| nārasiṃhavapuḥ śrīmān keśavaḥ puruṣottamaḥ||3||

Meaning (English)

The Viṣṇu Sahasranāma ("Thousand Names of Viṣṇu") is recited by Bhīṣma to Yudhiṣṭhira on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, forming chapters 135-136 of the Anuśāsana Parva of the Mahābhārata. Each of the 1,000 names is an epithet describing a quality, cosmic function, or incarnation of Viṣṇu — from Viśvaṃ (the universe itself) to Viṣṇu (the all-pervading) to Puruṣottama (the supreme person). Ādi Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and Paraśara Bhaṭṭa each composed detailed commentaries. Traditionally recited weekly on Ekādaśī, monthly on Kārtika Pūrṇimā, and during Viṣṇu temple consecrations.

Meaning (Hindi)

भीष्म द्वारा युधिष्ठिर को सुनाए गए विष्णु के 1000 नामों का स्तोत्र — महाभारत अनुशासन पर्व से। प्रत्येक नाम विष्णु के एक गुण या कार्य को दर्शाता है। आदि शंकर, रामानुज, मधव सबने इस पर भाष्य लिखे हैं।

Benefits

•Liberation (mokṣa) per Yudhiṣṭhira's direct ask
•Protection from all diseases
•Destruction of accumulated sins
•Fulfillment of righteous desires
•Peace of mind and family prosperity

Best Time

Ekādaśī (11th lunar day), Kārtika month, any Viṣṇu temple day

Chant Count

1 times

Source

Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Ch. 135-136, Ch. 135, V. 1-154

Scholarly Context

Origin & Textual Home

The Viṣṇu Sahasranāma appears in the Anuśāsana Parva of the Mahābhārata (chapters 135-136), where a mortally wounded Bhīṣma — lying on his bed of arrows awaiting the southern solstice — is asked by Yudhiṣṭhira the single most important question for a person seeking liberation. Bhīṣma's answer: recite the thousand names of the supreme being Viṣṇu, who is Brahman itself. The text is therefore not a prayer but a philosophical treatise disguised as a name-list — each name (nāma) a dharma (attribute) of the divine. Later tradition organized the 1,000 names into 108 shlokas plus a phala-śruti (fruit-of-recitation) section. Ādi Śaṅkara's Bhāṣya (c. 800 CE) is the most widely studied commentary; Rāmānuja, Paraśara Bhaṭṭa, and Madhvācārya also wrote detailed expositions.

How to Chant

The full Sahasranāma takes 25-40 minutes to recite depending on tempo. Daily recitation is traditional for serious Vaiṣṇava practitioners; weekly on Ekādaśī (11th lunar day) is the common householder practice. Many South Indian temples chant it communally during abhiṣeka (ritual bathing of the deity). The phala-śruti specifies that reading the full 1,000 names once is equivalent to performing the aśvamedha yajña — the most elaborate Vedic sacrifice. Modern schools including the Chinmaya Mission and Ramakrishna Mission use it as the primary text for group study in Viṣṇu-centered lineages.

Traditional Benefits

Yudhiṣṭhira's asked for the practice that grants 'liberation from all bondage' and 'the highest welfare,' and Bhīṣma's answer identifies the Sahasranāma specifically. Traditional benefits include protection from all diseases (Bhīṣma's own body was dissolving but his mind remained clear through constant recitation), destruction of accumulated sins (pāpa-nirmokṣa), and the fulfillment of righteous desires. Contemporary practitioners report deep meditative absorption during the chant — the sheer volume of the list silences analytical thought and produces the samādhi Bhīṣma describes.

Deeper Meaning

The text's theological ambition is vast: each name is a complete description of the absolute, and the list as a whole asserts that all possible predicates find their ultimate reference in Viṣṇu. Śaṅkara reads this non-dualistically — all 1,000 names point to the same nirguṇa Brahman, simply from different angles. Rāmānuja reads it viśiṣṭādvaita-style: each name is a real attribute of a qualified personal Viṣṇu, not merely a designation of the absolute. The tension between these readings has shaped over a millennium of Vedāntic philosophy. The text also contains what some modern scholars (Bryant, 2018) identify as the earliest extended meditation on divine omniscience: the names circle obsessively around seeing-as-knowing (sākṣī, vedhāḥ, bodhanaḥ) as the fundamental divine activity.