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Vishnu[]

Vishnu is the Hindu god of Preservation, the brother-in-law of Shiva by virtue of being the brother of Parvati. His wife is Lakshmi and his mount is Garuda and he created Lord Brahma from a lotus flower from his navel when he slept. Vishnu the Preserver is one third of the Trimurti, along with Brahma the Creator and Shiva the Destroyer.

Dashavatara[]

Vishnu took on ten major forms called the Dashavatars to preserve humanity and balance. 

  1. Matsya, a fish that saved the life of Manu, the first man.
  2. Kurma, a turtle that helped the gods and demons churn the ocean for the nectar of immortality.
  3. Varaha, a boar that kills Hiranyaksha, who stole Prithvi (the earth goddess) in the form of a cow.
  4. Narasimha, a lion-man who kills Hiranyakashipu, the brother of Hiraniyaksha.
  5. Vamana, a dwarf who regains the three realms (Heaven, Earth and Hell) from the demon king Bali.
  6. Parashurama, a sage who killed the Ksatriyas.
  7. Rama, a prince who defeats Ravana, the demon king of Sri Lanka.
  8. Krishna, who fought in the Kurukshetra War.
  9. Buddha, who founded Buddhism.
  10. Kalki, whose coming will signal the end of our time period and the destruction of evil.

Other avatars include his only female avatar, Mohini.

Vishnu

In Popular Culture[]

Comic books[]

Films and Television[]

  • In a teaser trailer of Godzilla (2014), J. Robert Oppenheimer speaks of Vishnu and the Bhagavad Gita. As he speaks, an undetermined location that has been damaged with large casualties is shown, along with the corpse of an unidentifiable monster shown lying on the ground, looking similar to a centipede. "Vishnu takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds"."
  • Vishnu appears in How Murray saved Christmas.



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