Vishnu
The eternal Creator, Preserver and Destroyer—Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva—of the Hindu Trinity parallel the Western concept of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Vishnu, the Second Person of the Trinity, is the immortal Son, the Preserver of the divine design, the Restorer of the universe by Wisdom’s light.
As the Preserver, Vishnu preserves divine design conceived in Wisdom’s flame. He restores the universe by Wisdom’s all-healing light. As the Son, Vishnu embodies Cosmic Christ wisdom. He is also the mediator, or bridge, between the human consciousness and Brahman, Absolute Reality.
According to the teachings of Hinduism, whenever the forces of darkness would get the upper hand on earth, Vishnu would come to the aid of humanity by taking incarnation as an avatar. (In this sense of the word, Jesus Christ is an incarnation of Vishnu. So are Lord Maitreya, Lord Gautama Buddha, Lord Sanat Kumara. All come in the lineage of the Second Person of the Trinity, the Universal Christ.) The avatar would vanquish evil and establish the religion of the age in which he was born.
Vishnu was thus incarnated nine times, always manifesting the qualities of Hari.[1] His most notable manifestations were as Rama and Krishna (his eighth incarnation).
Vishnu is the all-pervading Protector—protecting the Son in manifestation by God-awareness of both Self and anti-Self. He wields the sword of the Word for the annihilation by Wisdom’s fire of the forces of the anti-Self that would steal the light of that True Self before it is self-realized in the issue of God. This personification of the Godhead is the Preserver of the divine design conceived in Wisdom’s flame out of Power’s lawful Presence. Vishnu is the Restorer of the universe by Wisdom’s all-healing light, by the Science of Mind that is the true Power of illumination’s alchemy of Love.
His consort, Lakshmi
► Main article: Lakshmi
Lakshmi, Vishnu’s consort, is eternally identifiable as the polarity of all that he is. She is Wisdom unveiled in blessings of prosperity, the precipitation of abundance by the science of Prakriti and Purusha and the control of the four cosmic forces. She bears a cornucopia of good fortune by the “eye-magic” of the all-seeing eye of her Beloved. She teaches the mastery of karmic cycles on the cosmic clock, and multiplicity and beauty out of the Law of the One. Herself the Beautiful Mother, she mirrors the image of Wisdom’s God as health and holiness to her children.
Lakshmi took human form to serve as his consort in each of his incarnations. Lakshmi’s incarnations included Sita, the faithful wife of Rama; the cow girl Radha, beloved of Krishna; and Rukmini, the princess whom Krishna later married.
See also
Sources
Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Masters and Their Retreats, s.v. “Vishnu.”
“The Divine Lovers,” 1985 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 1.
- ↑ Hari is a name for Vishnu, sometimes rendered “the Remover of Sorrow”; thought to be derived from hri, “to take away or remove evil or sin.”