Avatars of Visnhu — Vishnu Sahasranam

Vishnu Sahasranam has 208 names related to avatars of Vishnu. Out of these, seven emphasize Vishnu’s quality which is 4 in count as listed below.

• 137th चतुरात्मा Chaturatma The Lord Who is Fourfold in His Nature
• 138th चतुर्व्यूह Chaturvyuha The Lord of Four Manifestations
• 139th चतुर्दंष्ट्र Chaturdamshtra The Lord Who has Four Horns
• 140th चतुर्भुज Chaturbhuja The Lord Who has Four arms
• 767th चतुर्व्यूह The Lord Who Expresses Himself as the Four Vyoohas
• 765th चतुर्मूर्ति Chaturmurti The Lord Who has Four Forms
• 766th चतुर्बाहु Chaturbahu The Lord Who has Four Arms

The word व्यूह means structure ( निर्माण । रचना ). Vishnu is told to have 4 structures, 4 arms, etc. Also, Vishnu is said to reside in Kshir-sagar ( Milky Ocean).

Could this be referring to the Milky Way galaxy? There is a striking similarity between the Milky Way and the descriptions of Vishnu.

Modern astronomy has also named the Milky Way and found it to have four arms. Could the ancient Rishi’s have seen the Milky Way and named it the Milky Ocean?

Let's assume for a moment that all this is some random nonsense that someone wrote to fool the innocent and describe a person whom they want everyone else to believe as God. That author had the liberty to choose anything. He could have chosen to tell people that Vishnu lives in the ocean of Gold or Amrit. That would have been even superior and better to show the magnificence of God. Instead, the author chose Vishnu to reside in the ocean of milk. Similarly, he had the liberty to give 10- 20 arms to Vishnu instead, he said that Vishnu has 4 arms. Why does he have only 4 arms? Could it be pointing to the four arms of the Milky Way galaxy? Below is the structure of the Milky Way with its arms.

As per NASA website

The galaxy’s two major arms (Scutum-Centaurus and Perseus) can be seen attached to the ends of a thick central bar, while the two now-demoted minor arms (Norma and Sagittarius) are less distinct and located between the major arms.

This means that the galaxy has 4 main arms.

The galaxy looks like a discus or chakra. Vishnu is also called चक्री Chakri The Lord Who Carries the Wheel is called Sudarshana ( 995th name ) and रथाङ्गपाणि Rathangapani — 998th name — The Lord Who Keeps the Wheel called Sudarshana in his Hand.

The Milky Way has a central bulge as shown on the left of the picture below. Surprisingly, This bulge is the shape of a shankh (shell ) shown on the right.

The 993rd name of Vishnu is शङ्खभृत् Shankha-bhrit The Lord Who Carries and Blows the Shell Named ‘Panchajanya’ points to this.

The side view of the Milky Way resembles a mace as you can see in the below picture.

The 546th name of Vishnu is चक्रगदाधर Chakragadadhara The Lord Who Keeps the Holy Wheel and Holy Mace and the 997th name is गदाधर Gadadhara means the Lord Who has a Mace Called Kaumodaki

If we consider Vishnu as describing the Milky Way then all these connections start making sense and we can understand that VS are not mere random names.

Now, still, one vital part of the Milky Way is left — the black hole. Vishnu’s 196th name is पद्मनाभ Padmanabha- The Lord Having a Navel the Lotus. The navel of Vishnu is the black hole. A black hole can be compared to a navel because it is in the center just like the naval which is the center of our body. This is called the lotus.

Thus we found how to understand Vishnu as the Milky Way. We should be thankful to whoever observed, thought, and wrote this phenomenon thousands of years ago.