Vishnu

Vishnu is depicted with blue skin (representing the infinite, like the sky and ocean), four arms holding a conch shell (Panchajanya — the primordial sound), a discus (Sudarshana Chakra — the weapon that destroys ignorance), a mace (Kaumodaki — cosmic power), and a lotus (purity and creation) (Vishnu Purana 1.22). Between cosmic ages, he sleeps on the thousand-headed serpent Shesha (also called Ananta, “the infinite”), floating on the Kshira Sagara — the cosmic ocean of milk (Bhagavata Purana 2.10). When he wakes, a new creation begins; from his navel grows a lotus from which Brahma emerges to create the world.

Vishnu’s defining role is the avatar — divine descent into the world in physical form when evil rises beyond humanity’s ability to resist. “Whenever dharma declines and adharma prevails, I manifest myself. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked, and for the establishment of dharma, I appear in every age” (Bhagavad Gita 4.7-8). This is perhaps the most direct parallel to the Christian doctrine of Incarnation: God takes on flesh to save a world that cannot save itself. In Vaishnavism, Vishnu is not merely one god among many — he IS the supreme Brahman who manifests as all other deities.