Vishnu Sahasranamam

Namaste,

I bought a prayer book published by Bhakti Marga, the Vishwananda guru sect from Germany. Although I found Vishwananda‘s other books very shallow, the prayer book is actually quite good. It contains prayers to various deities in transcription of Sanskrit to English as well as the English translations. My other prayer book was from a Gaudiya Vaishnava group and thus, contained Gaudiya Vaishnava prayers only.

From my new prayer book, I picked out the Vishnu Sahasranamam. This is the slowest version I could find:


If somebody has an even slower version, don‘t hesitate to share it with me.

Pranam Sirona!

The Vishnu Sahasranamam is a crown jewel of truths. Sing it and you will feel the Supreme Lord in your heart!

Vishnu Sahasranamam was not written by Swami Vishwananda but by Sri Veda Vyasa in the itihasa Mahabharata. After the Mahabharata war, Yudhishthira asked Bhisma in the presence of Lord Krishna who is the most worshippable Lord. Bhisma told him to chant the Vishnu Sahasranamam, the Thousand Names of the Supreme Lord Narayana

I only know of videos sung in a fast metre, so my apologies

Thanks for your friendly comment, @Terese . I hope I didn't create the impression I believed Vishwananda had written the Vishnu Sahasranamam himself, or did ? Before reading books by Vishwananda I studied the Srimad Bhagavatam commentary by Prabhupada, which took months to do. The difference between Prabhupada and Vishwananda is that for Prabhupada, Krishna is the Supreme, whereas for Vishwananda, Lord Narayana is the highest. Moreover, Prabhupada taught to worship Krishna only, while Vishwananda teaches the worship of several deities.

Sirona said:

Thanks for your friendly comment, @Terese . I hope I didn't create the impression I believed Vishwananda had written the Vishnu Sahasranamam himself, or did ? Before reading books by Vishwananda I studied the Srimad Bhagavatam commentary by Prabhupada, which took months to do. The difference between Prabhupada and Vishwananda is that for Prabhupada, Krishna is the Supreme, whereas for Vishwananda, Lord Narayana is the highest. Moreover, Prabhupada taught to worship Krishna only, while Vishwananda teaches the worship of several deities.

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Worshipping Krishna is worshipping Narayana and all his avataras. Shower Sriman Narayana with glories and you shower his avataras too

Sirona said:

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Can't here it with my ears because of my hearing problem, but heard it in my mind. It will be difficult to find something better than this.

There are phone apps and recordings of it on Youtube that can be chanted along with. I've never even been able to follow along when it's chanted in temple. It takes about 1/2 hour to complete. Many people learned it as children and chant it from memory. There was a group of children of various ages at temple one time that chanted it in complete unison, not stopping or missing a single syllable. It was impressive.

VIshNuSahasranAma , technically sahastranAma is an ocean of pure divine nectar.

[A more picturusque version of] this with VishNu svayaM is my staple. If I am not the one chanting or reading, I have to hear it from M. S. Subalakshmi. She is no more, but her divine voice will always stay with us, and is the most commonly followed tune in many temples too:

Here is a slowed down version with lyrics:


Here are a few sources of excellent VishNusahasranAma meaning-translation / commentary:
1. Adi ShankarAchArya BhAshya (commentary) on VishNusahasranAma
2.Swami KrishNAnanda's translation - nice PDF to keep

@Sirona , thank you so much for starting this thread, but a warning - don't get me started on VishNusahasranAma

sa shankha chakraM sa-kireeTakunDalaM |
sa-peeta vastraM saraseeruhekshaNaM |
sahARa vakshasthala shobhi kaustubhaM |
namAmi VishNuM shirasA chaturbhujaM ||

chhAyAyAM pArijAtasya hema siMhAsano pari |
AseenamAmbuda shyAmaM AyatAkshaM alankrutaM |
chandrAnanaM chaturbAhuM Shrivatsa ankita vakshasaM |
rukmiNi satyabhAmAbhyAm sahitaM KRushNaM Ashrayet ||

~ ~