The Vishnu Sahasranama — the "thousand names of Vishnu" — is a litany drawn from the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata. As the great warrior Bhishma lay on his bed of arrows at the close of the war, Yudhishthira asked him the questions that outlast every battle: Who is the one refuge of all beings? By praising whom does a person cross sorrow? Bhishma's answer was this garland of a thousand names, each one a facet of the divine — the sustainer, the witness, the friend, the light behind the light.
What it is
1,000 names of Vishnu woven into 108 shlokas, framed by a meditation (dhyanam) and a closing on its fruits (phalasruti).
Why it endures
Each name is a contemplation. To recite them is to turn the mind, slowly, toward stillness, gratitude, and a sense of the whole.
How to approach it
Traditionally chanted on Fridays or Ekadashi, but there are no rules that matter more than attention. Read a line; let it settle.
Dhyānam · The Meditation
Verses of contemplation, recited before the names begin.
śuklāmbaradharaṃ viṣṇuṃ śaśivarṇaṃ caturbhujam · prasannavadanaṃ dhyāyet sarvavighnopaśāntaye
Robed in white, all-pervading, moon-hued, four-armed, his face serene — on him we meditate, that every obstacle may be stilled.
śāntākāraṃ bhujagaśayanaṃ padmanābhaṃ sureśaṃ · viśvādhāraṃ gaganasadṛśaṃ meghavarṇaṃ śubhāṅgam · lakṣmīkāntaṃ kamalanayanaṃ yogibhirdhyānagamyaṃ · vande viṣṇuṃ bhavabhayaharaṃ sarvalokaikanātham
Peace itself in form, resting on the serpent, lotus-naveled, lord of the gods; support of the universe, vast as the sky, cloud-dark, of beautiful limbs; beloved of Lakshmi, lotus-eyed, reached by yogis in meditation — I bow to Vishnu, remover of the fear of existence, the one lord of all the worlds.
The Thousand Names
108 shlokas in transliteration, each with a rendering of its sense. The verses are the traditional Sanskrit; the English lines are an interpretive summary, not a literal word-for-word gloss.
iti śrī viṣṇoḥ sahasranāma stotraṃ sampūrṇam
Thus concludes the hymn of the thousand names of Vishnu. The tradition promises that whoever hears or recites these names with devotion is freed from fear and sorrow — but the deeper fruit is simpler: a quieter, more grateful mind.
Transliteration follows the traditional stotram. English renderings are my own interpretive summaries, offered for reflection rather than as scholarly translation.