Vishnu can be seen on the left and right of her garment. I hate to give it a liturgical name, since it is blatantly pagan - not even subtle. The yellow hat is hideous, but besides the point. |
When the symbol is abstract, the four arms are raised without the customary symbols. See below. |
Vishnu is heavenly blue. The lower arms hold a mace weapon and a lotus flower. The upper arms hold a disk weapon and a conch shell. |
In almost all Hindu denominations, Vishnu is either worshipped directly or in the form of his ten avatars, the most famous of whom are Rama and Krishna.[11] The Puranabharti, an ancient text, describes these as the dashavatara, or the ten avatars of Vishnu. Among the ten described, nine have occurred in the past and one will take place in the future, at the end of Kali Yuga, (the fourth and final stage in the cycle of yugas that the world goes through). These incarnations take place in all Yugas in cosmic scales; the avatars and their stories show that gods are indeed unimaginable, unthinkable and inconceivable. TheBhagavad Gita mentions their purpose as being to rejuvenate dharma,[12] to vanquish those negative forces of evil that threaten dharma and also to display His divine nature in front of fallen souls.
The Trimurti (three forms) is a concept in Hinduism "in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified by the forms of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the maintainer or preserver, and Shiva the destroyer or transformer."[13][14] These three deities have also been called "the Hindu triad"[15] or the "Great Trinity",[16] all having the same meaning of three in One. Of the three members of the Trimurti, the Bhagavata Purana, which espouses the Vaishnavite viewpoint, claims that the greatest benefit can be had from worshipping Vishnu.[17] Vishnu engages in the creation of 14 worlds within the universe as Brahma when he deliberately accepts rajas guna. Vishnu sustains, maintains and preserves the universe as Vishnu when he accepts sattva guna and annihilates the universe at the end of maha-kalpa as Shiva or Rudra when he accepts tamas guna.[18][19][20] According to this reference, the holy Trimurti is not different from Vishnu.
ELCA PB Mark Hanson and Episcopal PB Kate Schori work together. WELS and LCMS work with ELCA, but they are "confessional" and becoming even more confessional, according Mark Schroeder. |