Vishṇu (Āditya)

Vishṇu, “the all-pervading one”

Vishṇu has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vishṇu.

Vishṇu is one of the twelve Ādityas, the twelve mūrtis (forms) in which Sūrya, the thousand-rayed Paramātmā, shows himself. The Brahma Purāṇa names him the ninth of these mūrtis, whose work is to destroy the enemies of the devas, and the Āditya who shines in the month of Caitra with twelve hundred rays. He is Sūrya in one of his forms, and is not Bhagavān Vishṇu, Nārāyaṇa, who has his own account.

The ninth mūrti of Sūrya

The munis ask who is the supreme deity of the devas and the pitṛs, and they are told: Āditya, who removes the darkness with his rays the moment he rises. He is without beginning or end, made of all the devas, the witness of all; he creates, sustains and withdraws all beings, and the world is born from him and dissolves into him. Brahmā, Vishṇu, Śiva and the other devatās are known through the words of śruti alone, but Sūrya is the deity seen before the eyes, the Pratyaksha-Nārāyaṇa. Though thousand-rayed and unmanifest, he is manifest through twelve mūrtis.

The twelve mūrtis, in the order the Purāṇa gives them, are Indra, Dhātā, Parjanya, Tvashṭā, Pūshā, Aryamā, Bhaga, Vivasvān, Vishṇu, Aṃśumān, Varuṇa and Mitra, and by them the Paramātmā pervades all the worlds. Of the ninth the Purāṇa says that it is the mūrti “Vishṇu”, which acts to destroy the enemies of the devas. Those who bow daily and read or hear of these twelve Ādityas shine in Sūrya-loka.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 30

The Āditya of Caitra

Brahmā tells the munis the names of Sūrya. Twelve are his common names, from Āditya and Savitṛ to Divākara and Ravi, and twelve are his special names, the names of the Ādityas: Vishṇu, Dhātā, Bhaga, Pūshā, Mitra, Indra, Varuṇa, Aryamā, Vivasvat, Aṃśumat, Tvashṭā and Parjanya. Vishṇu stands first among them. Month by month a different Āditya shines, and Vishṇu shines in Caitra with 1,200 rays; after him Aryamā shines in Vaiśākha with 1,300.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 31

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 30–31