For Hindus, Vishnu is God who inspires man to discover humanity by engaging with the world. Artists have visualized him with as curlyhaired, dark complexioned man with a smile on his lips and a sparkle in his eyes. Draped in yellow silk, garlanded with forest flowers, bedecked with dolphinshaped earrings, anointed with sandal paste, he reclines on a thousandhooded serpent that floats on the ocean of milk and rides a golden hawk bearing in his arms a conchshell, a wheel, a mace and a lotus. Poets say that when he is awake, the world takes shape; when he is asleep, the world ceases to be. Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, follows him wherever he goes. To him is made offerings of rich creamy butter. Sometimes, the upright Ram, he is worshipped across India as Balaji, Shreenathji, Jagannath, Ranganath and Badrinath. Locked in the stories, symbols and rituals of Vishnu is the wisdom of the ancestors, transmitted over hundreds of years. This book attempts to unlock seven secrets that are relevant even in modern times.
