The stride of Vishṇu…
Destiny matured up in certainty of time,
Like the fruit of joy that hangs from the tree of work;
The foreboding mind of the rock got stirred
And the assuring flame gathered speed in its core;
The dream saw the breaking of orange-gold dawn,
The stride of Vishṇu past Death’s long distances;
The curiosity with which the soul had plunged
Into darkness’s self is ablaze to its splendour.
29 November 2024
Featured Image: Vishnu in Meenākshi Temple Madurai
Sri Aurobindo writes in his Secret of the Veda:
For the formations of Brahmanaspati’s word, for the actions of Rudra’s force Vishnu supplies the necessary static elements,—Space, the ordered movements of the worlds, the ascending levels, the highest goal. He has taken three strides and in the space created by the three strides has established all the worlds. In these worlds he the all-pervading dwells and gives less or greater room to the action and movements of the gods. …
In this hymn [Rig Veda I.154] of Dirghatamas Auchathya to the all-pervading Vishnu it is his significant activity, it is the greatness of Vishnu’s three strides that is celebrated. We must dismiss from our minds the ideas proper to the later mythology. … The three strides of Vishnu in the Veda are clearly defined by Dirghatamas as earth, heaven and the triple principle, tridhātu. It is this triple principle beyond Heaven or superimposed upon it as its highest level, nākasya pṛṣṭhe, which is the supreme stride or supreme seat of the all-pervading deity.
Vishnu In those three strides has measured out, he has formed in all their extension the earthly worlds; for in the Vedic idea the material world which we inhabit is only one of several steps leading to and supporting the vital and mental worlds beyond. In those strides he supports upon the earth and mid-world,—the earth the material, the mid-world the vital realms of Vayu, Lord of the dynamic Life-principle,—the triple heaven and its three luminous summits, trīṇi rocanā. These heavens the Rishi describes as the higher seat of the fulfilling. Earth, the mid-world and heaven are the triple place of the conscious being’s progressive self-fulfilling, triṣadhastha, earth the lower seat, the vital world the middle, heaven the higher. All these are contained in the threefold movement of Vishnu.
विष्णोर्नु कं वीर्याणि प्र वोचं यः पार्थिवानि विममे रजांसि
यो अस्कभायदुत्तरं सधस्थं विचकमाणस्त्रेधोरुगायः ॥१॥
1) Of Vishnu now I declare the mighty works, who has measured out the earthly worlds and that higher seat of our self-accomplishing he supports, he the wide-moving, in the threefold steps of his universal movement. [Rig Veda I.154.1]
Wāmanāvatār by Nandala Bose
The Winds of Wonder 
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