Mahavishnu as the Antaryāmi

|| Om Namo Bhagavatē Vāsudēvāya | Shri Gurubhyō Namah ||

– Abhijith R. Shastry
Shastry.abhi@live.com

It is evident from Vaishnava Samprādaya that Maha Vishnu or Srimań Nārāyana is the supreme being who lives in the consciousness of every being and drives the knowledge behind every creation in this colossal multiverse. He is at the epicentre in a divine sleep, and his consort Lakshmi (Sri Devi) at his feet, hence forming the Purusha & Prakŕti duality. He is then adorned by his 8 wives (Ashta Mahishi’s) imagined as the 8 inner petals of the Mahāpadma. The bed of the flower being created from the body of Shesha and all his divine family members at sides waiting for his command – Mukhyaprāna, Brahma, Rudra, Garuda and all other devatha’s. Just imagining this make us realize that he is the ‘Sarvāntaryāmi‘.

He, being the driving force within all the Devatha’s, with each one driven by a different roopa of himself according to the appropriate ‘Tatva’, to perform assigned ‘Karma’. I have tried to create a modest listing of such Devatha’s along with the roopa of Vishnu within each of them. My sincere thanks to Chi. Anirudha Bhat, Kadandale, and few other renowned scholars for helping me with all relevant details and research.

*Note: Some of the deities orchestrate more than one Tatva, and hence, the Antaryāmi of that deity would be multiple. As these details are scattered across in Sookta’s and Samhita’s it would be difficult to collate for each deity in this article. Hence, the below listing is focussed at the most popular names of the Antaryāmi roopa that drives the deity.