Visnu: Sustainer of Endless Lotus Cycles - Part One - Hinduism | On Paradise Earth

Visnu is best known in Hindu mythology as a Creator-god that descends to earth in a variety of animal and human forms to interact with his human devotees during time-cycles. The first of all of Vishnu’s descents (avatars) is called the padma-avatara: ‘lotus-descent.’ In this tale Visnu discovers one of his countless forms emerging from a lotus blossom that has ascended from the Creator’s navel of immortality. In fact, both Brahma and Vishnu discover each other at the dawn of creation and recognize three entities that represent the co-essence of one another: Brahma as the Creator, Vishnu the Sustainer, and Siva the destroyer of the cosmos. All of the lotus metaphors described in this tale (floral pillars, serpent-sourced golden wombs, navels of immortality, etc.) were originally Vedic allusions to the Aryan plant of the gods: Soma.