Vishnu Sahasranama - PDFs in English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Telugu

The Sri Vishnu Sahasranama in English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam, as a pdf download.

PDF Downloads

English
Sanskrit & Hindi (from gitapress)
Telugu
Tamil
Malayalam

Book Details

English
Translated by R. Ananthakrishna Sastry
Theosophical Publishing House, 1927

Telugu
Translated by Pandu Ranga Rao
T.T.D. Tirupati

About the Sri Vishnu Sahasranam

Of the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, Vishnu embodies the energy that preserves or sustains creation. He represents the maintenance force that keeps creation going. He is the preserver of life and the existence itself. The Vishnu Sahasranma Stotras are prayers addressed to Vishnu and invoke him with a thousand names. Sahasranama Stotras to many deities are found scattered throughout the Puranic literature, and the most important of these are the Sahasranamas of Devi, Vishnu and Shiva.

The Vishnu Sahasranama is considered as important as the Vishnu Puran, and contains 142 verses, and is extracted from the Anushasaka Parva of the Mahabharata in Chapter 1 of the epic in a dialogue between Bhishma and Yudhishtara. It is held in great veneration all over India, and is recited by people across all classes of society. Miraculous virtues are attributed to it and are assured by the author Vyasa himself.

The ancient custom, still observed in the villages, especially in South India, is to repeat each name of the Sahasranama, offering Tulsi petals or any available flowers of the season before the idol of Vishnu in his various incarnations of Rama or Krishna. People generally recite the names to fulfill their desires or ward off evil influences. Many people also recite teh names while sitting before the idol, and keeping a plate of bhasma or vibhuti or sacred ash with them. merely repeat the whole book sitting before the idol with Bhasma (sacred ashes) in a plate by their side, which is afterwards distributed among the village people.