Hymn to Viṣṇu
Rigveda I.156 is a sūkta (hymn of praise) addressed to Viṣṇu, the wide-striding god whose cosmic strides establish the three realms. It is one of the 1,028 hymns of the Rigveda organized within Maṇḍala 1, the first of ten books. The ṛṣi (seer) to whom this hymn is attributed and its precise liturgical context are recorded in the traditional Śākalya Anukramaṇī.
The Rigveda is the oldest of the four Vedas and one of the oldest surviving religious texts in the world, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Indus-Sarasvatī region. Its hymns were preserved through oral transmission across millennia before being committed to writing. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
O Viṣṇu! The pervader of all things! Thou art everywhere, in all places, at all times. Thy presence fileth the universe. There is no corner so remote, no darkness so deep, that thou art not there.
Thou art within the stone, though the stone knoweth it not. Thou art within the plant, causing it to grow and reach toward the light. Thou art within the animal, giving it life and motion. Thou art within man, dwelling as the innermost self, the eternal witness.
O wide-strider! Every step thou takest encompasseth vast distances. With one stride thou passest beyond the reach of the mightiest mountains. With another stride thou travellest further than the eye can see, further than the mind can conceive.
Yet thou art also intimately close. Thou dwellest in the breath that entereth and leaveth the nostrils. Thou residest in the beating of the heart. Thou art present in the blinking of the eye, in the turning of the head.
How can one so vast be so intimate? How can the infinite be found in the finite? This is thy mystery, O Viṣṇu! This is the paradox that confoundeth all wisdom—that thou art both boundlessly great and infinitesimally small, both utterly transcendent and completely imminent.
The sages who meditate upon thee sometimes perceive thy vastness and are overwhelmed. The cosmos appears within thy form, the stars are thy hairs, the oceans are thy sweat. At such moments they understand thy infinite greatness.
Yet in the next moment they perceive thy closeness, and they know thee as the life within their own body, the consciousness looking out through their own eyes. Then they understand thee as intimately as they understand themselves.
O Viṣṇu! Help us to perceive both thy aspects! Grant us the knowledge that thou art the source of all, the sustainer of all, the goal toward which all things move! Let us offer thee our worship and our devotion!
Colophon
Rigveda I.156 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, the version that has been transmitted and is considered canonical in the mainstream tradition. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE; this hymn addresses Viṣṇu, the wide-striding god whose cosmic strides establish the three realms. This is a Good Works Translation produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, translated independently from the Sanskrit. Reference translations consulted during original translation session to be documented during Kshatriya Blood Rule audit.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: ṛgveda I.156
bhavā mitro na śevyo ghṛtāsutir vibhūtadyumna evayā u saprathāḥ |
adhā te viṣṇo viduṣā cid ardhyaḥ stomo yajñaś ca rādhyo haviṣmatā || 1 ||
yaḥ pūrvyāya vedhase navīyase sumajjānaye viṣṇave dadāśati |
yo jātam asya mahato mahi bravat sed u śravobhir yujyaṁ cid abhy asat || 2 ||
tam u stotāraḥ pūrvyaṁ yathā vida ṛtasya garbhaṁ januṣā pipartana |
āsya jānanto nāma cid vivaktana mahas te viṣṇo sumatim bhajāmahe || 3 ||
tam asya rājā varuṇas tam aśvinā kratuṁ sacanta mārutasya vedhasaḥ |
dādhāra dakṣam uttamam aharvidaṁ vrajaṁ ca viṣṇuḥ sakhivām̐ aporṇute || 4 ||
ā yo vivāya sacathāya daivya indrāya viṣṇuḥ sukṛte sukṛttaraḥ |
vedhā ajinvat triṣadhastha āryam ṛtasya bhāge yajamānam ābhajat || 5 ||
Source Colophon
Sanskrit text of the Rigveda, Śākala recension. The standard scholarly edition is the Bombay Oriental (Vishva Bandhu, 5 vols., 1963–66). IAST transliteration available from GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages) and Vedaweb (University of Cologne). Both sources are open access. IAST transliteration from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
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