Ramanisblog

Tag: Ananthasayanam

  • 51 Feet Rock Cut Largest Sleeping Vishnu Anantasayana, Saranga

    I posted an article,Photo Essay  on the nine sleeping  poses of Vishnu.

    Lord Vishnu does not sleep.

    His sleep is called Yoga Nidra (Sleeping posture i Yoga) or Ari Thuyil(Tamil–sleeping while aware of everything)

    The Snake Adisehsa is the coiled Cosmic energy in the Solar Plexus(Mooladhaara).

    The Ksheera Saagara is a representation of the Milky way Galaxy.

    Please read my Post Vishnu’s’ Conch and Discus in galaxies, filed under Hinduism/Astrophysics.

    This Yoga Nidra of Lord Vishnu is of Nine types.

    1.Vadabadra Sayanam, Srivilliputtur.Moolavar Image not available.

    I had written on the sleeping, floating Visnu in Budhanikantha Nepal.

    I have been under the impression that the Anathasyana form of Vishnu found in Srivilliputhur, Sri Rangam and Thiruvanathapuram are the largest, in that order

    I am wrong.

    There is a Rock Cut Anantha Sayana Vishnu in the Village Sarangi in Odisha.

    Anantashayi Vishnu, also known as Anantashayana Vishnu (both literally “sleeping on the serpent Shesha”), is a large open air rock-cut image of the Hindu god Vishnu, carved during the early 9th Century in the Saranga village, under the Parjang police station, in Dhenkanal district of Orissa, India. It is located on the left bank of the Brahmani River. It is the largest such exposed rock cut structure in the horizontal position measuring 15.4 metres (51 ft) in length, in the whole of India, while the largest standing image is of Gomateshwara in Southern India. It is a protected monument maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India, BhubaneswarCircle. Worship is still offered to the four armed reclining Vishnu.

    Ananthasayana Vishnu.image.jpg
    Ananthasayana Vishnu,Sarangi, Orissa. “Bishnu AnantaShayan, Saraang” by Nirmal Chandra Barik – Nirmal Chandra Barik. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bishnu_AnantaShayan,_Saraang.jpg#/media/File:Bishnu_AnantaShayan,_Saraang.jpg

    The Vishnu image, under the open sky, occupies an area measuring 15.4 metres (51 ft) in length and 7 metres (23 ft) in width with a thickness of 0.7 metres (2 ft 4 in). The image is of the Hindu god Vishnu in a reclining position (Anantashayana in Sanskrit, literally sleeping on the serpent Ananta). The image is carved out of natural rock of sandstone formation. He has four arms, holding a Chakra in the upper right hand, a Shankha in his upper left hand, a Gada and a symbolic lotus on its lower left hand. The hoods of the serpent Shesha (Ananta) covering the head of Vishnu.The Vishnu image has a sharp chin, distinctive nose and wears a crown on its head, called kiritamukuta (a tall conical crown, typically worn by Vishnu). A lotus design shown sprouting from his navel has the creator god Brahma, sitting in meditation. Another image in the same district also carved in sandstone in a reclining posture is in Khamkanaga Subdivision, in Angul district of 41.5 feet (12.6 m) length (as against the length of 15.4 metres (51 ft) image in Saranga village.The sculptor has imagined the river bank conceptually to represent the Kshirasagara (cosmic ocean) from which Brahma created the world. The shrine is regularly worshipped by local people. The Archaeological Survey of India is renovating this sculpture regularly and has kept it in a good condition. Floods in Brahmani River are the only threat to the image as this is built by sandstone in the river bed, which could erode.

    Location.

    The Vishnu image, located on the left bank of the river bed of the Brahmani River, is at an elevation of 200 feet (61 m). It is accessible by road over a distance of 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) from Saranga Village in Parajanga Tehsil of Dhenkanal district, 67 kilometres (42 mi) from Dhenkanal, 23 km from Angul and 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from Talcher.[1][4] It is also approached from theNational Highway 42 from Cuttack to Sambalpur, on branch road over distance of 3 km. The second natural rock-cut image in parent rock is at Bhimakand in Talcher subdivision of the Dhankal district.

    Citation.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anantashayana_Vishnu

    Related articles

  • Vishnu Ananthasayanam Cosmic Hibernation

    Rene Descartes ,the Rationalist Philosopher’s observation on Sleep and Wakefulness is interesting.

    He developed the system of doubt to arrive at certainty.

     

    Ranganatha Srirangam.jpg
    Narayana In Anantha sayanam,Sriranagam

    He starts disbelieving everything, the senses, the external world,scriptures,opinions and everything one can conceive of.

    I recommend reading his Books for explaining his thoughts, though interesting, will not come under the topic we are discussing.

    One sleeps and wakes up.

    Padmanabha in ananthasayanam.jpg
    Padmanabha in ananthasayanam,Thiruvanathapuram temple

    Descartes asks as to what determines the state of sleep and wakefulness.

    In sleep one dreams and on waking up finds that it is not true.

    What if what one perceives to be Sleep is wakefulness and what wakefulness is really a sleeping state?

    In sleep we find everything to be true at the time of dreaming and only on waking up we say we have dreamt.

    What if this is the other way round?

    Sometimes I dream that I write and on waking up I find it is untrue and that I have been dreaming.

    Now I am writing this post.

    How can I be certain now that this activity is not being done while asleep?

    This action of writing now may be a dream and I may wake up.

    This is a problem not solved by Philosophy.

    Hinduism describes four states of Being.

    Jagrat, the waking state.

    Swapna, the dreaming state,

    Sushupti, the deep dreamless state and

    Turiya, Pure Consciousness.

    In the last state everything is Pure consciousness and the dreamer or The Experiencer, one who experiences and The Experienced are One.

    One becomes the other.

    And Consciousness is not limited by Space and Time.

    Only when Space and Time are present, is the Consciousness becomes limited.

    The Universal Consciousness one of the Attributes of Reality in unbounded.

    Only when it is bound by Space and time, does it manifest as the world of names and Forms.

    In essence the world and the beings, both animate and inanimate are One.

    The differentiation occurs because of Space and Time.

    This is called by Henri Bergson as Elan Vital.

    Our Indian Philosophers call it Chit, one of the attributes of Brahman,Reality, the others being Sat(Being) and Ananda(Bliss)

    Purusha Sukta describes the evolution of the Cosmos.

    It describes the Universe in its evolution.

    It talks about movement and stillness.

    Motion and immobility are two things that are relative to each other.

    Purusha is the Universal primordial Principle while Narayana is the specific applied principle in action.

    He evolves into the world.

    NaarayanamMahaegyam viswaathmaanam Prayaanam..

    Naarayna paro Jyotiraathma naarayana para’

    He is the mover but He is Immobile.

    He evolves into the Universe , remains Himself.

    He evolves Consciousness into beings, making them aware, not what they are but what Narayana wants them to be, by His Maya, Illusion.

    In this sense he makes things ,people though Conscious yet not Really Conscious.

    He poses to be asleep, but not really sleeping.

    Narayana does not sleep.

    His sleep is Yoga Nidra, a state of Yoga when one is awake yet asleep.

    In our limited capacity all of us would have experienced this at some point of time.

    And this sleep wakefulness is not bound by either Space or Time as Pure Consciousness can not be bound by Time or Space for Brahman;it is Its attribute.

    Brahman, as Narayana represents this principle in His Ananthasayanam(Cosmic hibernation)

    One may note that we call Anantha Narayana and not Anantha Vishnu for Narayana and Vishnu are different aspects of Reality Brahman.

     

     

    Related articles