Vishnu resting on Ananta-Shesha, with Lakshmi massaging his "lotus feet. For other meanings see Vishnu (disambiguation. Vishnu ( IAST viṣṇu Devanagari विष्णु (honorific Lakshmi or Mahalakshmi (pronunciation; Sanskrit: लक्ष्मी lakṣmī) is the Hindu Goddess of Wealth "

In Hindu (Vedic) tradition, Shesha (Śeṣa in IAST transliteration, Devanagari: शेष) is the king of all nagas, one of the primal beings of creation, and according to the Bhagavata Purana, an avatar of the Supreme God^[1] known as Sankarshan. A Hindu ( Devanagari: हिन्दू is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, a set of religious, Philosophical This article discusses the historical religious practices in the Vedic time period see Hinduism and Indian religions for details The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration ( IAST) is a popular Transliteration scheme that allows a lossless Romanization of Indic Nāga ( नाग, IAST: nāgá, Indonesian: naga, Javanese: nogo, Khmer: neak) is The Bhagavata Purana (also known as Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, or simply Bhāgavatam) is one of the Puranic texts of Hindu literature Avatar or Avatara (अवतार IAST Avatāra) is often inaccurately translated into English as incarnation In the Puranas, Shesha is said to hold all the planets of the Universe on his hoods and to constantly sing the glories of Vishnu from all his mouths. For other meanings see Purana (disambiguation. The Puranas ( Sanskrit: sa पुराण purāṇa, "of ancient times" The Universe is defined as everything that Physically Exists: the entirety of Space and Time, all forms of Matter, Energy For other meanings see Vishnu (disambiguation. Vishnu ( IAST viṣṇu Devanagari विष्णु (honorific He is sometimes referred to as "Ananta-Shesha" which means "Endless Shesha. "

Divine form

Shesha is generally depicted with a massive form that floats coiled in space, or on the universal ocean, to form the bed on which Vishnu lies. Sometimes he is shown as five-headed or seven-headed, but more commonly as a many hundred-headed serpent, sometimes with each head wearing an ornate crown. Serpent is a word of Latin origin (from serpens serpentis "something that creeps snake" that is commonly used in a specifically mythic or

He is closely associated with Vishnu. His name means "that which remains", from the Sanskrit root shiş, because when the world is destroyed at the end of the kalpa, Shesha remains as he is. Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical The root is the primary lexical unit of a Word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents A kalpa is a Sanskrit word meaning an Aeon, or a long period of time in Hindu (cf

Other details

Balarama, Lakshmana, and Nityananda Prabhu, are considered avataras of Shesha (or vice versa). Balarama (बलराम Balarāma) also named Baladeva, Baldau, Balabhadra and Halayudha, is the elder brother of the divine Lakshmana ( Sanskrit: लक्ष्मण IAST Lakṣmaṇa Malay: Laksmana Thai / Lao: Phra Lak was the brother and close companion Nityananda ( Bangla: শ্রী নিত্যানন্দ (b 1474 CE a Vaishnava saint is famous as a primary religious figure within the Gaudiya Patañjali is also considered an emanation or incarnation of Shesha and is iconographically depicted in naga form with naga canopy. Patañjali ( Devanāgarī पतञ्जलि (fl 150 BCE or 2nd c Emanationism is Platonic monism and an idea in the Cosmology or Cosmogony of certain religious or philosophical systems Incarnation which literally means embodied in flesh, refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature (generally a human who is the

In a story from the Puranas, Shesha loosens Mount Mandara, to enable it to be used in the churning of the ocean by the devas and asuras. For other meanings see Purana (disambiguation. The Puranas ( Sanskrit: sa पुराण purāṇa, "of ancient times" Overview Mount Mandaranchal or Meru (मंदर is a mountain which appears in the Samudra manthan episode in the Hindu Puranas Deva (देव in Devanagari script pronounced as /'d̪evə/ is the Sanskrit word for "god Deity " In Hinduism In Hinduism, the Asura ( Sanskrit: असुर are a group of power-seeking deities sometimes referred to as Demons or sinful

According to the Mahabharata (Adi Parva), his father was Kashyapa and his mother Kadru. This article is about the Hindu sage Kashyapa or Kasyapa See also Kassapa Buddha for information on the ancient buddha and Mahakasyapa information on the disciple In the mythology of India Kadru (Kadrū in IAST notation Devanagari: कद्रू is usually the daughter of Daksha, wife of Kashyapa,

The city of Thiruvananthapuram is named after him as the "City of Lord Ananta". Thiruvananthapuram ( Malayalam: തിരുവനന്തപുരം Tiruvanantapuraṁ) also known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the

Quotations

A statue at Vijayanagara, showing Vishnu Narasimha seated on the coils of Shesha, with seven heads of Shesha forming a canopy. Vijayanagara (ವಿಜಯನಗರ is in Bellary District, northern Karnataka. Narasimha ( IAST Narasiṃha Sanskrit नरसिंह (other spellings are Narasingh, Narasinga) is an Avatara of Vishnu

• "The foremost manifestation of Krishna is Sankarshana, who is known as Ananta. He is the origin of all incarnations within this material world. Previous to the appearance of Lord Krishna, this original Sankarshana will appear as Baladeva, just to please the Supreme Lord Krishna in His transcendental pastimes. Krishna (कृष्ण in Devanagari kṛṣṇa in IAST, ˈkr̩ʂɳə in classical Sanskrit is a deity worshiped across many traditions of Hinduism Balarama (बलराम Balarāma) also named Baladeva, Baldau, Balabhadra and Halayudha, is the elder brother of the divine " (Srimad Bhagavatam 10. The Bhagavata Purana (also known as Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, or simply Bhāgavatam) is one of the Puranic texts of Hindu literature 1. 24)

• "That Ananta Sesha is the devotee incarnation of Godhead. He knows nothing but service to Lord Krishna. " (Sri Chaitanya Caritamrita Adi-lila 5. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (also transliterated Caitanya, IAST caitanya mahāprabhu) ( Bengali চৈতন্য মহাপ্রভূ (1486 - 120)

• "My dear King, approximately 240,000 miles beneath the planet Patala lives another incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the expansion of Lord Vishnu known as Lord Ananta or Lord Sankarshana. He is always in the transcendental position, but because He is worshiped by Lord Siva, the deity of tamo-guna or darkness, He is sometimes called Tamasi. In Religion, transcendence is a condition or state of being that surpasses physical existence and in one form is also independent of it Shiva:(pronunciation; Sanskrit: शिव Śiva, lit "Auspicious one" One of the Trimurtis Shiva is the supreme God in the Shaiva Lord Ananta is the predominating Deity of the material mode of ignorance as well as the false ego of all conditioned souls. The soul, according to many religious and philosophical beliefs is the self-awareness, or Consciousness, unique to a particular living When a conditioned living being thinks, 'I am the enjoyer, and this world is meant to be enjoyed by me,' this conception of life is dictated to him by Sankarshana. Thus the mundane conditioned soul thinks himself the Supreme Lord. " (Srimad Bhagavatam 5. The Bhagavata Purana (also known as Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, or simply Bhāgavatam) is one of the Puranic texts of Hindu literature 25. 1)

• "Sri Anantadeva has thousands of faces and is fully independent. Always ready to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He waits upon Him constantly. Sankarshana is the first expansion of Vasudeva, and because He appears by His own will, He is called svarat, fully independent. He is therefore infinite and transcendental to all limits of time and space. Infinity (symbolically represented with ∞) comes from the Latin infinitas or "unboundedness For other uses see Time (disambiguation Time is a component of a measuring system used to sequence events to compare the durations of Space is the extent within which Matter is physically extended and objects and Events have positions relative to one another He Himself appears as the thousand-headed Sesha. " (Srila Jiva Gosvami, in his Krishna-sandarbha)

• "Sankarshana of the quadruple form descends with Lord Rama as Lakshmana. Jiva Goswami (15??-1618 CEis one of the most prolific and important writers from the Gaudiya Vaishnava school of Hinduism, producing a great number of philosophical Rama ( IAST: rāma Devanāgarī: राम Khmer: Phreah Ream Thai: Phra Ram Lao: Phra Lam Tagalog: Lakshmana ( Sanskrit: लक्ष्मण IAST Lakṣmaṇa Malay: Laksmana Thai / Lao: Phra Lak was the brother and close companion When Lord Rama disappears, Sesha again separates Himself from the personality of Lakshmana. Sesha then returns to His own abode in the Patala regions, and Lakshmana returns to His abode in Vaikuntha. Vaikunta (Sanskrit वैकुण्ठम् or Paramapadham is the abode of Lord Vishnu. " (A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada)

• In the Bhagavad-Gita, when in the middle of the battlefied Kurukshetra, Krishna explaining his omnipresence, says: "Of Nagas, I am Ananta" indicating the importance of Ananta Shesha. Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada ( Sanskrit:, abhaya-caraṇāravinda bhakti-vedānta svāmī prabhupāda, Bangla: অভয়চরনাবিন্দ Kurukshetra ( Hindi: कुरुक्षेत्र is the name of a City in Kurukshetra District of the Indian state of Haryana हरियाणा ^[2]

Other names

• Sheshanaga (Sesha the serpent)
• Adisesha (the first Sesha)
• Anantasesha (Endless Sesha)
• Ananta (endless/infinite).
• Nagashayana
• Alternative spelling: Sesa, Sesha, Śeṣa.

See also

• Vedas
• Puranas
• Krishna
• Ancient India
• Ouroboros

Footnotes

1. ^ Bhag-P 5.25.1
2. ^ Bhagavad Gita 10.29 "Of the many-hooded Nagas I am Ananta"

External links

• The Glories of Lord Ananta (from Srimad Bhagavatam)
• Ananta Sesha - The Legendary Serpent
• Maha-Vishnu & Ananta Sesha
• Image of ancient Vishnu and Sesha deity form
• Official Website of His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari, disciple of His Holiness A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada