Vishnu
Vishnu Gayatri
ॐ नारायणाय विद्महे वासुदेवाय धीमहि । तन्नो विष्णुः प्रचोदयात् ॥
Simple reading
Om naa-raa-ya-naa-ya vid-ma-he, vaa-su-de-vaa-ya dhee-ma-hi, tan-no vish-nuh pra-cho-da-yaat
Oṁ nārāyaṇāya vidmahe vāsudevāya dhīmahi, tanno viṣṇuḥ pracodayāt
About this mantra
The Gayatri of Vishnu, one of the Gayatri-form meditations of the Mahanarayana Upanishad, which set a deity's names into the Savitri Gayatri's three-part mould: we know, we meditate, may he impel.
Meaning
We know Narayana; we meditate on Vasudeva; may Vishnu impel us. Three names, three motions: the refuge of all (Narayana), the indweller of all (Vasudeva), and the all-pervader (Vishnu) asked to move the very mind that meditates. The prayer's logic: what pervades all things already pervades the intellect; let it act there.
Learn it by heart
Say the first line until it comes without reading, then add the next line and say both, until the whole mantra comes on its own.
Line 1 of 2
ॐ नारायणाय विद्महे वासुदेवाय धीमहि ।
Oṁ nārāyaṇāya vidmahe vāsudevāya dhīmahi, tanno viṣṇuḥ pracodayāt
0not said yet
Aim for eleven before the next line. Move on when the line comes without reading.
Progress stays on this device.
When to recite it
For steady Vishnu sadhana: Thursday practice, Ekadashi vigils, and before Satyanarayana katha; a practitioner's mantra more than an occasional one.
Word by word
- नारायणाय विद्महेnārāyaṇāya vidmahe
- we know Narayana
- वासुदेवाय धीमहिvāsudevāya dhīmahi
- we meditate on Vasudeva
- तन्नो विष्णुः प्रचोदयात्tanno viṣṇuḥ pracodayāt
- may Vishnu inspire us
Source: Taittirīya Āraṇyaka 10 (Mahānārāyaṇa Upaniṣad)