Vishnu is worshipped alone, with his consort Laxmi, or in one of his many incarnations. Garuda, the mythical half-man, half-bird, is his vehicle. Look for sculptures of Garuda kneeling in worship before Vishnu in front of a Narayan temple. Most often Garuda is perched on a column, but is sometimes found on the ground.
Snakes often appear on images of Garuda, and of course, there is a reason for this. It seems that Garuda’s mother Vinata was imprisoned by his stepmother Kudru. He turned to his stepbrothers for help. The stepbrothers were snakes, or nagas. These fellows demanded a price, of course: amrita (nectar) in return for helping Garuda.
So Garuda had to fly to the kingdom of the god Indra and kill the guard who protected the nectar. On the way back Garuda met Vishnu and agreed to be his carrier. But Garuda was in such a hurry to start his new job that he set down the nectar pot on the ground at his stepbrothers’ home and flew off. The nagas set Garuda’s mother free but went off to clean themselves before drinking the nectar. Meanwhile, Indra flew down and retrieved his nectar. The snakes had to make do with the few drops that had spilled on the ground, but while licking the nectar from the grass, their tongues were split by the grass blades.
The Purans tell of the time when Vishnu assumed the form of a dwarf–a vaman–and reclaimed the earth from the demons. He dressed as a Brahmin and requested Bali, the demon-king, to give him some land on which he could meditate: a piece of land which he could cover in three strides. Bali did not want to antagonize a Brahmin and thought that a piece of land the size of the dwarf’s three strides would not be very big, so he agreed to the request. But Vishnu began to grow larger and larger. As a giant he was able to encircle the earth with his first step and took the heavens with his second. After that, there was no more room for him to walk on, so he stepped on Bali’s head, thereby pushing it underground. The demon has remained there ever since. One of the earliest dated sculptures in the Valley, the Vishnu Trivikrama, depicts this event. The bas relief stele, dated AD 467, is one of the many masterpieces of stone sculpture on display at the National Museum Art Gallery.
In addition to vaman, the Brahmin dwarf, Vishnu has other incarnations. He is the fish Matsya, Varaha the boar, and Kurma the tortoise. As Ram, the hero of the epic Ramayana, he always fights for the dharma. He appears again as a Brahmin in the form of Parasurama-this time a militant fellow armed with a battle axe and helping his fellow high-caste friends fight the military caste. Among the Hindus, Buddha is believed to be an incarnation of Vishnu.
Krishna, the Mahabharat’s hero — soldier. philosopher, lover and general man about town, is also known to be an incarnation of Vishnu. He is especially popular among the Gopinis, the girls whose job is to take care of cows. You could say he’s something like a role model for them because he is the great keeper of cows. One of his names is Gopal, protector of cows.
Krishna also has something in common with the Pied Piper of fairy tale fame: he is a magic flute player. And those dreamy-eyed Gopinis become restless and run outside whenever they hear Lord Krishna playing his flute. What a guy! Just by playing a tune on his flute Krishna is able to put his listeners in a trance.
The modern-day incarnation of Vishnu is none other than the king of Nepal.
The Malla kings established the custom of being considered incarnations of Vishnu.
This carried on through the Shah dynasty that now rules Nepal. In addition to
being an incarnation of Vishnu, King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is the head
of the only kingdom in the world that is officially considered a Hindu kingdom.