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Tirtha

path jaap

Vishnu Sahasranama Jaap

विष्णुसहस्रनामViṣṇusahasranāmaThe thousand names of Vishnu.

The thousand names of Vishnu from the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata, recited with tulsi archana on Ekadashi and Saturdays.

From
₹2,100
Duration
1 hr 15 min – 5 hr 30 min
Languages
en · hi · bn · ta · te · kn · ml
Performed as
At Your Home · At a Temple in India · Guided by Video
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Why this ritual

What the rite is for

The Vishnu Sahasranama is a list of a thousand names, set in a little over a hundred shlokas, and it comes from the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata. Bhishma, lying on the bed of arrows after the war, is asked by Yudhishthira which single praise is the highest and the least burdensome to keep; the thousand names are his answer. The stotra therefore opens not in a temple but at the end of a battlefield, which is one reason households turn to it in seasons of illness, of waiting, and of loss.

Recitation has a fixed shape. The purva bhaga sets the dhyana shlokas, the phalashruti and the Arjuna-Vasudeva verses close it, and between them the names run in unbroken sequence. Where the household keeps archana, a tulsi leaf is offered at each name, so the reading becomes a count of a thousand leaves. Ekadashi, Saturday and the month of Kartik are the customary occasions, and many families keep a single daily recitation as nitya path, which takes about forty-five minutes at an even pace.

Textual basis

Where it comes from

The stotra sits in the Anushasana Parva of the Mahabharata, and Adi Shankaracharya wrote a commentary on it — one of the few stotras he glossed word by word. Parasara Bhattar’s Bhagavad Guna Darpana gives the Sri Vaishnava reading of the same names. South Indian households recite it before the Sri Suktam on Fridays and after the Bhagavad Gita Dhyanam on Ekadashi; in Kerala it is sung in the Nama Ramayana style at temple sannidhis. North Indian paddhatis usually pair it with the Purusha Suktam. Where a Salagrama is kept in the house, the abhishek is done with the names rather than after them.

Vidhi

The rite, step by step

Timings are approximate and vary with the pandit's paddhati.

Samagri

What the vidhi calls for

And why each item is used.

  • Tulsi leaves

    1000 piece

    One leaf for each name in the archana. Leaves are picked before noon, never with the nails, and never on Ekadashi from the plant itself — Ekadashi leaves are gathered the previous evening.

  • Panchamrit

    500 ml

    Milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar, poured in that fixed order during the abhishek.

  • Yellow cloth

    1.5 metre

    Pitambara — the yellow associated with Vishnu. Spread under the murti and used to dry the Salagrama after the abhishek.

  • Conch

    1 piece

    The final rinse of the abhishek and the tirtha given afterwards both come from the conch.

  • Gopi chandan

    50 g

  • Saffron

    1 g

    Dissolved in a little milk and added to the chandan used for the tilak on the murti.

  • Yellow flowers

    1 bundle

  • Ingredients for kheer

    1 piece

    Rice, milk, sugar, cardamom and dry fruit. Cooked in the house on the morning of the path and offered with a tulsi leaf on top.

  • Cow ghee

    250 g

  • Camphor and dhoop

    1 bundle

  • Gangajal

    500 ml

    Included in the kit

  • Sahasranama pothi

    2 piece

    Purva bhaga, the names and the uttara bhaga printed in sequence, with the archana form set out separately.

Packages

What differs between tiers

Stated plainly: the counts, the number of pandits, and the time it takes.

  • Nitya Path

    One recitation of the thousand names with the purva and uttara bhaga.

    ₹2,100

    Duration
    1 hr 15 min
    Pandits
    1 pandit

    Included

    • Sankalp with your gotra and nakshatra
    • Panchamrit abhishek of the murti or Salagrama
    • One complete recitation of the thousand names
    • Naivedya of kheer with tulsi
    • Aarti and tirtha from the conch

    at home · in india · guided

  • Archana Path

    Most chosen

    Recitation followed by tulsi archana — a thousand leaves, one for each name.

    ₹5,100

    Duration
    2 hr 30 min
    Pandits
    2 pandits

    Included

    • Everything in Nitya Path
    • Tulsi archana with a thousand leaves counted beforehand
    • Purusha Suktam or Sri Suktam as your paddhati requires
    • Gopi chandan tilak and yellow vastra for the murti
    • Complete samagri delivered a day ahead

    at home · in india

  • Ekadash Avritti

    Eleven recitations by five reciters, closed with a Vishnu havan.

    ₹11,000

    Duration
    5 hr 30 min
    Pandits
    5 pandits

    Included

    • Everything in Archana Path
    • Eleven complete recitations across the sitting
    • Havan with ahutis on the names, and purnahuti
    • Tulsi vivah style shringar of the tulsi plant
    • Annadan for eleven brahmanas or a local kitchen

    at home · in india

Who performs it

Pandit requirement

A reciter who holds the stotra by heart, with clean Sanskrit sandhi across the compound names. For the archana a second pandit places the tulsi so the reciter never breaks sequence, and for the eleven-avritti package five reciters divide the count between them.

Questions

What families ask

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We will show you the auspicious windows for this rite, in your timezone and in India’s, and why each one was suggested.

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Traditional guidance, offered for reflection. Not medical, legal or financial advice.