People generally recite the names to fulfill their desires or ward off evil influences.
The ancient custom, still observed in the villages, especially in South India, is to repeat each name of the Sahasranama, offering Tulsi petals or any available flowers of the season before the idol of Vishnu in his various incarnations of Rama or Krishna. Miraculous virtues are attributed to it and are assured by the author Vyasa himself. It is held in great veneration all over India, and is recited by people across all classes of society. The Vishnu Sahasranama is considered as important as the Vishnu Puran, and contains verses, and is extracted from the Anushasaka Parva of the Mahabharata in Chapter 1 of the epic in a dialogue between Bhishma and Yudhishtara. Sahasranama Stotras to many deities are found scattered throughout the Puranic literature, and the most important of these are the Sahasranamas of Devi, Vishnu and Shiva. The Vishnu Sahasranma Stotras are prayers addressed to Vishnu and invoke him with a thousand names. He is the preserver of life and the existence itself. He represents the maintenance force that keeps creation going. Of these, except for 17 in the start and 22 slokas in the end, all slokas detail the names of Vishnu. Stotram in hindi pdf, download vishnu sahasranamam in hindi,vishnu.
