Vishnu is among the many names of the Supreme One celebrated in the Vishnu Sahasranamam. It refers to the all-pervasiveness of the Lord, said M.A. Venkatakrishnan in a discourse. The word Vishnu comes from the root ‘vish,’ which means to pervade. Although we customarily refer to the Matsya avatara as the first of the Lord’s avataras, actually it is His avatara as Vishnu that should be considered the first. The Lord is called SahishNuh. This means He who forgives sins of those who worship Him. These sins include ones already committed, those about to be committed, sins committed knowingly and unknowingly, and the sin of abusing Him and His devotees.
Another name of the Lord in the Sahasranama is JagadAdijah. This indicates His place as One of the Trinity — the three primary deities, the other two being Brahma and Rudra. The Lord is anaghah, says the Sahasranama. This means He is blemishless and without doshas. He is present inside every jivatma. But He does not have the experiences of the jivatma. A prisoner is in prison as punishment for some crime he committed. But the jailer is also in prison to administer it. Does this mean the jailer and the prisoner both have the same status in prison? The experience of the jail as a punishment is only for the prisoner, not for the officer in charge. Likewise, the jivatma experiences joy and sorrow, due to its past karma. But the Lord, who is present in all jivtamas, is untouched by karma and does not experience what the jivatma does.
When the Lord takes avataras, He remains His same blemishless self. He chooses the time of His appearance and the form He assumes. But every jivatma is born according to its karma and has experiences according to its karma.