Today in Hinduism, Narayana might be one of the popular names
of Vishnu. The term Narayana can be traced back to the Vedas. There is a deep
symbolic meaning attached to the term. Nara means the first being; nara also
means water.
As per Satapatha Brahmana, the supreme soul, the
self-existent Lord who is referred as Prajapati created waters and deposited in
them a seed which became the golden egg – Hiranyagarbha or Brahmanda.
Prajapati
was himself born as Brahma, the progenitor of all the worlds.
As water was his first abode(ayana), he was called Narayana
or ‘One who rests in water’.