SRI SRINIVASA MAHATMYAM
INTRODUCTION
Lord Venkateswara also known by various
names as Srinivasa, Balaji, Venkatachalapati
and Govinda is a divine form of Lord Vishnu. Lord Venkateswara
is the main deity of Tirumala
Venkateswara Temple situated
in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. Lakhs of devotees are
visiting daily to the Tirumala Temple to have a glimpse of their dear god, and
to get his blessings.
In Tirumala, TTD
Devasthanams are conducting lot of social welfare schemes for the benefit of
the devotees and to the poor people, like providing free food to the devotees,
education to children, veda patasala, hospitals, go-samrakshana etc. The TTD is
investing the money received from the devotees in Fixed Deposits and utilizing
only the interest portion for performing social welfare schemes. Lot of poor
students and poor people were got benefited by these schemes.
Every
day lot of devotees are donating lakhs of rupees at the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
According the famous legend once the sages gathered in one holy place and
decided to perform rituals to the gods. The sages asked Bhrigu,
to test the goodness among the gods. Bhrigu went to divine worlds and met
Indra, Brahma and Shiva and found that they are not competent. Afterwards,
bhrigu went to Vaikunta, the abode of Lord Vishnu. At that time, Vishnu didn’t
attend him and was in yoga nithra. Seeing his action, bhrigu got very angry and
kicked him at his chest with his feet. Since Mata Lakshmi permanently resides
in the heart of Lord Vishnu, she could not tolerate the actions of bhrigu
maharishi and left vaikunta and went to the Kolapur city for performing
penance. Lord Vishnu pacified Bhrigu maharishi and pressed the feet of Bhrigu
maharishi gently through his lotus hands. Bhrigu got very much admired with the
actions of Lord Vishnu, and asked him to apologise him for his anger with him
and went to the holy place where all the other sages were gathered and informed
them that Lord Vishnu is the competent person and the rituals can be dedicated
to him.
Since
goddess Lakshmi has left him, Lord Vishnu went to the earth for searching
Goddess Lakshmi.
Since, he was unable to find her, he settled on Seshachalam hills inside an anthill. Lord Shiva and Lord
Brahma incarnated as a cow and a calf respectively and were took care by a
shepherd of Chola kingdom in the Seshachalam hills. The cow and calf, everyday
used to give their milk in the anthill to reduce the thirst of Lord Vishnu. The
Chola king became suspicious. The next day the king went along with the
shepherd and got angry with the divine animals and attacked the animals. But on
behalf of the animals, Lord Vishnu accepted the attack and got wounded on his
forehead. The king and the shepherd were very much worried about their cruel
act and both of them were surrendered at the Lord's lotus feet. Lord Srinivasa
had given the king a boon that he would marry his daughter. After some time,
Srinivasa went to the home of Mata Vakula Devi and took shelter in her home,
who was the foster mother Yashoda of Lord Krishna.
In
the next birth, the Chola king was taken birth as Akash Raj and his daughter is
Padmavathi. Lord Srinivasa met Padmavati
and after certain period of time both of them got married in presence of divine
sages, gods and the people in the earth.
It
is believed that, during his marriage with Padmavathi, in order to meet the
marriage expenses, Lord Vishnu took a large loan from Kubera, and still now
through our donations like our hair and wealth he is repaying the debt to Lord
Kubera. It is also believed, that Lord Srinivasa would reside at Tirumala till
the end of this kaliyuga and will bless his devotees.
IMPORTANCE
Going
to Tirumala and worshipping the god is a regular practice which was prevailing for
several thousands of years. Lot of devotees are visiting the holy mountain in
order to put their burdens on to the feet of the god. The god also doesn’t
cheat them, and providing his grace at the appropriate time, based on their
karmic deeds. The only thing is that, we must have utmost faith on him and
worship him with entire devotion in our mind. Definitely in course of time, he
will fulfil our wishes and gives peace and prosperity in our life. It is
advisable for us to visit the holy place of Tirumala at least once in a year,
and to seek the divine blessings of the great Lord Balaji.
ReplyDeleteVery informative and useful historical post. I see you have a lot of other cool stuff available at your website, simply bookmarking it to check in spare time.
Thanks and keep the good work up.
Regards
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