Tirumala Bhoo Vaikuntam Abode of Lord Venteshwara
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TIRUMALA BHOO VAIKUNTAM ABODE OF LORD VENTESHWARA - i - CONTENTS PREFACE 1 INTRODUCTION 6 GEOGRAPHICAL BASIS 8 THE IDOL OF LORD VENKATESHWARA AND OTHER MURTIS IN THE TIRUMALA TEMPLE 11 A Description Of The Idol Of Lord Venkateswara 14 Bhoga Srinivasa - The Kautuka Bera 16 Ugra Srinivasa Or Snapana Murthi 18 Koluvu Srinivasa Or Bali Bera 19 Sri Malayappan Or Utsava Murti 20 Sri Krishna Idol 22 Idols Of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana 23 The Chakrattalvar Or Sudarshana 26 WORSHIP AT TIRUMALA TEMPLE 27 Suprabhatam 28 Suddi (Cleaning) 29 Thomala Seva 30 Kolvu 33 Sahastranamarchana 34 Naivedya 36 Yatrasana 36 Sattumurai 37 Aparanhepuja 37 Ratri Puja 37 Ekanta Seva Or Pavalimpu Seva 38 Vishesha Pooja 39 Sahastrakalashabhishakam 41 Thrusday Pulangi Seva 43 Friday Abhishakam 45 Sopana Marga Or Flight Of Steps 48 Total Number Of Epigraphs 48 Annamacharya 49 Sri Ramanuja 50 Hari Dasarugalu From Karnataka. 51 Lord Munro 52 Venkamamba 53 - ii - HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 54 Garbha Griha 58 Tirumala During Vijayanagara Period - Krishnadevaraya And Achutaraya 59 Tirumala - Under Nawabs, British Rule And Mahants 60 Tirumala Temple Administration After 1932 62 BRAHMOTSAVAM 63 Day One 65 Day Two 67 Day Three 70 Day Four 72 Day Five 74 Day Six 78 Day Seven 80 Day Eight 83 Day Nine 85 CONCLUSION 89 EXCERPTS 93 - iii - PREFACE India is a land of temples. The Hindu temple is a house of worship like any other but it has certain unique features which elevate it to great spiritual merit and recognition. The orthodox Hindu temple is symbolically designed . Its location construction and rituals are of special significance. They are all designed to indicate the path that man has to take to evolve himself spiritually and reach the goal of Self realisation. Religion is realisation. The location of the temple at a high altitude signifies that spiritual evolution is above all mundane achievements in this world and to gain spiritual perfection one needs to put a great deal of self-effort. The very construction of the temple indicates the path of Self-realisation. The idol is in the sanctum sanctorum, a dark room where a small oil lamp is burning perpetually. Around the sanctum sanctorum is a closed passage on all four sides. Outside this is a wider passage with the roof covered. Beyond the walls a broader passage without a roof over it. The entrance to the temple leads to wide open passage. Thus there are three passages enveloping the shrine, which refer to the gross, subtle and causal bodies of man. Within the three bodies lies the supreme Self, which is unknown dark to him. If man wants to reach his inner Self he must cross the limitations of his gross, subtle and causal bodies and seek within. The outermost passage indicates the gross body which man identifies himself with his gross body and gets involved in the external world. To regain his spiritual Self, he must first rise above the worldly entanglements and delve deeper into his personality. When he does that he enters the realm of his subtle body consisting of his desires and thoughts, which is the next passage, the closed roof. He must rise above desires and thoughts, and move on to the next passage the causal body and transcend it. - 1 - The causal body is his vasanas, which is the seat of ignorance. He must get rid of this with spiritual knowledge before he can come into contact with his real Self, the Paramatma represented in the shrine. In the sanctum sanctorum the oil lamp burning indicates that the Atman is the ever-lasting light of wisdom. The priest lights a piece of camphor from the oil lamp and shows it to the idol, the image brightens. The devotee has his Darshan a vision of the Lord. Hinduism appears a strange amalgam of the highest classical literature with gods and goddesses, rituals and festivals, ceremonies and celebrations. There is a general misunderstanding that the Hindu worships innumerable gods and goddesses. The different forms of worship, the number of superstitions and misleading spiritual practices have all contributed to the wrong impression that the Hindus are polytheistic. This is far from truth. In fact the Hindu worships one god be it directly as Brahman or through manifested representations and expressions. Hinduism is like a hospital with many wards, sections, specialists, doctors, and divisions. Each of them has a distinct purpose to attend to particular needs of a particular disease. So too Hinduism have different treatment for different types of individuals to make them whole and realise and achieve the goal in life. - 2 - One cannot stop the mind from its ramblings as long as it possesses desires. To circumvent this great hurdle Hinduism has thoughtfully brought in gods and goddesses, rituals and festivals, ceremonies and celebrations. The master plan of the Hindu sages is to divinise everything in this world since mans attention has always been upon the world. The plan has been drawn logically, scientifically, practically. Everything is divinised from cradle to grave. The idea is to remind his dissipating mind constantly of the purpose of his existence in the world. That is to unfold his Self, to realise the Atma and Paramatma. The plan of Hinduism is to help the seekers reach the goal of religion, to realise oneself. The Hindu philosophical and spiritual truths conveyed through the Upanishads and puranic literature have also been ingeniously presented to the masses in the form of symbols. A symbol is a known idol representing the unknown ideal. The art of god-symbolism helps to get an idea of the supreme Truth, maintain the ancient culture and heritage. Understanding of the inner significance of the symbols establishes a greater conviction of the Truth that they represent. Symbolism plays an important role in life. Hinduism has perfected this art. Hinduism is more a way of life than a religion and the scriptures do not sanction the superstitious and dogmatic fallacies we often indulge in, in the name of the religion. You are free to worship any god in this religion in any way you like. We don’t need to know any particular method to worship the god nor any posture, whatever we do whole-heartedly pleases Him. Whatever we offer Him with devotion, whether it is a leaf, a flower or fruit or water he accepts it happily. But we must do it with faith, with dedication with discipline and devotion. Following one chosen path in our religion does not mean a sanction to disrespect the other Gods or other paths chosen by others. This narrow out look has been repeatedly rejected by our saints and seers, religious leaders and scriptures. Devotion makes us become a good human being first and then from it helps us to rise from the narrow considerations of sectarian and myopic perspectives into broader horizons of harmony, equality and respect for others. - 3 - He is what we think of Him. The life of Hindu is a series of prayer and worship. True prayer is the mental and verbal expression of the highest spiritual ideal. It consists not in trying to get anything from outside, but in unfolding the higher powers that are slumbering within the soul. It is the expression of that determination of the individual soul for reaching the highest goal of life, it is the constant desire or constant aim, or constant thought of attaining to the Highest Spiritual Realisation. It is the expression of that attitude of the human mind which arouses the Divine nature in man and makes it govern the lower, selfish or animal nature by which we are directed in our ordinary life to perform selfish acts. By cultivating intense love for God as a Personal Being, the worshipper merges his ego in his ideal. In this path God is often worshipped as a divine incarnation. - 4 - IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE TIRUPATI THERE WAS NO DIETY NOR WILL EVER BE COMPARABLE TO LORD VENKATESHA. - 5 - INTRODUCTION - 6 - Tirumala, the abode of Lord Venkateshwara is the ultimate goal of all devotees from time immemorial. There is a wonderful uniqueness associated with Lord Venkateshwara and His abode Venkatadri. In Tirumala names Srinivasa, Venkatesha, Venkateshwara, Govinda, Govinda, Govinda fills our ears and transforms us to a different world. It brings the feeling of being close to Him and a strange sense of elation of utter happiness and joy of His darshan. In Sanskrit there are several synonyms to the word hill viz, Adri, Achala, Saila etc. 'ven' means nectar 'kata' means wealth, 'esha' means Lord, King etc.'ven' also means sin, and 'kata' means killer, destroyer etc.'adri' means hill, mountain. The mountain which destroys sin is named as Venkatadri. The king of Venkata hill- giver of ambrosia and wealth or destroyer of sin is called Venkateshwara. The combination signifies that the holy place, that removes the sins and confers Mukti and bestows Aishwarya or riches. 'Sree' is the Goddesses of wealth, wife of Maha Vishnu- mother Lakshmi. 'nivasa' is the permanent abode. Sree connects all glory and power, faculties and strength, to perform creative acts of righteousness. The only place, where imperfections never enter to molest the serene essence is the seat of Eternal Perfection, which is the bosom of Narayana the permanent Abode of Lakshmi. Hence Maha Vishnu is indicated as Sreenivasa. The word 'go' in Sanskrit has four meanings – ‘earth', 'cows', ‘Speech’, and 'Vedas'. As the earth is the supporter of everything that exists, He who is the supporter of everything within the individual is called Govinda. He who is the protector of cows and played the part of Gopala in Gokula is the very controller of the animal instincts and passions in the bosom of beings is Govinda.