Who is Lord Venkateshwara ? Is he an Avatar of Lord Vishnu ?
The most beautiful God who is not an avatar but Shriman Narayana himself. Yes here I am going to describe about Sri Venkateshwara, his story, why he is called Balaji, what are the punya you will get after his Darshan at Tirupati. Scriptures like Vedas (even Rig Veda) and Puranas also describe the greatness of Venkateshwara and Tirupati darshan. Here I will try my best to tell you how great is Sri Venkateshwara.
The answer is really long but beautiful. Please read it if you are also a Vishnu bhakta like me.
Who is Bhagwaan Venkateshwara :-
Bhagwaan Venkateshwara is Lord Maha Vishnu himself on earth. You can also call that Venkateshwara is another name of Lord Vishnu. He resides in the devine hills of Sheshachalam. The Hills comprises seven peaks, representing the seven heads of Adisesha.The temple lies on the seventh peak -Venkatadri, on the southern banks of Sri Swami Pushkarini, a holy water tank. Hence the temple is also referred to as "Temple of Seven Hills".Venkateswara literally means "Lord of Venkata".The word is a combination of the words Venkata (the name of a hill in Andhra Pradesh) and isvara ("Lord").
According to the Brahmanda Purana and Bhavishyottara Purana the word "Venkata" means "destroyer of sins", deriving from the Sanskrit words vem (sins) and kata (power of immunity). The word also has another meaning coming from Vedas that taker of Vikata (problems) from the Bhaktas i.e. the God who takes up all the Vikata from his bhakta and we all know Shriman Narayana is Bhaktavatsalya.
He is Lakshmipati. His another consort is Maa Bhudevi also but do you know, Maa Bhudevi is also an incarnation of Maa Lakshmi. So basically Bhudevi is also Lakshmitatva. That's why Narayana is always shown with Maa Lakshmi only. They both are anantha premi. The story of Venkateshwar rupam also has the love story of Narayana and Maa Maha Lakshmi.
The story behind Venkateshwara form, why we offer so much in Tirupati Balaji temple :—
Once,there was a ritual (Yagna) to be conducted. The sages and pontiffs for the Yagna were in a dilemma that for which God is the ritual to be done. At that Narad ji appeared in front of Sage Bhrigu and asked him that which God will be given the phala of the Yagna. The one who gets the phala, will become trilokapati. So to test the ideal God, Bhrigu did a test. He first went to King of God's, Indra. Indra did not at all recognize Bhrigu's presence and was busy in mesmerising the dance of devadasis in the heaven. Bhrigu cursed Indra that he would be only be referred as an egoistic soul all over the universe. He next visited Lord Brahma. Lord Brahma was busy with his four heads in chanting the Vedas, doing meditation, creating the world and spending his time with his consort, Maa Saraswati. Bhrigu cursed him that he would be not worshipped by the creature on the earth anymore for not obeying me. Next he visited Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva was busy in his Rudradhyanam and his consort, Maa Parvati was worshipping Shiva's feet. Bhrigu cursed Lord Shiva that he would be worshipped only as a stone called Lingam. At last, Bhrigu went to Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu was sleeping on the bed of serpents and Maa Lakshmi was at his feet. When Bhrigu arrived, he first saw Lord Vishnu's feet and felt too humiliated. He thus kicked Lord Vishnu on his chest and awakened Vishnu started massaging Bhrigu's feet and served him great hospitality. Bhrigu was pleased and ordered the sages to perform the rites for Lord Vishnu. Maa Lakshmi, also referred as Sri, had a fight with Lord Vishnu as she felt that Bhrigu insulted her indirectly by hitting Lord Vishnu on his chest where Sri lived and thus left Vaikuntha. She came and settled on earth in disguise in the ancient city of Karvir(Kolhapur) and meditated on Vishnu where today the Mahalaxmi temple is found. Lord Vishnu soon arrived on earth searching for Goddess Lakshmi. But He failed to find her and instead settled on Seshachalam hills inside an anthill. The whole earth became gloomy. On the request of Parvati and Saraswati, Lord Shiva and Lord Brahma incarnated as a cow and a calf respectively in the Chola kingdom.This cow and calf were being grazed daily by a shepherd of Chola kingdom in the Seshachalam hills. The cow and calf, everyday used to deposit their milk in the anthill to lessen the thirst of Vishnu. Due to daily program, the cow and calf became pale and unhealthy. The Chola king and shepherd noticed this and felt something suspicious. The next day the shepherd took the animals for grazing and like everyday, the cow and calf deposited their milk in the anthill. The Chola king saw this act and launched his arrow towards the cow and calf. But in order to protect them, Lord Vishnu arose from the anthill and the arrow hit Vishnu's leg. The Chola king was sorry for his mistake and surrendered at Lord's feet. Lord presented him a boon that he would marry his daughter in his next birth.
In his next birth, Vishnu incarnated as Srinivasa to a woman named Vakula Devi. It is said that in Dwapara Yuga, Krishna presented Yashoda a boon that Krishna will be again born to Yashoda in Kali Yuga. Vakula Devi was reincarnation of Yashoda. Meanwhile,Goddess Lakshmi of Karvir took birth at the palace of Aakasha Raja, the next birth of The previous Chola king. Srinivasa was a forest dweller. During the search, Lord Srinivasa met the beautiful girl named Padmavati. This girl Padmavati is Maa Maha Lakshmi. They both fell in love and decided to get married as per the boon of Vishnu to Chola king in previous birth.
The father of Padmavati asked for a huge bridal price and to pay the money Lord Vishnu took a large loan from Kubera, the Hindu god who is the treasurer of wealth. Kubera gave the loan on the condition that Vishnu cannot return to Vaikunta (heavenly abode) without paying off the debt.
Lord Vishnu resides at Tirumala,that is the Seshachalam hills as Tirupati Venkateswara without returning to Vaikunta until the payment is made. To help him repay his debt, devotees offer him everything, including hair and wealth and in return Lord Vishnu fulfills their prayers.
That's why we offer so much in the Tirupati temple so that Bhagwaan Vishnu and Maa Lakshmi would return to their heavenly loka Vaikuntha.
Story behind the name Balaji :-
There was a saint named Hathiram Babaji. It is believed that Lord Vishnu was pleased with his devotion and used to come to his place to play dice with him. Hathiram was born into a middle-class family in the city of Una, Himachal Pradesh, North India. His real name was Aasa Ram Baljot. His Father's name was Desh Raj Baljot. He has four brothers named, Kahna Ram, Meena Ram, Gulaba Ram and Budh Ram Baljot. His family moved to a Village Gunachaur near Banga city of Punjab. Every year on 5 Ashaad, people from Punjab, Himachal gather at village Gunachaur to pay tributes to Baba Hathiram. He stayed at Village Gunachaur for long time, then he left in the search of real God. The old name of village Gunachaur was "Tilla Raja Gopichand". According to legend Hathiram named Lord Venkateswara as Balaji. As it's a trend in Northern India that we call our deities with name they are seen. Like he saw Lord Vishnu in Bal rup so he kept his name as Balaji. It's said that he played Chausar with Lord Venkateshwara. In his last time Lord Venkateshwara saw him his real Maha Vishnu roop and took him to Vaikuntha Dhaam.
What are the Punya we get after visiting Tirupati Balaji temple :-
Tirupati darshan is equal to Vaikuntha Darshan and it has been mentioned in different scriptures. Lord Venkateshwar is not in Vaikuntha currently but in Tirupati till he returns all the debt to Kuber dev. Tirupati Balaji is considered one of the eight Swayambhu Kshetras of Lord Vishnu where presiding deity is believed to have manifested on its own. Seven other temples in the line are Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple, Bhu-Varaha Swamy temple, Vanamamalai Perumal Temple in Tamil Nadu, Saligrama in Nepal, Naimisaranya in Pushkar Rajasthan and Badrinath Temple in Uttarakhand.
The temple is classified as a Divyadesam, one of the 108 Vishnu temples that are mentioned in these books. The benefits acquired by a pilgrimage to Venkatachala are mentioned in the Rig Veda and Asthadasa Puranas. In these epics, Sri Venkateswara is described as the great bestower of boons.
Vedas and even Rig Veda with many other Puranas themselves describe the greatness of the Tirupati Darshan.
Om Namo Venkateshaya,
Om Namo Srinivasaya !!!!
Hari Om Namo Narayana !!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment