Hare Krishna!
Sri Venkateswara swamy is ‘Alankara Priya Govinda’. This is well known to all of us. Inspite of number of jewelers, number of flowers are also decorated to him. Alankaram is done to him with various kinds of flowers and in different types. Not even 1,000 eyes are sufficient to see his beauty. He himself is ‘Kandarpa darpa hara divya murthi’. And when alankaram is done to him with various flowers which are a beautiful part of the nature, how can anyone praise is beauty!! No one..
In this post I’ll share about the alankaram to him with flowers. I hope this makes his devotees happy because knowing and remembering of his unlimited glories makes them very much happy !!
As said and you all know there are many many flowers used in his divine service. Let’s know a brief deep information about his Pushpalankaram:
Though while having his darsanam from far we cannot see all the murthys in the Garbhalay clearly, there are Pancha beralu (5 murthys - Dhruva Beram{mula murthy/main murthy}, Bali Beram{Koluvu Srinivasa Murthy}, Kauthuka Beram{Bhoga Srinivasa Murthy}, Utsava Beram{Sri bhu sametha Malayappa swamy}, Snapana Beram {Sridevi Bhudevi sametha Ugra Srinivasa Murthy} ), Sri Sita Lakshmana sametha Ramachandra, Rukmini Krishna, Salagram and Sudarsana Chakrathalwar. All of them including other Upalayas, Pushpalankar will be done twice a day - in the morning and evening.
[Not only Pancha Beralu, you can also see Sudarsan(at the right of Utsava beram), Sita Rama Lakshmana and Rukmni Krishna (near Bali Beram)]
In the morning after Suprabhatha Seva and Viswa roopa Sandarsanam, Thomala seva (Pushpalankaram) is done first. In that,
- For Mulamurthy
- 1 for his Sri Padalu - Tiruvadi Maalalu
- A garland will be decorated on his crown in the V shape - Sikhamani
- 2 garlands for his Sudarsan and Panchajanyam - Sankhu Chakra Malalu
- 2 for Sridevi and Bhudevi at his Vakshathalam - Vakshasthala maalalu
- 2 from his 2 shoulders to down - Salagrama Maalalu
- 1 to his neck - Kantasari
- 3 to him in the U shape - Thavalamu
- 1 to his Khadgam - Kataari Saram
- 3 for Sridevi Bhudevi sametha Sri Ugra Srinivasa murthy (1 for each of them)
(Actually, this pic is on a Utsavam day (kaisika dwadasi) so number of garlands are increased for them)
- 1 for Bhoga Srinivasa Murthy
- 1 for Koluvu Srinivasa Murthy
(This pic of Koluvu Srinivasa murthy is from TTD Namuna alayam)
- Minimum of 4 garlands for Sridevi Bhudevi sametha Malayappa swamy (2 for Malayappa and 1 for Mata Sridevi and 1 for Mata Bhudevi) Sometimes number of garlands increase for them
- 1 for Sudarsana Chakrathalwar
- 2 for Rukmini sametha Krishna swamy (one for each of them)
(Even this pic is of Theppotsavam. I’m sharing few pics for sharing pics of their murthy’s)
- 3 for Sita Rama Lakshmana (1 for each)
(The same about this pic too. This is at the time of utsavam)
- 2 or 1 for Sri Ramanujacharya, Vakula Mata, Varadaraja Swamy, Garudalwar, Hanuman, Sugriva, Angada, Anantha, Vishwaksena, Jaya Vijaya each..
Like this, alankaram is done to all of them twice a day in the morning and evening in the name of Thomala Seva(in which abhishekam to Bhoga Srinivasa Murthy, Paada kavacham and Salagramam is also a part).
Daily 6 types of flowers and 2 kinds of leaves(mostly Tulasi and Maruvam) are used.
Pushpalankaram to Sridevi Bhudevi sametha Sri Malayappa is done 3–4 times a day. Apart of thomala seva, at the time of Arjitha Vasanthothsvam(in the afternoon which is a daily seva) garlands of Tulasi are decorated to Mata Sridevi, Bhudevi and Malayappa swamy. And again after Vasanthotsavam for Sahasradeepalankara seva(in the evening) pushpalankaram is done to him again.
In the daily alankaram, flowers like jasmine, lilli, roses, lotus and tulasi are used the most. And in different seasons, seasonal flowers will be used.
Finally, after Pushpalankaram, all murthys in Garbhalayam will be similar to this:
And at the time of Poolangi seva, which is done every Thursday evening, he’ll be similar to this, without any ornaments only and only flowers!!
In Pushpayagam, which is a varshikothsav(yearly seva), number of tonnes of flowers and tulasi, etc are used.
In Brahmotsavams, ixora coccinea is special on Suryaprabha vahanam and Jasmine is special on Chandra prabha vahanam. Big garlands(Gaja Maala) of those flowers are used every year in each of those vahan sevas respectively.
(Suryaprabha Vahanam)
(Chandra Prabha Vahanam)
On festival days like Ugadi, Diwali, Vaikuntha Ekadasi, Vaikuntha Dwadasi, Brahmotsavam, Padmavathi Parinayotsavalu, Sri Rama Navami, Sri Krishna ashtami, etc., more and more flowers and ornaments are used.
Devotees can offer flowers in TTD Garden and from there they take to the temple..
This is a brief description about Pushpalankaram of Srinivasa at Tirumala.
Sri Venkatadri Sringagra-Mangalaha bharananghraye
Mangalanam nivasaya Venkatesaya Mangalam ||
Sarvavayava soundarya Sampadha Sarvachethasam
Sada sammohanayasthu Venkatesaya Mangalam ||
May all the auspicious shower on the protector of devotees!!
Om Namo Venkatesaya!!!
