Lord Venkateshwara Swamy - A Brief Story
Venkateshwara is another form of Lord Vishnu who
is the most popular deity He is also known as Venkatachalapathi or
Venkataramana or Tirumal devar or Varadaraja or Srinivasa or Balaji or Bithala.
He has a dark complexion and four hands. In his two upper hands he holds a
discus (a symbol of power) and a conchs hell (a symbol of existence). With his
lower hands extended downward he asks devotees to have faith and surrender to
him for protection. The supreme temple of Venkateswara is at Tirupati and every
hindu wants to visit this temple at least once in life.
Legend of Lord Venkateswara :
Once some rishis headed by Kasyapa began to
perform a sacrifice on the banks of the Ganges. Sage Narada visited them and
asked them why they were performing the sacrifice and who would be pleased by
it. Not being able to answer the question, the rishis approached Sage Bhrigu.
To reach a solution after a direct ascertainment of reality, Sage Bhrigu first
went to Satyaloka, the abode of Lord Brahma. At Satyaloka, he found Lord
Brahma, reciting the four Vedas in praise of Lord Narayana, with each of his
four heads, and attended upon by Saraswati. Lord Brahma did not take notice of
Bhrigu offering obeisance. Concluding that Lord Brahma was unfit for worship,
Bhrigu left Satyaloka for Kailasa, the abode of Lord Shiva. At Kailasa, Bhrigu
found Lord Siva spending his time pleasantly with Parvati and not noticing his
presence. Parvati drew the attention of Siva to the presence of the sage. Lord
Siva was furious at Bhrigu's intrusion and tried to destroy him. The sage
cursed Lord Siva and left for Vaikuntam.
At Vaikuntam, Lord Vishnu was reposing on
Adisesha with Sri Mahalakshmi in service at His feet. Finding that Lord Vishnu
also did not notice him, the sage was infuriated and kicked the Lord on His
chest, the place where Mahalakshmi resides. At once, Lord Vishnu hastened to
apologise to the angry sage and pressed his feet to allay the pain caused to
Bhrigu's leg. In doing so the Lord removed the eye in the foot of the sage,
stripping of his special powers.Thereupon, the sage concluded that Lord Vishnu
was the most supreme of the trimurthis and told the rishis the same.
Sri Mahalakshmi was angered by the action of her
Lord in apologising to Bhrigu who committed an offence. Out of anger and
anguish she left Vaikuntha and resided in Karavirapur now known as Kolhapur.
After the departure of Mahalakshmi, a forlorn Lord Vishnu left Vaikuntam and
took abode in an ant-hill under a tamarind tree, beside a pushkarini on the
Venkata Hill, meditating for the return of Lakshmi, without food or sleep. This
was the place where Lord took the form of Varaha to rescue Mother Earth form
the deep ocean.
Taking pity on Lord Vishnu, Brahma and Maheshwara
decided to assume the forms of a cow and its calf to serve Him. Surya, the Sun
God informed Mahalakshmi of this and requested her to assume the form of a
cowherdess and sell the cow and calf to the king of the Chola country. The king
of the Chola country bought the cow and its calf and sent them to graze on the
Venkata Hill along with his herd of cattle. Discovering Lord Vishnu on the ant-hill,
the cow provided its milk, and thus fed the Lord. Meanwhile, at the palace, the
cow was not yielding any milk, for which the Chola Queen chastised the cowherd
severely. To find out the cause of lack of milk, the cowherd followed the cow,
hid himself behind a bush and discovered the cow emptying her udder over the
ant-hill. Incensed over the conduct of the cow, the cowherd aimed a blow with
his axe on the head of the cow. However, Lord Vishnu rose from the ant-hill to
receive the blow and save the cow. When the cowherd saw the Lord bleed at the
blow of his axe, he fell down and died of shock.
The cow returned, bellowing in fright and with
blood stains all over her body, to the Chola King. To find out the cause of the
cow's terror, the King followed her to the scene of the incident. The King
found the cowherd lying dead on the ground near the ant-hill. While he stood
wondering how it had happened, Lord Vishnu rose from the ant-hill and cursed
the King saying that he would become an Asura because of the fault of his
servant. The King pleaded innocence, and the Lord blessed him by saying that he
will be reborn as Akasa Raja and that the curse would end when the Lord will be
adorned with a crown presented by Akasa Raja at the time of His marriage with Padmavati.
With these words Lord turned into stone form.
Thereafter, Lord Vishnu in the name of Srinivasa,
decided to stay in Varaha Kshetra, and requested Sri Varahaswami to grant Him a
site for His stay. His request being readily granted, Srinivasa ordained that a
pilgrimage to His shrine would not be complete unless it is preceded by a bath
in the Pushkarini and darshan of Sri Varahaswami, and that puja and naivedyam
should be offered to Sri Varaha swami first. Vishnu built a hermitage and lived
there, attended to by Vakuladevi who looked after him like a mother.
Yasoda Reborn : Yesoda brought up Sri Krishna,
the son of Devaki, in his early years. However, Yasoda was not blessed to
witness the marriage of Sri Krishna with Rukmini and she felt very sad. Sri
Krishna promised to fulfil her desire in her next birth as Vakuladevi in his
next incarnation as Srinivasa. In Rukmini's next birth as Vakuladevi, she was
serving Lord Varahaswami when He sent her to serve Srinivasa.
Sometime later, a King named Akasa Raja who
belonged to the Lunar race was ruling over Thondamandalam. Akasa Raja had no
heirs, and therefore, he wanted to perform a sacrifice. As part of the
sacrifice, he was ploughing the fields when his plough turned up a lotus in the
ground. On examining the lotus, the King found a female child in it. The king
was happy to find a child even before he performed a sacrifice and carried it
to his place and gave it to his Queen to tend it. At that time he heard an
aerial voice which said "O King, tend it as your child and fortune will
befall you". As she was found in a lotus, the king named her Padmavati.
Princess Padmavati grew up into a beautiful maiden and was attended by a host
of maids.
Padmavathi's origin : In olden times, Lakshmi, in the form of Vedavati, was
staying in an ashram in the forests. At that time, Ravana, the lord of Lanka
tried to tempt her. In anger, Vedavati cursed him saying that she would bring
about his death. To show how true her words were, Vedavati walked into the
fire, but Agni, the Fire God rescued her. He took Vedavati to his house and
entrusted her to his wife's care. When Ravana was about to carry away Sita from
Panchavati, in the absence of Rama and Lakshmana, Agni appeared and offered
Vedavati to Ravana as the real Sita who was kept with him by Rama to evade
Ravana. Ravana was tricked into thinking that Vedavati was the real Sita.
Ravana took Vedavati to Lanka thinking she was
the real Sita, while Agni took Sita to his house and asked his wife Swahadevi
to look after her. After the destruction of Ravana, Vedavati entered the fire
when rejected by Rama. Then, Agni, offered the real Sita to Rama. Rama then
questioned her as to who the other lady by her side was, Sita informed Rama that
the lady was Vedavati who endured Ravana's torture for ten months in Lanka for
her sake. Sita requested Rama to accept Vedavati also as his spouse. But Rama
declined her request saying that he believed in having only one wife during his
life time. However, He promised to wed her in her next birth as Padmavati, born
as the daughter of Akasa Raja, when Rama himself would take the form of
Srinivasa.
One day, Lord Srinivasa, who was hunting, chased
a wild elephant in the forests surrounding the hills. In the elephant's
pursuit, the Lord was led into a garden, where Princess Padmavati and her maids
were picking flowers. The sight of the elephant frightened the Princess and her
maids. But the elephant immediately turned around, saluted the Lord and
disappeared into the forest. Lord Srinivasa, who was following on horse back,
and saw the frightened maidens. However, He was repulsed with stones thrown at
Him by the maids. He returned to the hills in haste, leaving His horse behind.
Vakuladevi found him lying on his bed, not interested in anything. The Lord
informed her that unless he married Princess Padmavati. The Lord then narrated
the story of her (Padmavati’s) previous birth and his promise to wed her. After
listening to Srinivasa's story of how he had promised to marry Vedavati in her
next birth as Padmavati, Vakuladevi realised that Srinivasa would not be happy
unless he married Padmavati. She offered to go to Akasa Raja and his Queen and
arrange for the marriage. On the way she met the maid-servants of Padmavati
returning from a Siva Temple. She learnt from them that Padmavati was also
pining for Srinivasa. Vakuladevi went along with the maid servants to the
Queen.
Meanwhile, Akasa Raja and his queen Dharanidevi
were anxious about the health of their daughter, Padmavathi. They learnt about
Padmavathi's love for Srinivasa of Venkata Hill. Akasa Raja consulted
Brihaspati about the marriage and was informed that the marriage was in the
best interest of both the parties. Kubera lent money to Lord Srinivasa to meet
the expenses of the marriage. Lord Srinivasa, along with his consorts and Lord
Brahma and Lord Siva started the journey to the residence of Akasa Raja with his
vehicle Garuda. At the palace entrance, Lord Srinivasa was received by Akasa
Raja with full honours and taken in procession on a mounted elephant to the
palace for the marriage. In the presence of all the Devas, Lord Srinivasa wed
Princess Padmavati, thus blessing Akasa Raja.
Post a Comment