Venkateshwara Kalyanotsavam
Lord Venkateshwara is considered as the living god, since similar to us, it is believed that he even breathe, blink his eyes, and we can also hear a divine sound which arises from his chest, if we move closely to his idol.Sweat also supposedly comes from his idol after the performance of puja. Even after applying strong chemical substances on his idol, the idol survives for a long time. Ancient priests of Tirumala have also witnessed the Viswaroopa form of Lord Venkateshwara, and they were able to see the rare divine form of the Lord, due to their pure bhakti.
It is also believed that when Lord Venkateshwara decides to settle down in the Tirumala Hills, after his marriage with Ma Alamelumanga, he has been changed in the form of a self-emanated idol, and this rare incident was mentioned in one of the holy texts of Hinduism. If we clearly notice the idol of Lord Venkateshwara, we could his glittering smiling face, which would appear in a lively form. Lord Venkateshwara was also appeared in the dream of some of his devotees, and still he appears! For some of his devotees, he has appeared even in the form of Lord Rama, holding his bow and arrow!
Before few hundred years, Lord Venkateshwara had also given darshan to some of his devotees like Venkamamba, Hatiram Bhavaji, and it is believed that he even played the dice game with his staunch devotee Bhavaji. The idol of Lord Venkateshwara is believed to have been formed before 5000 years ago, that is, at the beginning of the Kali Yuga. From then onwards, the god of seven hills showers his abundant grace on his devotees. Our true prayers are answered, worried face turns into joyful, tensed face turns into peaceful, and the miracles performed by Lord Venkateshwara are many more to say, and it cannot be fully expressed in the form of writing, since we could not describe the entire significance of Lord Venkateshwara just by the way of typing the matters in the computer. In order to know about him fully, we should visit his Holy Tirumala Temple, at least once in a year, by considering him as our Kula Devata.
If we precisely don’t know about our Kula Deva/Devi Temple, then we could consider Lord Venkateshwara as our Kula Devata, and there is no harm in that. When the great Madhwa Saint Sri Vyasaraja had visited Lord Venkateshwara at the Tirumala Hills during 15th Century AD, it is believed that Lord Venkateshwara had given his Darshanto him, in the form of Lord Narasimha, since the great saint Vyasaraja is considered to be an incarnation of the great Bhagavatha, Sri Prahalada, who was a staunch devotee of Lord Narasimha. As per legend, Lord Venkateshwara has once appeared in the form of child Krishna to some of his staunch devotees before few centuries ago.
“OM SRI VENKATESA SWAMY NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR