Tirupati Balaji - Srinivasa

Here is the story of the great lord , Govinda , Srinivas or Balaji , the temple ( Tirupati ) of whose calls billions of devotees to his adobe each year , thus being one of the most visited holy places on Earth.

I'd present the divine story through supplementary pictures which I found in a book I bought in Tirupati.

Hope it helps . Enjoy the great mythology !

Sacrifice for World Peace

• Once all the saints assembled to conduct a sacred sacrifice for the well-being of the world.
• There came saint Narada. He raised the question as to whom among the three God's - Lord Brahma , Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva should the result of sacrifice go?
• Then started the argument on who was the greatest of the Trimurti ?
• At last saint Bhrugu was directed to find out who was the greatest God.
• Saint Bhrugu who knew about the past , present and future acquired a third eye in his inner foot through his powerful penance.

Curse on Lord Brahma

• Saint Brugu first went to lord Brahma. Brahma was chit - chatting with his wife Goddess Sraswati. He did not pay attention to Bhrughu.
• The angry Bhrugu said that though Brahma had four faces and eight eyes he could not receive his guest well. So he did not deserve the sacraficial result.
• Further , Bhrugu curses him that he would never receive prayers in a temple. Hence , Brahma has no temple.

Curse on Lord Shiva

• Brughu set off to Kailasa , the adobe of lord Shiva.
• There Bhrugu saw Lord Shiva and his wife Goddess Parvati engaged in Tandav ( Happy Dance ) .
• Nandi and other disciples were absorbed in this great dance . No one received Bhrugu.
• Pestered Brughu cursed Shiva that he will never get an idol worship in temples . Thus came into existence the custom of worshiping lords Shiva's Phallus ( Linga or Lingam ).

Witty Lord Vishnu

• Bhrugu reached Vaikunta , the home of Lord Mahavishnu.
• Vishnu was lying upon the snake Ananda which is his bed. Narayana ( Vishnu ) pretended not seeing Brughu and continued talking to his wife.
• Enraged Brughu put his foot on the chest of Narayana.
• Narayana got up calmly and fell on the feet of Brughu. While doing so he destroyed the third eye in the foot of Brughu .
• On loosing the eye brughu lost all his arrogance. He understood his guilt and praised Vishnu. He returned to the saints and declared that Mahavishnu is the one to whome the sacrificial results be given.

End of the Third Eye

• Lakshmi Devi's adobe is in Vishnu's chest. When Brughu put his foot on it , lord Vishnu did not get angry , instead fell at Brughu's feet .
• This act irked Goddess Lakshmi.

Lakshmi Devi leaves

• Mahavishnu tries to convince Lakshmi Devi, but invain.
• She leaves Vaikunta.

Anger of Lakshmi Devi

• The trios ( trimurthy) and saints tried to convince the truth to Lakshmi Devi.
• But she did not care and set off to Kollapuram and began penance.

Lord's stay on Earth

• Mahavishnu came to Earth and meets Varaha Murthy . He stays at his place.
• As he did not have money to pay to Varaha Moorty , he granted him a boon that disciples may first visit Varaha before reaching to Vishnu's temple.
• Hence the ritual of visiting the Varaha Moorty temple before going to the tirupati temple.

The Cow and the Calf

• Mahavishnu starts penance sitting in a termitary.
• During his penance Lord Vishnu was tormented by lack of sleep and food.This was told to Parvaty Devi by Narada muni .
• On her request Lord Shiva and lord Brahma turned into cow and calf. Parvati Devi disguised as a cow heardess and sold the cow and calf to the king of Chola.

The Termitary

• Varaha mountain was a part of the kingdom of Chola.
• The cows to king Chola used to gaze in the forest. Lord brahma and Vishnu disguised as cow and calf also gased along with other herds. They would ooze milk every day on the termitary.
• One day the grazier saw this and reported to the king.

Curse on King Chola

• The next day king Chola hid near the termitary.
• The cow oozed milk. When the cattle sheperd strike the coz with an axe , Vishnu was trying to come out . He was hurt on the face.
• The shepherd fell unconcious . The king ran to Narayana and begged for mercy.
• Vishnu cursed him to become a devil. He said that in the next life he would be the God of sky. He would get salvation when Vishnu gets married to his daughter.
• Since the shepherd was the first man to see lord Vishnu on earth , his race would get the privilege to see him first in Vishnu's temple.

Vakula Malika treats Sri Hari

• Narayana got injured. He was searching for some medicine to cure the wounds. He heard a woman chanting the name of Sri Krishna from a nearby cloister. He met a woman named Vakula Malika in the cloister. She applied some medicine on the wound and comforted Narayana.
• During the incarnation of Narayana as Lord Krishna , Yeshoda could not see the marriage of Krishna. Knowing the sarrow of Yashoda , Krishna blessed her to fulfill her desire.
• Yashoda took rebirth as Vakula Malika and conducted the marriage of Srinivasa and Padmavati. Thus she attains salvation.

The field ploughed for Padmavati's arrival

• The king of sky had no children. So he made a sacrifice as directed by saint Suka.
• When he ploughed the field used for sacrifice, he got a box. In the chest , lied a girl child draped in a lotus having thousand petals.
• Since the child was found in a padmam ( lotus ) , she was named Padmavati.
• The king brought her up with care and love . She grew up to be a charming lady.

Srinivasa saves Padmavati

• Srinivasa went for hunting.
• He sees an elephant chading a young woman. At once he sent an arrow arrow at the elephant and killed it.
• Thus he rescued Padmavati from danger.

Love strikes

• Padmavati did not know who the captive man was and instantly fell in love with him .
• So did Srinivasa.
• They did not reveal this fact to each other and left the place calmly.

Srinivasa the Kurathy

• Srinivisa disguised as a Kurathy ( fortune teller ) and went to the kingdom of Chola. There he foretold people's future .
• In this course he realized that Padmavati was the daughter of the King of Sky.
• He made his way to the palace and took a fortune telling session for Padmavati. He told that the reason for Padmavati's sarrow is young man she had seen in the forest.
• He revealed that the man was Mahavishnu and directed the king to fix marriage between Srinivasa and Padmavati.

The Marriage Proposal

• Srinivasa gets the marriage invitation form the God of Sky.
• He became happy and shows the proposal to Vakula Malika whome he respected as his mother.
• She asks Srinivas how he could meet expenses of the marriage.
• He tells her that he was going to borrow money from Kubera - the richest God.

Srinivasa Borrows from Kubera

• Srinivas meets Kubera. Kubera lends him gold coins.
• Srinivasa promises to pay back the debt at the end of kaliyuga ( the present ).
• Brahma and Shiva stood as witnesses in the form of two pipal trees along the shore of the Pushkarani pond.
• We can see these trees to date near the pond in Thirumala.

All set off to the marriage

• Srinivasa starts off to the venue of his marriage on his vehicle - Garuda ( eagle ) .
• All Gods , saints and ascetics arrive to the marriage of Srinivasa.

The heavenly marriage

• God consecrated flowers and saints blessed and subjects happily celebrated the marriage.
• Thus the marriage was conducted in splendour.

Reason behind the whole Story

• Saint Narada informs Lakshmi Devi about the marriage.
• She stopps penance and reaches the cloister of Aghastya , where Srinivasa and Padmavati stayed.
• Goddess Lakshmi asked Srinivasa for justice.
• In the Ramayan , Maya Sita went to agni , lord of fire , instead of Sita. Maya Sita was Padmavati.
• Vishnu was Rama and Sita was Lakshmi Devi.
• Sita asked Rama to marry Maya Sita for the sacrifice she had done. But Rama refused ad the wanted to be monogamous.
• Rama said in the next birth he would be born as Srinivasa and marry her as Padmavati.
• Having recollected the past , Lakshmi Devi calmed down.