Tirupati Balaji Stories, Facts, Birth, Puja, History
be here. Whenever you visit South India, you would most probably hear the name of Tirupati
Balaji temple. In this post, I will tell you about Tirupati Balaji.
This temple is one of the wealthiest and popular temples of India. Tirupati Balaji is a very
This temple is the second richest temple of India. It has assets worth over 320 crores in rupees,
which is almost 3.2 billions.
Over 50,000 to 1,00,000 people visit this temple on a daily basis. While on special functions, the
visitors shoot up to 5,00,000. This temple gets donations of almost 650 crores annually.
Who is Lord Tirupati Balaji?
name of the deity comes from the 7 peaks present here. These 7 peaks together are called
Venkatachala.
Lord Venkateshwar is the lord of this Venkatachala. He is the present form of Lord Vishnu in
Kaliyuga. According to scriptures and local folks, Lord Vishnu himself incarnated here in the
form of a boy named Srinivasa.
He came here to solve the problems of his devotees and eliminate all the problems of them. He
did Leelas here to be incarnated here and live with the people. He is also known as Venkata,
Venkatesh, Govinda, Balaji, Srinivasa etc.
This temple has been revered by many popular saints. Many notable saints such as Ramanuja,
Ramanand, Chaitanya, Mahaprabhu, Adi Shankaracharya have visited this temple and paid
obeisances to the Lord.
The Story of Tirupati Balaji
temple is located on the Seshachalam hill range. It is said that the Seshachalam range
represents Lord Adi Shesh.
The head of him is believed to be here in the form of these 7 peaks. The tail of this range houses
Lord Mallikarjun (Shiva) at its last end, Srisailam. The Shrine of Lord Venkatesh is on the 7th
and the last peak and is known as Venkatadri.
The other 6 peaks are Vrushabhadri, Anjanadri, Neeladri, Garudadri, Seshadri, Narayanadri
respectively. These peaks have their own respective presiding deities.
The 7 peaks symbolize the 7 heads of Sheshnaga. The Vrushabhadri peak houses the shrine of
Lord Rishabh (an incarnation of Vishnu). The Anjanadri peak houses the shrine of Lord
Hanuman (Devotee of Lord Ram).
The Neeladri peak houses the shrine of Neela Devi (a form of Bhudevi which is again an
incarnation of Lakshmi). The Garudadri peak houses the shrine of Lord Garudadev (the mount
of Vishnu).
The Seshadri peak contains the shrine of Lord Sheshnaga (the sacred snake on which Vishnu
sleeps). The last is Narayanadri, which again houses the shrine of Lord Narayana who is a form
of Lord Maha Vishnu.
Birth of Tirupati balaji
saints, kings, Gods went there. When this Yagya was going to start, a doubt arose in
everybody’s mind.
The doubt was that to whom they shall give the fruits of this Yagya? There were three supreme
deities Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu. So it was decided that Rishi Bhrigu, who was
the most intelligent of them, will test the three deities.
So that they can give the fruits to the right person. When Rishi Bhrigu went to Kailash and
Satyaloka, the abodes of Shiva and Brahma, nobody noticed him, and he passed by there. At
last, he visited the abode of Vishnu, which is Vaikuntha.
When he visited there, he saw the lord sleeping. The Rishi became angry and thought it to be an
insult for him. In anger, he kicked the lord on his chest. The lord woke up suddenly.
With a very humble voice, he started gently massaging the feet of the Rishi. He said that his
hard chest had brought damage to the tender foot of the Rishi, so he started massaging it. Then
the sage realized his mistake and praised Vishnu for his humbleness.
He then declared that the fruits will be given to Vishnu only. However, when Goddess Lakshmi
came to know about all this incident, She became furious and took it as an insult for her and her
husband.
Lord Vishnu tried to convince her, but she didn’t accept her and left Vaikuntha. She went into
Earth and took birth as a girl named Padmavathi in the house of the King of Andhra Pradesh.
When Lord Vishnu came to know that Lakshmi had left Vaikuntha, He started finding her.
Then he realized that She had taken birth on Earth. Seeing this, He also took birth as a boy named
Srinivasa in the house of a poor Brahmin lady named Vakula.
One day, Padmavathi was going in a garden with her friends. Then a huge and furious elephant
came there. The princess and her friends were scared, seeing that elephant. Then only came
Srinivasa there.
When the elephant saw Srinivasa, he became calm, bowed down to Srinivasa and then went
again into the forests. Seeing this, Padmavathi was very much impressed.
Srinivasa was also impressed by seeing Padmavathi, her beauty and luster. Gradually they both
fell in love and decided to marry. Srinivasa gave a proposal to the King, and seeing the Supreme
Lord himself giving this proposal, the king instantly accepted it.
But the matter was that Srinivasa was from a poor family. To host a Grand wedding for meeting
the status of Supreme Lord, He took a huge loan from Quber Deva, the lord of wealth.
He made an agreement that he would pay off the loan with the interests to Quber Deva till the
end of Kaliyuga. Thus, he came into a debt.
That’s why devotees offer a lot of gold and money to help their God to pay off the debt. Also,
people cut their hair completely to pay obeisances to the Lord.
The History of Tirupati Balaji temple
was made by the Pallava queen Samavai who offered land and wealth to the temple.
Many dynasties such as Pallavas, Chola, Vijayanagara have been notable contributors of this
temple. The temple gained high exposure and wealth under the Vijayanagara dynasty.
The Seven peaks or Adris of Venkatachala Hill
tank known as the Adi Pushkarini Lake. The temple has three main gates which lead to the
Garbha Griha (sanctum sanctorum).
There are three compounds. The Innermost compound is the main shrine of Lord Venkata. The
deity is placed with the other two Goddesses, Lakshmi and Padmavathi (a form of Lakshmi).
The temple also contains shrines of Vakulamatha (the mother of Lord Venkata), Quber dev (who
gave a loan to him), Goddess Lakshmi. The deity here is Lord Venkateshwara.
The shrine of Vakulamatha and the temple’s kitchen are built adjacent and there is a hole in the
wall. It is believed that she supervises the priests to make the food which is to be given to her
son.
Some amazing facts about Tirupati Balaji
Secret of an unknown village
For the worship of the deity housed in the Temple, the flowers, clarified butter, milk, butter-milk, holy leaves and more such accessories are sourced from a secret village located about twenty-two kilometers away from Tirupati Balaji. This little village has never been seen or visited by any other person except its own local villagers.
The Vigraham is not in the centre
The vigraha of Lord Venkateshwar placed can appear to be kept in the center of the sanctum sanctorum, but technically, it is not. The vigraha is actually placed in the right hand corner of the Garbha-Gruha.
Real hair of Balaji
The hair worn by Lord Balaji is silky, smooth, and absolutely real! The story behind those real locks is very interesting. Once, Lord Balaji, during his regime on earth, lost some of his hair in an unexpected accident. A Gandharva Princess named Neela Devi came to know of this incident, and cut a portion of her hair. She offered those chopped hair of her to the deity and requested him to plant them on his head. Pleased with her devotion, the god accepted this kind offering of her. He promised that whoever visits his temple and sacrifices his/her hair at his feet will be blessed. Ever since, it has been a tradition among the devotees to shave their head off in the temple before or after their desires are fulfilled.
Sea waves behind Lord Balaji’s idol
You may want to hear to believe, but a fact about this temple is that the sound of the enormous sea waves can be heard if one puts his/her ear on the back of the deity’s vigraha housed in the shrine.
Perpetual lit lamps
The light of a devotee’s heart for his Lord never gets extinguished, so does the earthen lamps placed before the vigraha of the deity in the sanctum sanctorum of the Temple. There are no reliable records about the time when these lamps were lit.
Venkateswara Swamy had once appeared in real
In the 19th century, the King of this region imposed death sentence on twelve people for committing a heinous crime. The twelve of them were hung by their necks until death. After the death, the body of the criminals were left hanging on the walls of the Tirupati temple. It was at that time the god had himself appeared.
Misty idol
For an inexplicable reason, the back of the vigraha always remains moist, despite the priests always try to keep it dry.