LORD VENKETESWARA - TIRUPATI

LORD VENKETESWARA - TIRUPATI

Lord Venkateswara or Balaji is considered to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu himself. It is believed that he came to reside on the southern bank of Swami Pushkarni, a tank which passes by Tirumala. The seven hills around Tirumala-Tirupati are also known as Sapthagiri after the seven hoods of Sheshnag – the cosmic serpent. The temple of Sri Venkateswara is located on the seventh peak, Venkatadri. According one legend, as Saint Ramanuja born in 11th Century AD climbed the seven hills of Tirupati, Lord Srinivas- another name for Lord Venkateswara- appeared before him and gave him his blessings. And after that he is believed to have been blessed to live till the ripe age of 120 years to spread the gospel of Sri Venkateswara. Tirumala and Tirupati, though thoroughly highly sacred places of pilgrimage only, they also offer fullest proof of their pristine beauty of a tourist potentiality and the reason why they remain the abode of many a great saint from time immemorial. Tirumala especially is renowned in many Vedic scriptures to be the abode of a 1000 "Theerthas" or sacred mountain streams and rivulets in its entire green expanse. Many of these have been discovered but they are only about a dozen or so. Many of them are still esoteric basically because of the terrain of the jungle and the lack of people who know a good part of these forests and the lore thoroughly. Even the discovered ones have been able to be discovered because of their Vedic fame since the "beginning" like The Tumburu Theertham and The Akashganga, Paapavinashanam and Kumaaradhaara theertham. Tirumala hills are embedded with such exquisite places that only seen to be believed. Sri Tallapaka Annamacharya (1408-1503) the mystic saint composer of the 15th century is the earliest known musician of South India to compose songs called “sankIrtanas” in praise of Lord Venkateswara, the deity of Seven Hills in Tirumala, India where unbroken worship is being offered for over 12 centuries. Annamcharya is believed to be the incarnation of Lord Venkateswara's. nandaka (Sword). During his long and prolific career, Annamacharya composed and sang 32,000 Sankirtanas, 12 Satakas (sets of hundred verses), Ramayana in the form of Dwipada,SsankIrtana Lakshanam (Characteristics of sankIrtanas), Sringaara Manjari, and Venkatachala Mahatmamyam. His works were in Telugu, Sanskrit and a few other languages of India One of the primary objectives of Tirumala Tirupati Devsthanams (TTD) is to ensure that comfortable accommodation is provided to pilgrims at a reasonable cost. TTD has constructed around 4850+ cottages, guesthouses and choultries both at Tirupati and Tirumala. TTD provides accommodation free of cost to pilgrims who cannot afford to pay for their stay in Tirupati and Tirumala. Further, to ease the demand for accommodation, TTD has built Public Amenities Complexes at both Tirupati and Tirumala, which provide dormitory-type accommodation with lockers, free of cost.   http://www.tirumala.org/maintemple_about.htm http://www.mustseeindia.com/Tirupati/how-to-reach