Timeline for What is the reason/story behind Lord Sri Venkateshwara called as Balaji?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
21 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2, 2018 at 4:55 | answer | added | user2225190 | timeline score: 0 | |
| May 2, 2018 at 4:53 | comment | added | user2225190 | It is Hathiram Bavaji who gave Lord Venkateshwara the name of Balaji. This is because Lord Venkateshwara appeared in front of him as a boy, so he called him as Balaji. If you have any doubt, see this movie en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_Namo_Venkatesaya :) | |
| Mar 18, 2017 at 17:58 | history | edited | Keshav Srinivasan♦ |
edited tags
|
|
| Mar 18, 2017 at 17:58 | history | edited | Sarvabhouma |
edited tags
|
|
| Jan 4, 2017 at 4:41 | history | edited | Sarvabhouma |
edited tags.
|
|
| Jan 4, 2017 at 4:41 | answer | added | Sarvabhouma | timeline score: 8 | |
| Apr 20, 2016 at 11:40 | comment | added | Sarvabhouma | "Raamaanujaa divyaajnaam vardhatham abhivardhatham" this line is recited at every Venkateshwara temple along with other acharya taniyan. | |
| Apr 20, 2016 at 11:38 | comment | added | Sarvabhouma | @KeshavSrinivasan The story of Ramanujacharya becoming a snake and putting the Shankha and Chakra is just a story added later. What actually happens is Ramanujacharya prays the Lord to chose his right form and prove to the world what he actually is. When they opened the doors the next morning, all the weapons and ornaments except the Shankha and Chakra fell down. Then Ramanujacharya put Shankha and Chakra according to Pancharatra Agama to the Lord and thus became acharya to the God. Venkateshwara ordered the Yadava king to chant the name of Ramanuja every time they take His name at Tirumala. | |
| Feb 26, 2016 at 3:53 | comment | added | Narayanan | Just to add what is being said, just the presence of Sanka and Chakra alone does not stand as an identity of paramapursha Sri Vasudeva. Many nithya soories do have this capability and in one explanation when Alwar saw the Lord he was convinced by seeing Sri Mahalakshmi (& Srivatsam) and confirmed that it is the Lord indeed. The explanator says that is the reason he says 'திரு கண்டேன்' (saw Sri Mahalakshmi) as the first word the moment he saw the Lord. Perhaps this is what that chief priest would have followed. | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 17:33 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | @AnilKumar I'm not sure how where the story Ramanujacharya turning into a snake comes from. It's possible that Ramanujacharya told his disciples that he did that, but I think it's more likely that it's just speculation because Sri Vaishnavas consider Ramanujacharya an incarnation of Adiseshan and so they just assumed that he turned into a snake. And yeah, Ramanujacharya gives very detailed arguments, both based on the appearance of the statue and based on scriptural accounts of the story of Venkateshwara, for why the statue must be Vishnu. I suggest you read the Venkatachala Itihasamala. | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 17:27 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | @AnilKumar Well, what I told you is that the vertical Sudarshana Chakra seems to be a universal feature of Vishnu statues, not just in Tirupati, so I speculated that maybe Vishnu holds his chakram vertically when it's not in use and then spins it on his finger only when he's about to launch it. In any case, yeah, the current Shankha and Chakra are not the originals, they're just a little over a thousand years old. Venkateshwara gave the originals to his devotee king Thondaman so that Thondaman could win his battle, and then it's not known what happened to them after that. | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 16:46 | comment | added | The Destroyer♦ | @KeshavSrinivasan Chakra and Shanka are not original one? I asked you why His chakra is vertical rather than horizontal and you told me other reason? Anyways, how did Sri Vaishnavas know that Ramanujacharya put weapons? I saw a video where Ramadeekshutulu Pantulu (main preist of TTD) explained statue as Vishnu by describing His chest and face. He says statue is extra terrestial and Ramana deekshutulu has PHD in microbiology. It was prophesied by VeeraBrahmam garu that temple of Tirupati will gain prominence over temples. | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 13:52 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | @Surya By the way, the reason the ornaments argument started is that the statue didn't have its original Shankha and Chakra. In fact that was one of the arguments that people used against the statue being Vishnu: "If it's Vishnu then where are his Shankha and Chakra?" Ramanujacharya explained how the Puranas say that Venkateshwara donated his Shankha and Chakra to the king Thondaman when Thondaman was fighting his civil war, but his arguments fell on deaf ears. In any case, the current Shankha and Chakra the statue is holding aren't the original divine Shankha and Chakra. | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 13:49 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | @Surya Well, Adiseshan is an incarnation of Vishnu, so either way Vishnu was the one who did it. It's up to Vishnu how he chooses to carry out his miracles. Perhaps he did not want to break the pose that he had assumed all the way back when he got married to Padmavathi, he may have wanted to remain permanently in that position for the duration of the Kali Yuga. Ramanujacharya just wanted to show the other priests a miracle to convince them, it doesn't matter what the nature of the miracle was. | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 13:38 | comment | added | Surya | @Keshav Your first answer dazzled me and the second chagrined me. Why on earth should Ramanuja do that? Wasn't it he who set the condition that the doors should be locked? Isn't perumal capable enough to hold his own Ayudhas? | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 13:22 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | @Surya That settled the matter once and for all, and Tirupati has been a Vishnu temple ever since. Sri Vaishnavas believe that what really happened is that Ramanujacharya, being an avataram of Adiseshan, took the form of a tiny snake and went through the crevice of the door and then put the Shankha and Chakra on the statue. By the way, if you want to see Ramanujacharya's arguments for why it must be Vishnu, as well as the story of how he saved the temple, you can read the Venkatachala Itihasamala: archive.org/details/srivenkatachalai015452mbp | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 13:02 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | @Surya Because there was a controversy concerning who the statue depicted, there was a perpetual fight over what ornaments to put in the statue's hands, e.g. Kaumaras wanted to put a Vel in his lower hand. Now Ramanujacharya had first given detailed scriptural arguments showing that the statue is Vishnu, but the priests of other sects weren't willing to listen. So he proposed a test: put all the proposed ornaments in the Garbagraha and lock the doors overnight, and let the statue choose its ornaments. In the morning, when the doors were unlocked, the statue was holding the Shankha and Chakra! | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 6:43 | comment | added | Surya | @Keshav What was Ramanuja's experiment of locked doors? | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 4:30 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | By the way, this book says there's no record of the name Balaji before the 17th century: books.google.com/… | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 4:27 | comment | added | Keshav Srinivasan♦ | There are two theories on why he's called Balaji: one that it's taken from Balaka, a name of Krishna conveying his youthful appearance, and the other that it's taken from Bala which is a name of Durga, from the days when people used to consider the statue to be Durga. You see, there was a time when there was a lot of confusion on the identity of the statue; various people thought it was Vishnu, Shiva, Kartikeya, Durga, and Buddha. This confusion was resolved by Ramanujacharya, who gave both arguments for why it must be Vishnu, and he demonstrated it was Vishnu using the locked-doors miracle. | |
| Feb 25, 2016 at 4:07 | history | asked | Narayanan | CC BY-SA 3.0 |