KALIYUGA DAIVAM (the LORD OF KALIYUGA)

KALIYUGA DAIVAM (the LORD OF KALIYUGA) .
On the request of Sowanka and other sages, Sootha maharshi narrated them the story of Sri Venkateswara. Sage Narada who will always be moving from one place to another entered Sathya Loka and saluted his parents Barahama and Saraswathi told Brahma that after Krishna Avatar, Sri Hari did not go to Bhooloka again and therefore, it has become a hell, as innocent are teased by the wicked. They therefore decided that time has come when God has to appear again on earth and restore Dharma. Narada descended to Bhooloka and decided that Brighu Maharshi would conduct test as who among Trimurtis will bear the Yagna effect. Accordingly Brighu Maharshi first went to Satyaloka where Brahma was explaining the Vedas to several eminent rishis seated there.
When, Brighu Maharshi occupied the throne without showing any respect and without saluting, Brahma lost his temper and chided Brighu. Brighu got down from the throne and cursed Brahma saying "YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANY TEMPLE IN THE EARTH AND NONE WILL WORSHIP YOU".
Brighu, then went to Kailash where Shiva was in privacy with his wife Parvathi. Enraged Siva took his Trisool to finish Brighu but stopped on the intervention of Parvathi. Brighu in his turn also cursed Siva saying, "YOU WILL BE WORSHIPPED IN THE TEMPLE ON EARTH IN THE SHAPE OF "LINGA" INSTEAD OF YOUR REAL SHAPE", and left to Vaikuntham to request Maha Vishnu to bear the Yagna effects.
Maha Vishnu though aware of the arrival of Brighu pretended to be innocent resting on the Sesha Sayanam and Maha Laxmi sitting near his feet pressing them. Recalling the maltreatment meted out to him at Sathyaloka and Kailash, Brighu rushed towards Maha Vishnu and kicked him on his chest with right foot. Without showing any annoyance, Vishnu pinched the third eye that was embedded in Brighu's right foot with the result, he lost his power and pride. Repented Brighu then explained the purpose of his visit. Sri MahaVishnu promised to receive the benefit of Yagna being conducted by the eminent sages on the banks of Ganga at the appropriate time. Lakshmi who was witnessing all these acts however got angry with her husband especially because, he tended such a rude person who dishonored her by kicking in the chest of Maha Vishnu where she lived. When Lakshmi left Vaikuntham there was no pleasure and pomp. Maha Vishnu became helpless. He ran helter and skelter in search of Lakshmi without food and sleep and atlast reached Tirupati and took shelter in a Valmikam (anthill) at the Adi Varsha's shrine meditating for the return of Lakshmi.
Narada came to know the separation and the dwelling places of Lakshmi, at Kolhapur and of Maha Vishnu at Venkatachalam. Narada as directed by Brahma met her and narrated how Sri Hari is starving for food and much reduced. Worried Lakshmi prayed Brahma and Shiva and the three decided to take the shape of a cow, a calf and a cow-herd woman. As a cow-herd woman Lakshmi sold the cow and the calf to Chola King. In the guise of cow Brahma daily gave rain of milk to Sri Hari and returned home with no drop of milk.
The Chola Queen who desired to feed her child with the milk from the new cow suspected that the cow-herd boy of stealing the milk and ordered him to bring the milk of the new cow at any cost next day. With a fear of severe punishment the cow-herd boy followed the cow and saw at Valmiki it is raining milk through her breast. The cow-herd boy burst into anger and took his axe and tried to hurt the animal. Sri Hari immediately came out of the Valmiki (anthill) and saved the cow and bore that blow on his head and started bleeding profusely. The Chola King seeing the sprinkles of blood on the cow reached Valmiki and after hearing sighing sound from there found Maha Vishnu in a pool of blood. On seeing the Chola King Maha Vishnu got wild and cursed him to become a ghost as he got the wound through his cow-herd. Chola King begged for pardon. Maha Vishnu relented and gave him a boon to reborn in the same family as Akasa Raju. He pitied cow-heard boy and gave him a boon that his generation to have the first Darshan of the Lord in his temple.
Jaya and Vijaya who were the guards at the entrance of Vaikuntham became Harinyaksha and Hiranyakasipu with the curse of Sanakasada nanda and other Sages. Hiranyaksha was very cruel and troubling innocent people. Mahavishnu therefore took the form of white pig (Varaham) and diving into the sea killed Hiranyaksha and brought the earth up which he rolled it as a mat and hid in the Pathala loka.
The foster Mother of Lord Krishna, Yasoda Devi though tended him as a child never witnessed his marriages. Lord Krishna consoled her and promised to create an opportunity in Kaliyuga. Yasoda, therefore was born as Vakuladevi and became a devotee of Varaha Swamy. Sri Hari with a wounded head was wandering in the woods in search of a suitable medicine. On the advice of Brihaspati, the Guru of Devas who met him in the forest, went in search of a fig tree to apply its milk mixing it with the other herbs to the wound and chanced upon to hear Sri Krishna Bhajana and walked towards the cottage crying in pain "mother" "mother". Vakuladevi heard the call, and after fondly enquiring applied the medicine, fed him with some fruits and milk, and named him as Srinivasa. Sri Hari revealed to her his previous birth as Lord Krishna. Overjoyed, she bathed him and took to Varaha Swamy. On his request Varahaswamy gave him 100 sqft of land with a promise that all the pilgrims to Tirupati first visit his Temple, then have Darshan of Sri Venketeswara. The image of Sri Venkateswara is self manifest (Swayambhu) and not prepared by any mortal.
The celebrated temple of Sri Venkateswara stands on a hill named Venkatadri. It is very difficult to determine the date of this temple. Inscriptions found in the temple only refer to its renovation, rebuilding and addition made to the main temple. The earliest inscription found at Tirumala records the birth of Bana Prince named Vijayaditya who ruled during the half of the 9th Century A.D. The first mention of the temple on the hill is to be found in an inscription assignable to 970 A.D. A renovation made in the 13th Century was done as to preclude a view of the original Sanctum. From then onwards the rulers who ruled the place and devoted to the Lord made several gifts and offerings and structural changes whenever necessary.

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Glories Of Temple Construction

Glories Of Temple Construction .

In the Puranas, there’s an inspiring history of a dacoit (thief) who due to his karma was going through a difficult period. One evening he shared the camp of a party of pilgrims who invited him to share their meal. While honoring theirprasadam together, the pilgrims, who were devotees, were describing the wonderful opulence of the beautiful temple of Lord BALAJI that they have recently visited. The dacoit then prayed within his mind as follows, “O Lord, You are the cause of all causes and the maintainer of every living being, by Your transcendental sanction (anumanta), my destiny is that of being a thief, and it has been many months since I have been able to steal anything worthwhile in order to maintain my livelihood. My situation has now become so desperate that I shall now steal from You at this opulent temple that these pilgrims have described to me”.

And so the dacoit went to the holy place where the temple of Lord Krishna was situated and upon entering the temple through the seven gates, he saw that the opulence was much more than he expected. SHREE BALAJI were decorated with fabulous gold ornaments incrusted with huge diamonds, rubies and emeralds, even Lord Krishna’s aratiplates and bowls were made of solid gold. Following the example of the other pilgrims, he offered his prostrated obeisances and mentally prayed to the Lord for forgiveness for coming there to steal from Him. But that he had no choice seeing his situation was so desperate.

After carefully studying the rounds of the guards and the temple timings, he made his plan and, choosing a stormy night during the new moon, he climbed over the temple walls and entered into the temple. Due to the stormy weather, he noticed his feet were covered in mud. On the marble floor slabs of the temple entrance, there was one corner of a floor slab that was missing, so he scraped the mud off his feet against the hole, thus filling up that missing corner of the slab. Then he broke in. Once in front of the Deities he offered his obeisances, took the Deity’s dhoti off, spread it on the floor, put all the valuables and gold articles on it, thus making a bundle. Then he again offered his obeisances, praying to the Lord for forgiveness for having stolen from Him, and made his escape. While climbing over the last wall, due to the rain he slipped from the rope and fell down at the bottom of the wall. The bundle of paraphernalia made a loud clattering sound which alerted the soldiers guarding the entrance gate. Upon discovering that the thief had dared to steal from their worshipable Lord, they became so angry that they beat the dacoit to death. The Yamadutas (the servants of the demigod of death and hell, Yamaraja), came to take him to hell, but were prevented from doing so by effulgent Vishnudutas (four handed servants of Lord Vishnu) who suddenly appeared before them. The Yamadutas inquired, “How come you want to save this sinful soul from punishment in hell? All his life he has been committing all kinds of crimes and sinful activities, and now he has had the audacity to steal from the Supreme Lord Himself.”

The vishnudutas replied, “By his prostrated obeisances when first entering the temple, all his past sinful activities were forgiven. By having filled up that missing corner of the temple room floor slab, even though only with mud, still he has acquired a house in Vaikuntha (the anxiety-free Kingdom of God). After stealing from Lord Krishna’s Deity, he prayed for forgiveness while offering his humble obeisances. Thus the all merciful Lord has pardoned him and sent us to bring him to His spiritual world.” So we can see from this story how beneficial it is to participate in even the smallest way in the construction of a temple where the Supreme Personality of Godhead is worshipped with love and devotion.

In the Srimad Bhagavatam we find the following verses: “By installing the Deity of the Lord, one becomes king of the entire earth, by building a temple for the Lord, one becomes ruler of the three worlds, by worshiping and serving the deity, one goes to the planet of Lord Brahma, and by performing all three of these activities one achieves a transcendental form like My own. But one who simply engages in devotional service with no consideration of fruitive results attains Me. Thus whoever worships Me according to the process I have described will ultimately attain pure devotional service unto Me.”

And, “One who offers the Deity gifts of the land, markets, cities and villages so that the regular worship and special festivals of the Deity may go on continuously will achieve opulence equal to My own”.

In the Narsimha Purana we find: “O devoted one, one who builds a beautiful temple for Lord Nrsimhadeva will be freed from all sinful reactions and he will enter the Vaikuntha planets.”

In the Skanda Purana there is the following verse: “Just by starting the construction of a temple for Lord Krishna, sins committed in seven births will be wiped out and one will deliver his forefathers who are suffering in the hellish planets.”

In the Vamana Purana we find the following verses: “Whoever constructs or helps to construct a Vishnu temple will protect eight generations of fathers, grandfathers, and forefathers from falling into hell.”

And, “By building a temple for Sri Madhava, one can attain the eternal spiritual world (Vaikuntha). One who offers a garden laden with fruits and flowers for the service of the Deity will attain heavenly pleasures.”

In the Vishnu Dharmottara, “A person who builds a temple of Sri Vishnu will get the same results as performing the Rajasuya yajna and Ashwameda yajna. O best of the brahmanas, as many atoms as there are in the temple, for so many thousands of years will he be able to reside in the heavenly planets.”

As you can see from the above quoted Puranic histories and verses, all of you who have helped with financial and material contributions, or physically given a hand, and are still helping, how much spiritual benefit you will derive. All those of you who have not yet had the opportunity of helping in the construction of SHREE BALAJI temple need not despair. There are many aspects of the temple that are as yet unfinished, due to insufficient funds and time. Actually SHREE BALAJI temple has mainly been built from numerous small donations from the poorer sections of our society. However, personally I think that it’s a shame that everyone in INDIA, rich and poor alike don’t get the opportunity of benefiting from engaging in devotional service to the Supreme Lord.

My humble entreaty to all my INDIAN compatriots is “Please don’t waste your lives in fruitless materialistic endeavors and goals. Make your lives perfect by rendering loving devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

In the Bhagavad-gita (2.44), Lord Krishna says, “In the minds of those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered by such things, the resolute determination for devotional service to the Supreme Lord does not take place”.

If one contributes towards temple construction, devotional service becomes increasingly a more tangible and feasible reality in one’s life. The intent to build temples around the world, is especially to provide an opportunity for fallen souls everywhere to acquire spiritual benefit by participation and charity. This is known as ajnata sukriti, which means pious credit acquired unknowingly.

Please take advantage of this rare occasion by coming forward and helping us in our service to construct SHREE BALAJI temple . By doing so, you will find that your lives will become happy and prosperous and that the darling of all our hearts (Paramatma - Supersoul) will fulfill all desires.