Sri Venkateswara – The God who opened eyes for chanting his holy name

A journey to have darshan of God who dwells in seven Hills

A dream vision that made me realize how God responds to the love we show on them.

Sri Venkateswara Swamy of Tirumala Hills – Tirupati

The God who opens his eyes to bless devotees who chants his holy name with love and devotion

Sairam friends,

It was early morning on November 4th 1978 . My father had been with his friends to have darshan of Lord Sri Venkateswara in Tirumala Tirupati after official duty in Chennai. Those were the days where you can’t send good news by mobile phones . One of his friend gave him the news “your son has born” since the office people got a phone call from my mothers village.

When ever i am fed up with life and ask my parents why they named me Venkatraman my father replies “I was in Tirupati when i got news about your birth”. Another reason was since my fathers name is Chandrasekaran he thought his son will become someone as big a scientist as Sir.C.V.Raman. Oh that never came true . What came true was my Love for Lord Sri Venkateswara.

Darshan of Lord Venkateswara teaches us the art of patience – Wait …wait..Your turn will come :

When i was very little in early 1980’s , my parents had took me to Tirupati . All i remembered about that trip was we were asked to sit in a huge que like cell and every few hours , the grill will be opened to reach the next few cells/rooms where devotees had to wait to take darshan of Lord Sri Venkateswara. I was too small to understand we are going to have darshan of God and got fed up with the waiting.

My devotion towards Lord Venkateswara :

I used to worship Lord Ganesha and Murugan a lot for years along with Shirdi Sai baba. Somehow i never really had the attachment or lets say devotion on Lord Venkateswara of Tirumala , Tirupati as i felt having named after this God, he never favoured me and all the i desired in my career and personal life never happened. Some strange feeling which made me feel this is a God of rich people, who blessed them for the money they offer in the temple and that Sri Venkateswara won’t bless ordinary people like me.

Years later , a Sacred Journey to have darshan of Lord Sri Venkateswara :

My father always used to say from 2005, you must go Tirupati because “The one who goes Tirupati and returns will have a positive change in their life ”

In 2007, my neighbors planned to go Tirupati and i was asked to join them. The car started in Coimbatore by night.

Chanting “Sai Vengusa ” Contineously all through the journey towards Tirupati :

Narasimha swamiji has mentioned in one of his books that the Guru of Saint shirdi sai baba is known as Vengusa and he has meditated in Tirumala for over 12 years worshipping Sri Venkateswara swamy. Many sai devotees has contradictory views to this concept of Narasimha swamiji as they feel Shirdi Sai baba himself is a incarnation and that he has no Guru. I too totally don’t have any idea about it but i liked the name “Vengusa ” . So the simple way to chant was discovered as “Sai Vengusa ”

I used to chant Sai Sai Sai always and this time since i am going to Tirupati , i felt like calling Sri Venkateswara swamy as ” Vengusa ” .

I started chanting

Sai Vengusa

Sai Vengusa

Sai Vengusa

in my mind itself for hours together…i was mingling with others who came to pilgrimage but in my mind , the chanting was going on… I truly imagined how it would have been if really Sri Venkateswara is in my heart , imagined as if i am offering flowers to Sai and venkateswara and continued to chant.

at times i also chanted

“Om Namo Naarayanaya

Om Namo Venkatesaya

Om Namo Srinivaasaaya”

Reached Tirumala by evening :

We reached Tirumala by evening , had coffee, dosa etc. One aunt went with her husband to offer her hair and then we reached the room. We started again to book for Angapradhikshanam – Rolling our body as an offering to God around the temple. The Que was long but by Sai grace we were able to get the opportunity. We are supposed to take bath the next day late night may be at 1.PM and go for the Angapradhikshana.

Taking bath in cold water , Shivering too early in the morning to do Angapradhikshana :

We woke up at 12.30 in night, took the car some where near the sacred Pushkarini to have bath. I wore vesti and a towel around my hip. All of us were shivering too much while walking towards Holy Pushkarini. That day, for maintainance purpose, it was closed and all we had is a pipe to take bath.

I was chanting “Sai Vengusa…Sai Vengusa….Naraayana…Venkatraama…Shivering and pouring water over myself.

Angapradhikshana – Offering ourselves – This Body in the holy feets of Lord Sri Venkateswara :

I wonder how i can describe the spiritual meaning of Angapradhikshana .

It could be like , we are surrendering oneself – our body, mind and soul in the holy feets of the great Lord Sri Venkateswara swamy.

We are supposed to roll around the temple on the floor . The 3 sides sides of the temple will be covered by rolling ourselves. Then we will be allowed to have darshan of Lord Sri Venkateswara . Sometimes we only have to do Angapradhishana and darshan is not allowed.

Anyway,

We were waiting for the Angapradhikshana timings around 3-4A.M , i am not sure of timings friends. Then we went in que and laid down on the floor, kept our palms upwards and joined palms as if praying Venkateswara and started rolling.

Most devotees chant in praise of the lord as this

Venkatramana,

Govindha…Govindhaa.Govindhaaa..

I felt good for this friends..the physical strain in rolling is never felt, we happily felt a blissful feeling as we continued to roll chanting in praise of the Lord. I also reciting Mahalakshmi Ashtakam while rolling and once in a while chanting Sai Vengusa and Om Namo Narayanaya , Om Namo Venkatesaya and Om Namo Srinivaasaya.

Finally the 3 sides of temple was covered and we woke up slowly . We all felt satisfied as we got opportunity to do Angapradhikshina in holy Tirupati temple – The adobe of Srinivasa.

A holy Dream vision which made me realize how much the god responds to the devotion we show on him :

We all came back to room around 4.30 A.M after having tea, Took bath and slept. I hugged the holy Sai Satcharitra book on my chest friends. I was too tired and slept nicely. The surprise was the dream i had ..

In the dream i saw this..

I saw a small temple…Its like temple inside which we can only keep idol of God and cannot enter. I mean to say it was like small temple some people construct in house. The temple had Lord Sri Venkateswara swamy beautifully shining with all his glory.

A priest is showing lamps, Aaarti to Lord Venkateswara swamy.

Suddenly i hear a voice,

“Crores of devotees comes to see me and today i am opening my eyes to see you “

As soon as I heared this voice, I saw

Lord Sri Venkateswara opening his eyes, It was not a ordinary way of simply opening friends. It was as if his eyes were twinkling and like a flash light , he opened his eyes for a moment, closed it in fraction of second, again the eyes were opened. It was like a divine play of Lord Sri Venkateswara. Even when i write this i could feel how little we humans ask only for materialistic benefits from Venkateswara but the God on other hand responds for our devotion by giving a dream to even a very ordinary person like me.

Then while Sri Venkateswara swamy was opening his eyes , i am taking the aarti and showing to the Lord with such happiness i can’t write in words.

After few minutes, i woke up and can remember this dream very clearly.

I remembered something i saw last evening,

We went to meet a bank officer as soon as we reached Tirupati . He had a poster on his table with the photo of sri venkateswara swamy and a wonderful wordings

“Its not the Darshan you Get – Its the darshan he gives ”

How beautiful and meaningful is this sacred words friends. We all say we had darshan of God when we go to any temple but in true sense, its the darshan the god gives us out of love on us.

The dream i had was so touching that i felt my life will have a positive turn from then on… That day , we had good darshan of Venkateswara and i thanked swamy for blessing me with such a dream.

What really god wants me to tell the world through this dream :

I wanted to make a seperate website for Lord Sri Venkateswara writing about this leela as soon as i came to Coimbatore. It was 2007 and now its 2010 when i actually write this article friends. I din’t had much change in my career or personal life and still have some problems. All i know is Lord Venkateswara blessings are on me and someday i will tell the world that such thing happened in my life during my pilgrimage to Tirupati.

When i look back with love on Lord Tirupati and Kalyani , i felt how did they bless me with such a beautiful dream . There are so many people who are more devoted to Tirupati Venkateswara swamy than me. I know few people only worship this God alone. I don’t wake up early in morning or lead any kind of spiritual life.

Only thing that my father follows is Listening to Vishnu Sahasranaanam every single day and writing “Shree RaamaJayam ” in a note book.

So may be Lord Venkateswara swamy wants me to let all his devotees know the greatness of chanting the Gods name, any small mantra or focussing your mind on God during your Tirupati pilgrimage.

Friends, All i did was childishly choosing to chant “Sai Vengusa ” and ” Om namo Narayanaya ” on my way to tirupati and all through my stay there.

May be you also can try to chant any mantra or simple holy name of Lord Sri Venkateswara, Some of you who can recite Vishnu Sahasranamam can also recite it in your journey.

Chanting in Mind is very powerful :

I was contineously chanting only in my mind and never realized i will be blessed with such a dream vision. I know Lord Sri Venkateswara has a heart that melts for any innocent , pure devotion shown on him. Keep chanting any small holy name like

“Om Namo Narayanaya”

“Govindha”

or any small mantra you like,

Surely you will feel the blessings of Lord Shree Venkateswara is on you and your family.

Note : Not all get dreams and even i may not get such beautiful dream again. What matters is the message from this experience. Don’t give importance only to darshan. Lord Sri Venkateswara dwells in your own heart and the little temple i saw was the temple i made in my imagination.

So learn to see the God in you and when you go Tirumala , thank the Lord for the Darshan you had inside , The self realization you had in youself .

After this trip to Tirupati,

I realized this too is a God who’s heart melts for pure devotion.

Imagine the dream friends, How beautiful itself to see the God who opens eyes for simply chanting his holy name for one single day.

Please chant any small holy name of any God you like or any small mantra you like atleast 10 minutes a day.

The God lives in you, There’s a little universe and little temple in yourself, when you do Naam smaran or any form of bhakti whole heartedly, The God responds to you.

Om Namo Narayanaya

Om Namo Venkatesaya

Om Namo Srinivaasaaya

C.Venkatraman

July 20th 2010

Write your experiences with Lord Venkateswara and Sai.

Sairam friends, Though i am working on StarSai.com writing articles to inspire and motivate sai devotees in the path of light for past 6 years from 2004, The blog was started only in 2009 and yes though i have already crossed 100 articles, This is the 100th blog and i wanted to write about the sweet experience i got from devotion on Lord Sri Venkateswara during my journey to Tirumala Tirupati.

Note : StarSai.com only inspires devotion on Sai and all Gods with divine experiences . Other information about Tirumala Tirupati, Darshan timings , Accomodation details can be found in below website. Please contact them directly.

Tirumala.org – Tirumala Tirupati Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple Darshan and Photos

Wikipedia.com – Tirumala Venkateswara Temple

I am happy to announce Starsai Family is blessed with Lord Sri Venkateswara as its my 100th article in blog section. This was in 2010, now in the year 2020, StarSai has reached over 1700 articles.