Sri
Venkateshwara Temple Consecration
The story behind
Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji, a Mahatma in the Dattatreya Tradition
has been spreading the message of peace, harmony, righteousness and
religious tolerance to the world since more than three decades. Sri
Swamiji is a Yoga Siddhi Purusha, a great messiah of Bhakti Yoga and
an extraordinary Nada Yogi. Sri Swamiji, who respects all faiths, has
travelled extensively throughout the world and has established Dattatreya
Temples in many countries and has kindled spiritual awareness in the
hearts of millions of devotees.
Sri Swamiji, who urges everyone to lead a sublime life with the help
of the innate spiritual energy and wisdom often encourages His devotees
to recharge their spiritual batteries by worshipping the Almighty God.
He emphasizes the fact that the best way to do it is to go to places
of worship as often as one can.
There is a highly symbolic history to the Venkateshwara Temple Complex,
which is going to be consecrated on 23rd June in Datta Peetham in Mysore.
Sri Swamiji established this Ashram in the scenic foothills of the Chamundi
Hill in Mysore way back in 1966. Since then Sri Datta Peetham has been
a hub of various spiritual, religious, social and cultural activities.
Navaratri, Shivaratri, Datta Jayanti and many other festivals are being
celebrated with great religious splendor and fervor. The recently inaugurated
Nada Mantapa is viewed as a crowing glory in the history of Datta Peetham.
Sri
Swamiji, has been like a great magnetic force ever since His childhood
days. His biography reveals as to how people were attracted to Him while
He was helping his uncle as an assistant priest in the temple in the
Chamundi Vana gardens. Mr. Tiruvengada Mudaliar and his family members
were among the first people who were greatly influenced by Sri Swamiji’s
spiritual aura. Mr. Mudaliar had once told about his dream to Sri Swamiji,
in which Lord Venkateshwara appeared one day and told him to donate
a piece of land to the Ashrama. Subsequent to the death of Mr. Mudaliar,
his sons came to Sri Swamiji and offered to fulfill their father’s
promise. But there were many hurdles and the government had to permit
the gift of the land. It must be mentioned here that at that time, Sri
Swamiji did not have any plans of building a temple. But it must be
the divine Sankalpa of Lord Venkateshwara Himself to have Datta Peetham
as his abode! An astonishing chain of extraordinary events took place
and it is in this piece of land that the present Temple complex is coming
up.
Many persons were involved in the long process which was to take place
for the temple to come up. When we enlist the names of people who were
involved, we find a striking coincidence, nay, a perfect divine plan.
There was one common denominator in their names – that was, each
name was somehow related to Lord Venkateshwara’s name! Saptagiri,
Venkatasubbaiah, Srinivas Achar, Govinda .. the list goes on. It was
now clear to everyone that the entire process was going on as per a
divine plan.
When the process was going on, a devotee in Manginapudi(near Machilipatnam
in Andhra Pradesh) offered an idol of Lord Venkateshwara which he had
found in the sea beach. It was as though Lord Venkateshwara was reminding
Sri Swamiji of His divine Sankalpa to make Datta Peetham one of His
holy abodes.
Around the same period, Rama Mohan (Govinda), a devotee from Madras
came to Sri Swamiji and expressed his wish to contribute for a small
Venkateshwara Temple in Datta Peetham. What started then as a small
temple gradually turned out to be a huge project consuming several millions
of rupees.
The temple architecture is much similar to the one in the holy Tirumala.
It is the firm belief of Datta devotees that the Lord of the seven hills
of Tirumala has Himself come to Datta Peetham.
The temple complex includes separate sancta sanctorum for Goddess Padmavati,
(the divine consort of Venkateshwara) Lord Ganapati, Lord Dhanvantari
and the Navagrahas. It is a beautifully aesthetic structure in front
of which is a huge Dhwaja Stambha(sacred flag post) made out of a 150
year old teak tree, specially brought from the deep forests of Kerala.
The week long consecration is going to be performed in the divine presence
of Sri Swamiji. Sri Anantapadmanabha Acharya, a renowned Vaikhanasa
Agama Pundit, assisted by scholarly Agamikas along with the main priests
and Vedic Scholars of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams have been placed
in charge of the consecration rituals. The event coincides with the
57th Birthday Celebrations of Poojya Sri Swamiji and thus promises to
be a memorable occasion.
We invite one and all to take part in this historic sacred event and
obtain the blessings of the Almighty God and Poojya Sri Swamiji.
Jaya Guru Datta.
The
story behind