The Ambrosial Glory of Tirumala

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The Ambrosial Glory of Tirumala is an English translation of the Tirumala Leelamrutham written by Mr. PVRK Prasad, IAS (Retd), in Telugu It delves deep into the power and glory of Tirumala shrine and its Lord Shri Venkateshwara as evidenced in the many Puranas. The authordexterously combines the mythological and historical evidences with his own personal experiences, and knowledge gained through interaction with scholars. The book is a well-researched study. It seeks to answer many doubts that crop up in the minds of common people about the Tirumala shrine and the various mythological stories centring around Lord Venkateshwara, his manifestation on the earth in this shrine, his marriage with Padmavathi and the glory of the Lord and the holy teerthas located on the hill, etc.

The book makes an interesting study as it aptly begins with the mystery surrounding the conch and the discus of the Lord. As we find the conch and discus in gold attached to the idol of the Lord, we get the doubt does the Lord really possess the discus and conch or are they added to him? The answer is however found in the story of his devotee-cum-relative Tondaman Chakravarthy to whom the Lord gave his discus and conch to help him conquer the demon Simhada and continued ever since to remain without them for several centuries till Srimadramanuja restored them to establish unequivocally that the idolin Tirumala shrine is none other than Lord Vishnu. Similarly, though the Lord is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, at times he seems to act like a human being like pressing the feet of Bhrigu who kicked him in the chest, falling in love with Padmavathi and feeling the pangs of love, asking Vakulamata to mediate for the marriage and he himself becoming a soothsayer, taking loan from Kubera executing a Promissory Note, reviving the wife and children of Krishna Sharma by sprinkling the waters of asthi teertha rather than directly, etc. Like an ardent devotee endowed with tact and common sense, the author answers many of such questions quite convincingly. The author substantiates God's acts in terms of God's Leela, sport or stage-play, or to teach the world an exemplary code of conduct in a certain critical situation or to infer what is dharma and what is adharma according to the yugadharma, etc.