LORD VENKATARAMAN

Lord Venkateswara is also called as Lord Venkataraman, since lot of similarities are present between these two wonderful avatars of Lord Vishnu! During the beginning of KaliYuga, Lord Vishnu took the Venkateswara Avatar, and he was married to Ma Padmavati.
During the Treta Yuga, while Ma Vedavati has requested to marry her to Lord Rama, he politely refused and told to her, that during the time of his Venkateswara Avatar, he would marry her. Likewise, when Ma Vedavati took birth as Ma Padmavati, Lord Rama who was incarnated as Lord Venkateswara, married her in this present Kaliyuga, and fulfilled her wishes.
During ancient times, when some noble sages had visited the holy Tirumala Hills, for their eyes, Lord Venkateswara had appeared in the form of Lord Rama and Krishna! In the excellent text, Sri Venkateswara Mahatmyam, Lord Venkateswara is described as beautiful Sri Venkatarama! And in some of the Sri Venkateswara Bhakti songs also, Lord Venkateswara was praised as Lord VenkataRama.
Lord Venkateswara has once performed meditation in the sacred Tirumala Hills, which was appeared like a dense forest during those days, and likewise Lord Rama has performed meditation in the Naimisaranya forest during his ban period.
Panagam(Jaggery water) is very much liked by Lord Venkateswara, since during his stay at the hut of his foster mother Ma Vakula Devi, he used to drink several cups of Panagam, and likewise, Lord Rama’s favourite drink is “PANAGAM”, which would be offered in the temples of Lord Rama, during the auspicious “SRI RAMA NAVAMI” festival day.
Actually Lord Venkateswara is also referred to as “DHARITRA NARAYANA” (The Lord who is interested to feed the poor), and likewise, Lord Venkateswara is very fond of feeding his devotees, and still now that holy act is properly carried out by the TTD Officials. Likewise during the ban period, even when Lord Rama was staying in the forest as a poor man, yet, he used to feed the visitors with fruits, roots and nuts, and he also used to exchange sweet words with them. Lord Venkateswara mostly didn’t use his supreme powers during his avatar, and once even he had suffered from severe wounds on his head. Since he has taken the form of a human, he has also suffered from hunger and thirst, and that’s why, Lord Brahma and Shiva took the form of cow and calf and the divine cow released milk from its udder in order to make Lord Venkateswara to satisfactorily drink it! Likewise, Lord Rama has also behaved only as an ordinary king in front of the whole world, and he was also subjected to hunger, thirst and worries.
Still lot of “VENKATARAMANS” are there in India, and one of our ex-president’s names was Venkataraman. The main purpose of writing this article is, still some Rama devotees ignores to worship Lord Venkateswara, since they find some differences between these two supreme avatars of Lord Vishnu!
“OM SRI VENKATARAMA NAMO NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR