Tell about Tirupati Balaji ?

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Natural Arch in the Tirumala Hills is a distinctive geological wonder located 1 km (0.6 mi) North of the temple, near the Chakra Teertham

The Arch is also called Silathoranam in Telugu (“Sila” means ‘rock’ and “thoranam” means a garland strung over a threshold, connecting two vertical columns or an ‘arch’ as in this case). The arch measures 8 m (26.2 ft) in width and 3 m (9.8 ft) in height, and is naturally formed in the quartzites of Cudappah due to natural erosive forces.

Primarily because its temples have pyramid shaped towers and are constructed of sandstone, soapstone and granite.

What’s even more remarkable is that this is significantly higher than the national average of 73%.Source

Tirupati Balaji Temple is known as one of the most sacred temples in Hinduism and in entire India.

Tirupati temple is located around 10 kilometres north-west of Tirupati in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh.

This temple is the renowned place chosen by Lord Vishnu as his alternative celestial home, Vaikuntha.

Balaji, Tirupati temple is situated in the lap of the Tirumala hill town and the temple is the home of Lord Balaji who is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, hence Lord Balaji is also known as Lord Venkateswara and this temple is also popularly known as Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple.

This temple has some fascinating and surprising facts that keep attracting tourists as well as people from other religion background.

Tirumala hill shrine comprises of seven hills named as Seshadri, Neeladri, Garudadri, Anjanadri, Vrishabhadri, Narayanadri, and Venkatadri

The central temple of Tirumala lies on the seventh hill called Venkatadri for which the temple is also called as “The Temple of Seven Hills”

Lord Sri Venkateswara Swamy is also known as Balaji and Govinda who is considered as the presiding demiurge of this holy Tirumala Temple.

Let’s reveal the surprising yet lesser known facts about Lord Balaji as well as Tirupati Temple.

One of the most shocking and amazing fact that anyone could believe is the Tirumala Hills that is located 1 km north of the temple is a natural arch and is a geological magic which represents the facial structure of Lord Balaji itself which is also known as Silathoranam in Telugu where ‘Sila’ means the rock and ‘Thoranam’ means an arch. It is estimated that the arch is 8 m in width and 3 m in height.

At the main entrance of Tirupati Balaji Temple, there is a stick to the right side which was used by Ananthaalvar to hit Venkateswara Swamy when he was a small boy and once his chin was hurt by that stick and since then the tradition and practice of applying sandalwood paste (Chandan) on Swamy’s chin started.

There’s a small old story related to this hair sacrifice ritual named Mokku. Once Balaji lost some of his hair after getting hit by a shepherd, Neela Devi who was a Gandharva princess.

After realizing this, Neela Devi cut a small portion of her hair to implant it on Balaji’s head and Lord Balaji promised her that all his devotees who will ever come to his shrine and render their hair to him will ultimately be received by her.

And since then many devotees render their hair to the Lord later they are auctioned at the time of dense gathering due to special occasions.

All Gods are worshipped by flowers and at the Tirupati Balaji Temple, these flowers come from a secret village which is never seen and discovered by any outsider and even they are not allowed to get into that secret village.

The villagers are the only people who are allowed to that village which is 22 km away from the temple.

Tirupati Balaji Temple is one the major tourist attractions of South India and also one of the richest temples. The faith and belief people have for Lord Vishnu or Swami is an unimaginable sight and quite interesting too.

Not only flowers, other items like ghee, butter, milk, bilva leaves, banana leaves are also provided by that secret village.

All the visitors who have successfully worshipped Lord Balaji at Tirupati have to say that Lord Venkateswara Swamy idol appears to be standing straight at the centre of the garba gudi, the innermost sanctum but in real the statue stands at the right side corner of the garba gudi which can be noticed only from standing outside.

The entire city of Tirupati has several temples which have a specific shape of pyramid towers and Tirupati temple is popular for its exotic architectural style of Dravidian culture whose construction was commenced around 300 AD built of sandstones, soapstones and granites.