"కులశేఖర పడి" స్వామి వారి అంతరాలయంలో ఉండేటటువంటి మొదటి గడప. కానీ అక్కడి వరకు గత 40 సంవత్సరాలుగా ఏ సామాన్య భక్తులను అనుమతించలేదు.
#significanceofkulasekharapadi#kulasekharapadi#kulasekharaalvar#tirumala
Kulasekhara Alvar History || Kulasekhara Padi ||
A great King by name Thidaviradhan was the ruler of Cheranadu or Kerala state as of today. He was a great devotee of Lord Sriman Narayana. He used to perform sacrifices and donate lots of riches to poor and Vishnu bhaktas. With this devotion on Lord Vishnu, he was blessed with a son on the year Prabhava, Maasi month (feb - mar), Shukla paksha Dwadasi under Punarvasu Nakshatram. He was none other than the sacred Kousthuba of Lord Vishnu incarnated on earth. This Devine Royal child was named as KULASEKHARA. As a Royal child, he enjoyed his life playing, doing mischievous things a normal child does. With this he mastered the education and weaponry art. Kulasekhara also had a immense Bhakti towards Lord Vishnu & used to invite great learned scholars, old people and Vishnu Bhaktas to his palace to hear stories of Lord Vishnu. His father was very pleased with his activities. Time had come to proclaim him as king. So as soon as he was made the King, He went on to defeat the neighboring kings who were causing trouble to his kingdom. He was later married to a Pandiyan princess. Kulasekhara was so involved with his family life in a Royal style that he forgot his life on earth to spread the glories of Lord. Since He had defeated all the threats he would face, the entire country was very vast and in full bloom. In some circumstances his mind again changed back to devotion. He later felt very sad for the loss of life from his hands due to the expansion of his Kingdom. He felt to give up the royal life but he couldn’t. But he resumed inviting the Vishnu Bhaktas for learning the stories from them. Once a great saint was invited to the discussion. The saint was preaching Ramayana & Kulasekhara was very interested in Lord Rama’s story. He used to get very involved in the preachings. So the saint was saying about Ramayana’s instance where Lord Rama had to fight with 14000 Demons alone. Kulasekhara couldn’t bear this, He immediately got up and shouted, “ Generals, Prepare the army for Battle against the Demons ”. All the present were shocked, later the learnt saints calmed him saying, its just a story and Lord Rama had already killed them. This was his involvement with the Stories. After a few years like this, Kulasekhara’s Ministers and court men were very annoyed with his devotion to ordinary people (Vishnu Bhaktas). King was giving them valuable riches everyday and this was not a pleasing sight for all. They wanted to stop this and planned a cunning trick of robbery on them. After a discussion meeting was over, the solider complained of a missing Valuable jewel. Somehow the ministers said that the Vishnu Bhaktas are the culprit, and they must be punished for this. Kulasekhara couldn’t bear this robbery case on these devoted holy men. The king assured they are not the robbers, but the entire court was against the poor people. King to prove the guilty ordered a pot with very poisonous cobras in it. The ministers thought the king would punish the people with snake bites but something strange happened. The King, Kulasekhara ordered that pot of Cobras be placed in the middle of the royal court and said all the people to come and have the look. King said, My dear members of this Royal chamber, I trust Lord Vishnu & believe that these holy men have not robbed the Jewel. If anyone of this holy Vishnu Bhaktas have stolen the jewel, the Snake will bite me else not. Without a moments pause, Kulasekhara put his bare hands in the pot of poisonous cobras. All the people seeing this lost a heart beat. All were in a shock to see their King going thru the pain. All the guilty ministers fell on their knees and said to remove the hand since it was a trick to stop this devotional meetings daily. Only then Kulasekhara took out his hands from the cobra pot without a single bite. This not only proved his faith on Lord Vishnu & his devotees but also upheld the power of truthiness. With this cheap trick by his own trusted ministers he totally lost interest in the royal life and handed over the kingdom to his Son and went on a never ending journey to Holy Pilgrimage. Later he composed the 105 verses called “Perumal Tirumoli” & “Mukundamala” In one of the verses he says “Can I be born again ? as a fish in the Holy temple pond, or the flower that would be on the Lords feet, or a pillar of the temple or a threshold of the Garbhagruha so that I can see the glory of Lord always.” To honor his devotion to Lord, the First threshold of Tirumala or the Garbhagruha Threshold is named as “KULASEKARA PADI”.
