VENKATACHALA LEGEND

According to one Purana, there lived once in the pilgrim town of Kalahasti a venerable brahmin, who after years of pining for the birth of a son, on performing all kinds of ritualistic worship as enjoined in the holy treatises was blessed with a charming baby boy in the evening of his life. And he was named Madhava.

He mastered the vedic lore under the ever vigilant eyes of his scholarly father. He was a model to the youths of his age group, and was coupled with a bewitching beauty, who like an ideal Hindu woman served him well in all his activities. She was his sahadharmacharini. Though brought up by a strict orthodox father, he was lax in morals. Particularly his relations with women. His Kamadaha went unbridled to the point of desiring union during day time too. The chaste and cultured wife tried her best to reform him, but failed miserably. Much against her will, he took her to a forest for appearing his kamechacha one day. Unfortunately there he saw a low class chubby checked buxom beauty. At once his lust was up and blind ended him to such an extent that he sent away his wife home on some pretext and ran after the new found damsel.

Thrusting aside all her objections, like she was only an out-caste woman, and not a match to such high born leaned brahmin, he convinced her with his high learning, and satisfied his lewd desire. But his hopeless infatuation turned him blind and remained united with her, snapping the conjugal ties with his married life-partner. He descended to the lowest level of taking meat and other ways of life natural to that low class woman. Alas! she died premature plunging that moral wreck into ocean of grief. Having lost mental poise and his sweet paramour, he become a vagabond and roamed about all over the , country. Then came repentance. It burnt out all the past lust and chastened his life. So he turned God- ward gradually and finally became an ideal devotee of rare kind. Just at his juncture, he chanced to meet a king on his pilgrimage to Tirumala with his retinue. Wisdom dawned that accompanying the party to Tirumala would release him from the formidable grip of the Satanic forces. He followed and performed tonsorial operation along with them. He then felt winds of change were blowing over him, on taking bath in the Sudarsana thirtha in their company.

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