It is a floral fiesta in the famous shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala when the most colourful annual religious fete, Pushpayagam was observed with religious ecstasy on Saturday as per the tenets of Vaikhanasa Agama.
The Vedic scholars chanted Vishunu Gayatri Mantra in a rhythmic manner, while the archakas offered flower bath to the processional deities of Lord Sri Malayappa Swamy, Sridevi and Bhudevi seated on a special platform in Sampangi Prakaram. “Pulludu”-the Chief deity of Flowers, was offered worship with 20 rounds of different varieties of flowers. When the deities were completely covered a little over their chest, a final Pushpa Nivedana was rendered marking the completion of Pushpa Yagam.
Significance
Pushpayagam is a unique annual fete which is usually observed soon after the completion of Srivari annual brahmotsavams in the advent of the auspicious Shravana Nakshatram in the month of Karthika. It is observed Sanctifying festival for the sins which were committed by the priests, temple staffs, devotees either knowingly or unknowingly during annual brahmotsavams.
Another important feature is, this fete and shravana nakshatram coincided along with Saturday making it a little more auspicious.
10 tonnes of flowers were donated by devotees
Earlier during the day, over 500 Srivari Seva Volunteers and 500 Garden department staff carried different varieties of flowers from Garden Department to Srivari temple. Speaking on this occasion, JEO Tirumala, Sri KS Sreenivasa Raju said, this year nearly ten tonnes of flowers were donated for the special occasion which includes 4 tonnes from Tamilnadu, 3 tonnes from Karnataka and one each from AP and TS and remaining from TTD garden department.
At Mahadwaram, TTD EO Sri AK Singhal received the flower baskets and taken it inside the Kalyana Mandapam located at Sampangi Prakaram along with Tirumala JEO.
Snapanam Performed
The deities were rendered special abhishekam with five types of ingredients during Snapana Tirumanjanam, The archakas recited Panchasuktas and Pancha Upanishad mantras while offering snapanam to the deities.
TTD EO Sri AK Singhal, Tirumala JEO Sri KS Sreenivasa Raju, SE II Sri Ramachandra Reddy, Temple DyEO Sri Kodanda Rama Rao, Garden Wing Dy Director Sri Srinivasulu were also present.
For the magnificent arrangements made for annual brahmotsavams and also for Puspayagam, the TTD Garden Wing Deputy Director was felicitated by TTD mandarins, on the occasion.
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