Page 177 - Demo
P. 177
Karmic CycleSometime in 1983 as his term as an MP was drawing to a close, PVG Raju began to stay at the Simhachalam temple. He was the Anuvamsa Dharmakartha - the hereditary trustee of not only this temple, but also over a hundred other temples across north coastal Andhra. All these temples would start the day with a puja to the presiding deity in his name. The Lord Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple is situated on the hill top, about 300 meters above the sea level. Today the city of Visakhapatnam has spread far and wide. In the middle of the concrete jungle, the Simhachalam hills of the Eastern Ghats stand out as an oasis of calm. Soaking in the greenery here makes one contemplative, washes away stress and helps heal from within.As per Puranic legends, it was Prahlada who constructed the Simhachalam temple for Vishnu. God saved him from a tyrannical and seemingly invincible father, King Hiranyakashyap. The King had threatened his son with death if he continued worshipping Vishnu. Only in this temple is Vishnu a combination of two incarnations. The deity appears with a Varaha (boar) face and Narasimha (half lion-half man) %u2013 the face of a boar, the body of a human, and the lion's tail. Narasimha's 'frightening' demeanour is softened by worshipping him in conjunction with Varaha, who is usually considered a peaceful deity. Through the year this deity is covered in sandalwood paste and only on one day in a year %u2013 Chandanotsavam that falls on Akshay Tritiya do you get the Nijaroopa Darshanam. Devotees who frequent the temple largely from Odisha and Andhra believe that praying to the Lord gives one tremendous courage to take on the odds, however powerful they may be.163