G10-THE TEMPLE AT PATHAGUTTA-2

 

PATHAGUTTA-2

THE   ANCIENT   ORIGINAL  LORD NARASIMHA   TEMPLE 

 

 As mentioned earlier the area of Pathagutta temple is a vast stony surface formed by a series of big horizontally-lying boulders buried deep in the ground. Each boulder may perhaps be fifty meters long and only a little less wide! At some places two or three small room-size boulders are stacked one above the other by nature. Seeing the stacked boulders every person wonders how such gigantic stones were lifted at all. No humans can lift them. Simple rural people feel that it is nothing but one of god's great visible miracles. They feel that if they similarly arrange a little stack of stones one above another somewhere on the stony ground they surely would get god's grace. We can see scores of such tiny stone-stacks created with much devotion by devotees on the stony ground in isolated areas. Large numbers of people worship at pathagutta temple daily. The temple history says that Patha gutta was the main temple of Lord Narasimha before the large temples with huge gopurams were constructed 100 or 150 years back on the high Yadagirigutta hill (yadadri hill). The road level temple at Pathagutta is spacious inside. The entrance is by a few wide cement steps. There are big statues of "Dwarapalas" on either side. There are strong iron doors and iron railings all painted in bright orange and yellow. Inside the temple there are wide spacious halls with all facilities. The temple lies under a huge tree. On the other side of the tree and on a flat ground-level stony surface --( really a long horizontally lying and meters-long and meters-wide boulder lying buried in the ground for thousands of years)---requiring climbing of about a 100 stairs the temple of the mighty Lord Hanuman all painted in orange can be reached. The stairs are painted on front side in wide stripes of orange and white. The orange and white stripes are religious symbols imitating the very holy “Urdhwa Pundram” worn on the forehead by traditional Hindus of the Vishnu cult. Some beggars sit near the stairs under the cool shade. A few monkeys play among the low branches while a steady stream of devotees moves up and down the stairs . Near the stairway there are also two small temples—one for the Great Mother Goddess and the other for "Nava Grahas"(sun god and other gods guarding all directions of the universe). Innumerable great old temples like Patha Gutta existed in rural areas all over India since last two thousand years and had been giving spiritual solace to millions of people. There is no need to visit huge temples like Madurai and Varanasi (Kasi) and spend thousands of rupees. The great god can be worshipped with equal satisfaction and equal spiritual joy at these small temples in rural areas. ****** For further developing Yadadri town from spiritual angle , boarding and lodging facilities for the tens of thousands of devotees that would be coming everyday have to be provided. New shopping centers, new recreation centers, new spiritual centers etc. have to be developed. Both governmental and private investment is needed on a large scale for infrastructure development. Many building ventures are coming up all around the new Yadadri temple for permanent residential colonies and new townships. For the people of the megacity of Hyderabad which is hardly an hour's journey away the great new heaven-like temple complex on Yadadri hill is a great boon. Many devotees, after visiting the main Yadadri temple( the newly inaugurated temple complex inaugurated on----) , are likely to visit the other important temples, monasteries existing in the town. Pathagutta temple ---being for centuries before great temple gopurams came up on the Yadagirigutta hill top about 100,150 years ago--- should be treated as the most important place in Yadadri town next in importance to the new temple complex on the hill top. As such one feels that Pathagutta has to be developed as a big modern temple complex at the ground level so that pilgrims make a visit here without fail after visiting the hill top temples. Gardens and clusters of shade giving trees can be developed in temple area. Modern shopping malls and restaurants can be developed around Pathaguuta temple .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

G9-THE TEMPLE AT PATHAGUTTA-1

As already mentioned the "Pathagutta temple" was the original abode of Lord Narasimha since centuries and is situated on a low almost ground level hillock which is on outskirts of Yadadri town. Let us call the temple only with the most beautiful Telugu name "Pathagutta"-- the most beautiful name spoken by uncounted millions of Telugu people for more than a century i.e. since the times when big temples with “gopurams” were constructed a century ago on the giant monolithic Yadadri hill . The temple is  simple and unostentatious without towers  even in its renovated state but is vast  inside with big RCC roofed halls, partitions and railings made of bright steel tubes ,smooth floors  ,electric lighting etc. There is a great “Dhwaja Stambham”(god almighty’s flag post).

 The original   temple in old times must have had great reputation in surrounding areas for its serene spiritual environment and must have attracted thousands of devotees throughout the year for hundreds of years.  Vast numbers of rural people from agricultural communities are greatly attracted by its spiritual environment. "Pathagutta temple" and other temple-related structures found there exist on a vast sized ground-level stony surface made of flat and very wide and long boulders lying horizontally. Scientists say that the boulders existed since hundreds of millions of years but they were not buried in the soil up to the depth as we see in present time. Millions years ago they were several meters high above the surrounding ground. The colossal- sized boulders are now almost fully buried in earth.  It appears that generations of stone workers cut stone slabs here. There are the chisel marks at some places.

  There is daily a steady stream of devotees from morning to evening. The Patha Gutta temple looks so beautiful in sylvan surroundings and near farmlands faraway from city noises. There are green bushes and some big trees all over the boulder-ridden area.  However the kilometers- long road leading to the temple from Yadadri main town  has acquired the new urban look. Most of the buildings on the temple road are new RCC topped buildings and a few have two floors and three floors. We can see many cars and motorbikes on the road. Daily large scale “pujas” (prayers) and rituals are conducted at the temple. All the prescribed temple festivals as performed in the Yadadri hill temples are also performed here.

Legend says that  Lord Narasimha ,(an incarnation of Lord Vishnu the  great emperor of the universe)  often travelled on  the route in  a magnificent  golden chariot  with his queen Goddess Laxmi (Mother of the Universe and goddess of all wealth in the universe) and accompanied by great gods. There are big hoof marks of the “horses of Emperor's golden chariot” on the surface of the long horizontal boulders .The temple and the other related temple structures lie in the shade of  a giant  tree . On one side of the tree there is Lord Narasimha's temple with its  RCC roofed halls which are well lighted and newly painted . On the other side of the tree is the simple but magnificent ancient temple of the mighty Lord Hanuman, the guardian and disciple of Lord Narasimha. The temple of Lord Hanuman is at a height on the stony ground and is reached by a flight of a hundred steps all painted in big orange and white stripes on the front side. Lord Hanuman's new renovated temple is a comparatively smaller RCC roofed structure and is  painted entirely in deep  orange the symbol  of Hindu hermits and symbol of the Lord Hanuman cult. The old stair way exists under the shade of the big tree. There are monkeys playing on the lower branches out to snatch fruits and “prasadam” packets from the hands of many devotees going up and down the temple steps. There are also some beggars sitting alongside the stairway in the  shade. The scene looks so pleasant in the bright morning hours.

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Let us now investigate about the route to Pathagutta temple. From the Hyderabad-Warangal highway we turn onto the branch road leading to Yadadri town. It is a nice new four lane road of about five   kilometers and links to the wider six lane roads leading to the great new temple on Yadadri hill amidst nice flowerbeds and newly planted trees. The new nice wide road  to the hill top is also linked to this road. As we travel on this road there is a big road junction near the newly constructed “gopuram” at the entrance of a  new stairway direct to the top  of  Yadadri hill (for travelers who wish to walk all the way up). 

From the junction a wide road branches towards the old town where Pathagutta temple is situated. Surprisingly we see many horse- drawn carriages on the road to Pathagutta in this age of cars and two wheelers. There is a belief among devotees that the great god almighty travelled on these routes always in a horse drawn chariot--a dazzling heavenly golden chariot drawn by heavenly horses. As proof there exist big marks of horse hoofs on the stony land beside the temple (as already stated above). Traditional devotees feel that because of this reason going to temple in a horse carriage is auspicious. There are several colorfully painted horse carriages at the junction waiting to take devotees to the Pathagutta temple. 

 There are  two or three colorfully painted  welcome arches   on the road  .The area near the Pathagutta temple wears a traditional old town  appearance  with  busy crowded small  bazars selling  "pooja" related  items like orange colored silk  flags, coconuts, fruits, flowers , little brass bells and lamp stands, multicolor photos of gods and of course  toys. Everything in the shop is orange or yellow hued-- the colors greatly revered by Hindu religious people. 

 

 

 

 

 

G8-A TEMPLE IN A SERENE RURAL AREA-THE VENKATAPURAM TEMPLE

A MOST BEAUTIFUL TEMPLE IN A RURAL AREA NEAR YADADRI

In the vicinity Yadadri there are other temples for Lord Narasimha one of the great earthly incarnation of Lord Vishnu the god almighty of the universe of billion galaxies .The temples may be small but are as holy as the great  Yadadri . The same lord of billion galaxies lives in the small temples also. I now write about the temple on a hill at  Venkatapuram village which is about ten kilometers from Yadadri town. I had not the fortune of visiting this most picturesque temple on a hill with scores of caves formed by giant sized boulders and where lions might roam if it was in deep forest. We do not know but tens of thousands years ago when there were real dense forests all over the area lions might have actually lived in the caves .

But in present days it is an agricultural area with bald boulder-ridden hills without any dense forest cover. It is very picturesque agricultural area with calm agricultural villages .It is in an area of plateau land without  big rivers but a land of many man-made lakes and follows dry land agriculture. The temple is in a picturesque hilly place in a low plane area on a side of the hill.  It is very secure to visit the temple in day light and this most picturesque temple in rural surroundings is much revered by people of the area.

Lord Narasimha legend is very popular in this part of the state just as the Lord Rama legend is very popular in Bhadrachalam area.  The Venkatapuram hill is part of a small line of boulder- ridden hills in the area. The hill looks from the air like rounded wheat bun of colossal size. It is broken from top to bottom into a few dozen colossal rounded vertically standing boulders of awe- inspiring size .Some of the huge vertically standing boulders may be of the size of a ten-storeyed building! The colossal vertical boulders form one entire side of the hill.

Geologists would say that this creation of boulders on this and other hills might have occurred millions of years ago during big geological changes and not a few thousand years ago! In rainy season the temple area surely becomes a most beautiful place with thick greenery, flowers and bird song. The incline of the stairway is very less and the stairway path is long and pleasant and people can easily reach the temple walking on these steps under the shade of the trees. A few generations ago the temple might have been simply a cave temple and might have had a kind of magical attraction even then for the devotees from many neighboring villages. A friend told me all this. I saw in videos too. I could not visit the temple.

The most beautiful photos created a great impression in my mind for days .Though I could not visit I imagined rituals inside that temple in this beautiful rural place. It must be a most beautiful place. So I imagined I was there inside the temple praying to the god. I just can imagine and see before my eyes the rituals going on in the morning hours. The priest comes daily in the morning and many family groups visit the temple during the pleasant morning hours. There are many strict, systematic and spiritually satisfying rituals. The priest   in the morning washes the statues of gods with water scented with “Tulsi” leaves, then with milk and curd and then again with water.

 The priest decorates the god’s statues with flower garlands and worships with flowers and lights the holy oil lamp. The  devotees break coconuts at the feet of the Lord ,burn incense and  bring  small  packets of turmeric powder and  vermilion   “kumkum” powder (considered extremely holy by traditional Hindus all over India ) for decorating  the statues of Lord Narasimha and Goddess Laxmi. All devotees put the red  kumkum mark on their foreheads.

 The priest chants holy hymns aloud as the holy lamp burns and incense is lighted. At the end of rituals the priests lights a few crystals of camphor in a silver plate and shows the small bright flame to god to receive his smiles and blessings. They bow before the holy lamp as the symbol of divine knowledge and divine illumination of the mind. The priest also rings a small brass bell which he holds in his raised hand. The devotees watch the ceremonies spell bound and bow to the light when shown towards them. The priest gives a spoon of holy consecrated water to each devotee from a silver cup, which was kept at god's side since early morning. He distributes a few flowers from the plate of flowers which lay at god's feet since early morning. He sprinkles holy turmeric rice  on the head of devotees. Finally he touches the head of devotee delicately with  the shining metal   "shatagopam" --considered equal to the gold and diamond  crown worn by god almighty  in heaven. Touching the head of devotee with shatagopam is equivalent to touching of devotee’s head by the holy hand of god almighty himself. Such are the wonderful rituals performed every morning.

At the end of all rituals and prayers the priest then distributes "prasadam" to all devotees. The “prasadam” is the small but holy food/fruit items distributed to every devotee after consecration by god. It consists of pieces of fruit, pieces of coconut kernel and other sweet preparation. The prasadam is first kept near god in the sanctum sanctorum for some time and then it is treated as having been tasted by the god almighty himself! It is only then distributed to the devotees. The priest also addresses prayers to the god on behalf of some devotees who wanted such special prayers. There are sometimes "bhajans" i.e. group prayers with loud singing of prayers before god's statue accompanied by clapping of hands. All these rituals and prayers fill the minds of devotees with great spiritual joy. In my case also my imagination created a great spiritual joy in me and I felt as if I really visited the temple . I prayed in my heart to the great god and felt very happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

G7-BOULDER RIDDEN HILLS-2

 

BOULDER RIDDEN HILLS-2

A LITTLE OF GEOLOGY 

There are some gigantic bald hills (not boulders but entire hills)- --Bhongir hill, Yadadri hill,Hanamkonda "Ekasila" hill (Warangal district) etc. Let us learn how the bald hills i.e. single stone dome hills of colossal size are formed. Scientists say that such hills are among the oldest hill types in the world and were created hundreds of millions of years ago. Scientists say that age of earth may be around 4500 million years i.e. 450 crore years! At that early time, the outer stone layers of earth (crust layers) were very soft like wheat flour dough but extremely hot. Scientists say that lying under this soft bending “plastic” outer stone layer --( extending for thousands of square miles in area on earth’s surface at that time)--- ,there was another extremely hard stone mass which did not soften and bend. This underlying hard stone mass pushed up the soft outer layers .This was a very slow process taking tens of millions of years or even hundreds of millions of years i.e. almost at the start of creation. The soft outer layers bent like soft dough and after many million years hardened into "dome mountains" –like the huge single stone(mono-lithic) hills we see at Bhongir fort hill,Yadadri main hill, the “Eka Sila” hill in Hananamkonda in Warangal city etc.

SMALLER DOMES BREAK AND CREATE THE THOUSANDS OF BOULDERS

 Smaller "domes" also arose in the soft outer layer like small bubbles beside big bubbles in a thick soup. After coming into contact with cooler atmosphere outside, the small "domes" broke up and created the boulders. Many “domes” hundreds of millions years ago when they were soft and very hot and bendable could not retain their shape. As they slowly solidified, cracks developed on them and deepened and the domes broke up. The domes broke vertically and horizontally into big and small boulders neatly arranged one above the other in several layers. For Nature they were small things but at our human scale they were giant size room -size boulder stones. In this way the stacks of boulders were created. Scientists say that all this happened thousands of millions of years ago and not in last few hundred or last few thousand years. In some places like the world famous “Hampi boulder park” ,at Hampi-Vijayanagar in Karnataka state, there are dozens and dozens of boulder stacks arranged neatly like stacks of books. This makes people to wonder whether some giants from another world neatly lifted the giant stones and arranged them as per their tastes! There are many “boulder parks” all over the world and recently one such “Boulder Park” was inaugurated in Hyderabad city. There the boulders are left in their original place and original positions and a park and grassy meadows, flower beds etc are developed around them .Scientists and intellectuals interested in preserving the nature’s heritage are greatly worried that boulders are being broken into tiny pieces and destroyed by big apartment builders. They urge that boulders should not be broken and stone quarries may be established at some far away hills. It may be correct to say that after hundreds of thousands of years huge boulders may slowly crumble due to exposure in nature and turn into heaps of tiny rock crystals .In stormy winds millions and billions of tiny sand particles brought by the storm winds dash against the boulders and pull out stone crystals from the boulders. In seaside areas huge waves may pound the boulders for a million years day and night every day. In riverside places fast flowing river water full of millions of rough edged stones crash against boulders. In hot sun and extreme cold there will be expansion and contraction of boulders. Thus the entire boulder in course of a hundred thousand years may lose the rock crystals layer by layer and crumble and disappear without trace. After long geologic periods of hundreds of millions of years whole mountain ranges may disappear after continuous erosion.

 HOW SOME GIGANTIC BOULDERS GET BURIED UNDER EARTH IN MILLONS OF YEARS .

 Another slow geologic phenomenon( that explains existence many vast stony ground-level surfaces at Patha Gutta temple in Yadadri town. Let us imagine an area of a group of low hills and think of the effect of strong gale force winds, rains, storms, cyclones, floods, fast flowing water carrying tons of sand and clay etc .Let us imagine that continued for tens of thousands of years or hundreds of thousands of years. In course of such very long periods the sand, rock fragments, soil etc accumulate slowly all over the base of the hillock. In course of say 100,000 years a big change in landscape can be seen. In course of such a long period the sand storms, dust storms, rain storms etc. bring large quantities of sand and earth. Lot of humus (minute particles of dead and decayed animal and plant matter) accumulating every year forms a black sticky mass of organic matter in every area of earth. All this creates the soil we walk on every day. During rains water accumulates in the soil and it thickens and settles in dense layers. Thus the "level of ground" slowly rises over centuries and milleniums. It is very very slow process. After 10,000 years there may be only one or two meters rise in height of the ground. But after one hundred thousand years or even a million years a low hill may almost disappear in the surrounding soil and only a vast monolithic flat stony ground (once flat top are of a high hill) may be visible. Millions of small plants and dense grasses may grow and more humus gets formed in decades and centuries. A high long flat hill of a hundred meters height may become a flat stony land just a foot above ground at one end and two or three feet high at other end. The existence of tens of meters long ground level stone surfaces we see at “Pathagutta temple” of Lord Narasimha which is only a few kilometers from the main “Yadadri” hill temple can be explained in this way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

G6-BOULDER RIDDEN HILLS-1

A LITTLE OF GEOLOGY

 

The beautiful boulder ridden bare hills of this upland region( in Nalgonda district of Telangana state ) have indescribable beauty and are in complete contrast to the thickly forested high hills of Godavari area. The bare hills and the dozens of big boulders lying near the hills make the area look very pleasing to the eye under the blue skies and fluffy white clouds and the green farm lands.

 The boulders do not have any sharp edges and are rounded at the corners due to lying for millions of years in heat and cold and due to erosion in strong winds, sand storms and torrential rains for millions of years.  Millions of little stone crystals   of the size of sand particles get separated from the boulders and fall down unseen all through the year. The boulder surface disintegrates slowly in decades and centuries and millenniums. These boulders saw rise and fall of countless dynasties of kings, filling and drying of thousands of lakes and ponds, growth and disappearance of vast forests. Near almost every village there are little boulder ridden hillocks of small height with little bushes and green grass all around. In the hills thousands of the short bushes of “Seethaphal " plant (custard apple plant) grow wild.

Here in many rural areas near  Warangal, Nalgonda ,Karimnagar and rural Hyderabad some boulders  of the size of cars or rooms  and some even of size of three or four- storeyed buildings, which are rounded during millions of years of weathering into very rough elliptical and spherical shapes, are found standing in precarious positions on stony ground .The stony ground may be rally upper surface of gigantic horizontally lying boulder sunk in earth since millions of years under layers of soil and sand.

Geology is the science dealing with creation of mountains, hills, seas, rivers etc tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of years ago. In this science time is not measured in decades, centuries and millenniums.  These units are too small and units like ten million years and hundred million years are required. Inside the earth there is terrible heat locked since 4500 million years (four hundred and fifty crore years). It can melt rocks but is tightly sealed under hundreds or even thousands of miles thick rock layers. It is like coconut water contained inside the coconut which has many layers beneath the outer shell.

Only above this thousands-miles-thick rock shells our vast  oceans(the Pacific, Atlantic etc) and continents, lands, mountains, forests, rivers and lakes exist and towns and villages flourish. But there are small insignificant fissures  in this thousand mile thick rock shell .Through these narrow fissures in the hard stone layers (like hair thin fissures we see in a wall) the lava or hot melted rock ever present under the thick rock layers comes out and creates volcanoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

G5-MYTHOLOGY--STORY OF A WICKED KING-2

Then a most wonderful thing happened . With unbearable and frightening thundering sounds the pillar broke vertically and out came a most frightening form jumping out of the pillar. It had a shining body drenching entire area in dazzling light. It had a heavy human body and a frightening angry head of a lion with wide open mouth and started roaring violently as if hungry . It searched for the frightened and shivering king and caught hold of him. It was far bigger than the dazed king who himself was of heavy build. It dragged the frightened king to the high threshold and with wild angry roars sat on the threshold, tore open the stomach of the king and started drinking the king's blood ! It was a most fearful sight! Even the gods who appeared there were too frightened to go near this angry lion form of Lord Vishnu. 

The boy too was frightened but gained his composure and sang hymns to the god. The angry lion- god cooled down after hearing the sweet voice of the boy and after hearing the fervent hymns sung by the boy. The god crowned the boy as the new king and disappeared . But the great anger of the lion god had not subsided. He roamed the forests for days unable to control his anger . 

Even the trees in the forest burned because of his fiery anger. The gods of heaven requested Goddess Laxmi (Queen of Lord Vishnu)  to come down to earth and pacify Lord Vishnu and bring him into his cool pleasant form --a form as pleasant as moonlight . Goddess Laxmi transformed herself into a most beautiful tribal princess as daughter of a tribal king and appeared in the jungles where Lord Narasimha was wandering with wild angry roars . The lion god was greatly attracted by the  divine beauty of the tribal princess and resumed his original holy form as a prince charming and world conquering warrior and in due course married her .The tribal goddess is worshipped in the many temples of Lord Narasimha in the Telugu country. The god now became known as Lord Laxmi-Narasimha. 

A temple for Lord Hanuman the mighty invincible Vanara god also exists near every temple of Lord Narasimha. Lord Hanuman is a most devoted disciple and friend of Lord Rama and was himself an invincible warrior god of Vanara race. He is also a great deathless sage who is said to be still in deep meditation in Himalayas and living there since millions of years. Lord Hanuman always guards Lord Rama the earthly incarnation of Lord Vishnu and also guards Lord Narasimha who is also another incarnation of Lord Vishnu. As such we find a temple of Lord Hanuman near every temple of Lord Narasimha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

G4-MYTHOLOGY--STORY OF A WICKED KING-1

 Lord Vishnu is the name by which the one great god amighty of universe is called by hindus. he is like a most hansome warrior-prince living in palaces of gold and cystal in the clouds . but he is so compassionate that he flies to aid of poor and helpless people leaving all his pleasures. he considers it a great privelage to serve the poor and helpless people of earth. he occassionally incarnates himself on earth as an unconquerable warrior ,sometimes as a very fierce warrior-- specially to eliminate the wickedest most unconquerable villains and saves the poor and weak. Lord narasimha the fierce hal lion and half human god is one such incarnation . after eliminating a most wicked unconquerale king( a mighty king who could not be conquered even by gods) he entirely cooled down and transformed himself into a most kind and smiling lion god! But he possessed a remnant of vexation dejected by the feeling that human beings could be so cruel towards fellow men. ****** Let us go straight to the most holy thrilling story of Lord Narasimha. He is the angriest and fiercest form of Lord Vishnu but,as already said, the gentlest god playing with little children.The story of Lord Narasimha is most popular throughout India among traditional people since two thousand years and it is contained in the ancient “Puranas” i.e. mythological histories of gods. There are many fine films in Telugu language and also in most Indian languages about Lord Narasimha . Once there was a mighty king hiranyakashipu who could conquer entire earth and conquer even gods. He was an efficient administrator but was so extremely arrogant that he entirely denied existence of any god. earlier he was immersed in centuries long meditation praying to Lord Brahma the creator and obtained a boon that he cannot be killed by any man or any wild animal. He got those boons from the kind-hearted Lord Brahma but soon after getting the boons he became very arrogant and declared that there is no god other than himself and that even if any god existed the god would have to fear him. unfortunately for him, his son who was still a sweet child much loved by the king, condemned his father's thinking ( about denying existence of god ). He condemned his father's thinking and would repeat to his stunned father every day that a great god almighty Lord Vishnu rules the universe, that the god almighty helps the good, weak and innocent people and punishes and defeats the wicked people. The king his father would laugh away all such talk as boyish talk of his little son. But he was becoming irritated and angry when his son sang hymns in praise of Lord Vishnu . The little boy often sang hymns in praise of Lord Vishnu in complete defiance of his father and greatly irritated his father . The ministers and teachers secretly felt that the very frequent praise of god coming from lips of the little boy was not learnt in this birth but came as heritage from previous births and that they were unable to stop his praise of god in spite of their severe warnings. This situation was slowly leading to a serious quarrel between father and son. Though the king had very great affection for his sweet-mannered little son in his heart and heaped praise on his son before the queen he would became red hot with anger whenever his son praised Lord Vishnu. There developed a kind of underground enmity between father and son. The queen pleaded with the king not to take the boy’s praise for Lord Vishnu seriously and not to treat the little boy as an enemy. But the king became angrier and angrier towards his son as time passed. He asked the teachers to beat and severely punish the boy .Still the boy openly sang praises of Lord Vishnu . The boy even advised the mighty king fearlessly to stop scolding Lord Vishnu but instead to pray to Lord Vishnu! The king became so angry that he asked his soldiers to torture the boy ,leave him in deep forest to be killed by wild animals and to tie hands and feet and push him down mountain precipices. The boy always returned unharmed and healthier than before (being protected unseen by Lord Vishnu and Goddess Laxmi)and would soon after coming home carry on with his worship of Lord Vishnu! The king was unable to bear the teachings and insults from his sweet smiling little son any longer. He told the boy angrily that he (the king ) alone is the greatest and mightiest force in the universe and that there was in reality no Lord Vishnu or any other god. He said that Lord Vishnu if he existed was absolutely frightened of him(the king) . But the boy fearlessly asked his father the mighty king to apologize, to realize his mistakes and become a devotee of Lord Vishnu. The king could not bear his anger and gave to his son a golden cup full of concentrated poison with his own hands and ordered the boy to drink it. The boy drank the poison chanting name of Lord Vishnu and came out unscathed ! Now at last the king suspected that his son was actually his greatest enemy living in his own palace and truly an agent of Lord Vishnu his enemy staying in his own house. He dragged the boy to the outer chambers and unsheathed his sword to kill the boy . But before that he had a thought. He (the king) pointed at a heavy stone pillar beside him and mockingly and angrily asked the boy whether Lord Vishnu was in that pillar.