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Showing posts from June 5, 2008


Tirupati Laddu Facts

Laddu, or Ladoo, is one of the most important offering and prasadam given to devotees at the Tirumala Tirupati Lord Venkateswara Temple . Tirupati Laddu is a spherical-shaped sweet made of flour and sugar. In fact, Tirupati and the huge laddus are synonymous. It is a customary duty of a devotee returning from Tirupati Balaji Temple to distribute ‘laddu’ as prasadam to his neighbors, friends and relatives. Some quick facts about Tirupati Laddu Around 150,000 laddus are made daily. One laddu is given free to each devotee; the number of daily devotees that visit the temple is around 50,000. A devotee can buy extra two laddus – a small laddu of 300 gm costs 25 rupees and big laddu costs 100 rupees. The revenue from the sale of laddu annually is around 190 crore. Each laddu weighs around 100gms and is huge when compared with the normal laddu found in shops. There is a super huge Tirupati Laddu known as Kalyana Laddu and it weighs around 500gms – ½ a kilogram. Singl

English Translation of Aditya Hridaya Stotra from Ramayana - Aditya Hrudayam Stotram

Aditya Hrudayam Stotram or Aditya Hrdaya Stotra, is a hymn dedicated to Lord Surya (Sun God) Valmiki Ramayana. Aditya Hridaya consists of 31 verses and is found in the 107th chapter of Yuddha Kanda of Ramayan. It was narrated to Lord Rama by Sage Agastya to energize him in the battle against Ravana. Aditya means ‘Sun’ and Hridayam means ‘heart or the essence’. English Translation of Aditya Hrudayam Stotram along with Sanskrit Transliteration tato yuddha parishrantam samare chintaya sthitam | ravanam chagrato drishtva yuddhaya samupasthitam || 1 Sri Rama, who standing absorbed in deep thought on the battle-field, exhausted by the fight and facing Ravana who was duly prepared for the war daiva taishcha samagamya drashtu mabhya gato ranam | upagamya bravidramam agastyo bhagavan rishihi || 2 The glorious sage Agastya, who had come in the company of gods to witness the encounter (battle) now spoke to Rama as follows: rama rama mahabaho shrinu guhy