Tirumala, the abode of Lord Venkateshwara is the ultimate goal of all devotees from time immemorial. There is a wonderful uniqueness associated with Lord Venkateshwara and His abode Venkatadri. In Tirumala names Srinivasa, Venkatesha, Venkateshwara, Govinda, Govinda fills our ears and transforms us to a different world. It brings the feeling of being close to Him and a strange sense of elation of utter happiness and joy of His darshan. In Sanskrit there are several s
ynonyms to the word hill viz, Adri, Achala,
Saila etc. 'ven' means nectar 'kata' means wealth, 'esha' means Lord, King etc.'ven' also means sin, and 'kata' means killer, destroyer etc.'adri' means hill, mountain. The mountain which destroys sin is named as Venkatadri. The king of Venkata hill- giver of ambrosia and wealth or destroyer of sin is called Venkateshwara. The combination signifies that the holy place, that removes the sins and confers Mukti and bestows Aishwarya or riches. 'Sree' is the Goddesses of wealth, wife of Maha Vishnu- mother Lakshmi. 'nivasa' is the permanent abode. Sree connects all glory and power, faculties and strength, to perform creative acts of righteousness. The only place, where imperfections never enter to molest the serene essence is the seat of Eternal Perfection, which is the bosom of Narayana the permanent Abode of Lakshmi. Hence Maha Vishnu is indicated as Sreenivasa. The word 'go' in Sanskrit has four meanings – ‘earth', 'cows', ‘Speech’, and 'Vedas'. As the earth is the supporter of everything that exists, He who is the supporter of everything within the individual is called Govinda. He who is the protector of cows and played the part of Gopala in Gokula is the very controller of the animal instincts and passions in the bosom of beings is Govinda. One without whom no speech can ever emerge out of any throat- He being the very Life in all creatures. The highest Speech is the declaration of Truth in the Vedas. The Lord Himself is the very theme and Author of the Vedas. One who is to be known (Vid) through the declaration of Vedanta (go) is Govinda.