Svāmi Pushkariṇī is the most sacred lake on the mountain Veṅkaṭācala (also called Veṅkaṭādri). It lies on the broad flat top of the mountain. On its south bank lives Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa, in the Ānanda-vimāna (the shrine tower of bliss), which no one can see. On its west bank lives Bhagavān Varāha with Bhūdevī, and the Vaikhānasa munis serve them.

Among all the sixty-six crore tīrthas (pilgrimage places) on Veṅkaṭādri, Svāmi Pushkariṇī is the greatest. Her puṇya (merit) equals that of all the others together. All rivers, all sacred lakes and all tīrthas of the three worlds come to Svāmi Pushkariṇī to serve her. A bath here frees a person from all twenty-eight narakas (hells) and destroys mahāpātakas (the great pāpas) such as brahmahatyā. It gives mukti (liberation).

Position on the mountain

The Māhātmya shows the greatness of Svāmi Pushkariṇī from its first chapter. Bhūdevī asked Bhagavān Varāha about the tīrthas of Veṅkaṭādri. Bhagavān Varāha named seven main ones:

Chakra Tīrtha
Daiva Tīrtha
Viyad-gaṅgā (Ākāśagaṅgā)
Kumāradhārikā
Pāpanāśana
Pāṇḍava Tīrtha
Svāmi Pushkariṇī

Of these, Svāmi Pushkariṇī is the greatest. On its south bank lives the Supreme Being Śrīnivāsa. On its west bank lives Bhagavān Varāha himself. All the sixty-six crore tīrthas of the world long for the honour of serving Svāmi Pushkariṇī. Their number alone shows how great is her power to purify those who bathe in her. (Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapter 1)

The Ānanda-vimāna and Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa

In the Kṛta-yuga of the twenty-eighth dvāpara cycle, Vāyu did great tapas (austerity). Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa then came down to Veṅkaṭādri with Śrīdevī and Bhūdevī. He made his home on the south bank of Svāmi Pushkariṇī, in the Ānanda-vimāna, where no living being could see him. He declared that he would stay there until the end of the kalpa (the age of the world).

The ṛshi Agastya came to the mountain and did ārādhanā (worship) of Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa for twelve years with undivided devotion. Again and again he begged Śrīnivāsa to become visible, so that ordinary beings could have his darśana. Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa gave him this vara (boon). The Ānanda-vimāna would always stay unseen, but Śrīnivāsa himself would be seen by all.

From that time Śrīnivāsa has been seen on the south bank of Svāmi Pushkariṇī by those who come with devotion. He has four arms and carries the śaṅkha (conch), cakra (discus), khaḍga (sword) and dhanus (bow). He wears the śrīvatsa mark and the kaustubha jewel. (Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapter 3)

Devotees at the lake

Several holy meetings in the Māhātmya take place at the lakeside.

The young Raṅgadāsa came to Veṅkaṭādri at the age of twelve. He bathed in Svāmi Pushkariṇī with devotion. Then he went and found Śrīnivāsa under the Śrī-vṛksha on its bank. He spent seven years making and tending flower gardens for Śrīnivāsa. He kept drawing water for the plants from near the tīrtha. (Chapter 9)

A hunter guided Toṇḍamānadu to the mountain. They followed the rocky forest path to Svāmi Pushkariṇī. After they bathed there, the guide brought Toṇḍamānadu to Śrīnivāsa under the Śrī-vṛksha by the lakeside. There the king had his first darśana. After they drank the water of Svāmi Pushkariṇī, both rested at the forest hut nearby. (Chapter 9)

The anthill where Bhagavān Varāha appeared in the form of a white boar was near Svāmi Pushkariṇī, on the pītāṃśu bank, “near the rāvi tree and the anthill”. So Svāmi Pushkariṇī is also the centre of Bhagavān Varāha’s presence on the mountain. (Chapter 10)

Kāśyapa the brahmin

The eleventh chapter tells of one famous case of the freeing power of Svāmi Pushkariṇī. A brahmin named Kāśyapa was a master of mantras and wanted wealth. He had taken a large payment from Takshaka, the king of serpents, to turn back from saving the life of King Parīkshit. This allowed Parīkshit to die of the snakebite. To take payment so that a death against dharma could happen was a great pāpa (sin), and it put Kāśyapa at risk of naraka. Later this Kāśyapa bathed in Svāmi Pushkariṇī. Its power to purify was so great that the bath dissolved even this mahāpātaka, and he was freed completely. (Chapter 11)

Freedom from the twenty-eight narakas

The twelfth chapter gives the full list of the twenty-eight narakas and the pāpa that sends a person to each. It says that Svāmi Pushkariṇī frees beings from all twenty-eight narakas when they bathe in her with true devotion. No other tīrtha is so complete in what it frees a person from. Even beings who suffer in naraka for pāpas done over many lives are freed from those results by a single bath in Svāmi Pushkariṇī taken in this birth. (Chapter 12)

Healing

The thirteenth chapter tells of a brahmin named Dharmaguptura who had gone mad. A bath in Svāmi Pushkariṇī cured him completely. A lion and a bear came to the lakeside, with puṇya gathered in earlier lives, and they too were freed there of their own accord.

The fourteenth chapter tells of Sumatī, a brahmin troubled by brahmahatyā. Durvāsa Muni himself sent him to Svāmi Pushkariṇī. He also taught the right way to bathe in the tīrtha. (Chapters 13–14)

Bhagavān Varāha on the west bank

The Māhātmya shows two presences at Svāmi Pushkariṇī. The eastern and southern side belongs to Śrīnivāsa, and the western side to Varāha. Bhagavān Varāha lifted Bhūdevī out of the ocean of the universe. He lives on the west bank of Svāmi Pushkariṇī with Bhūdevī at his side, and the Vaikhānasa munis serve him. The whole Māhātmya is the talk of Bhagavān Varāha with Bhūdevī, held at this very place. (Chapter 1)

The Padma Sarovara

The Padma Sarovara lies on the bank of the Svarṇamukhī. Lakshmī once did ten thousand years of tapas there, and the golden lotus grows there. It is linked to Svāmi Pushkariṇī in the tīrtha route.

Bhagavān Śrīnivāsa told Vakulamālikā to take a golden lotus from the Padma Sarovara on her way to Nārāyaṇapura. The hunter Raṅgadāsa also bathed in the Padma Sarovara on his first tīrtha-yātrā, before he climbed to Svāmi Pushkariṇī. The two sacred waters are joined in the tīrtha geography of the Veṅkaṭādri region. (Chapters 5, 9)

Merit of bathing

The text says that Svāmi Pushkariṇī is greater in puṇya than the Gaṅgā and all the other great rivers and tīrthas of the three worlds. Even to think of Svāmi Pushkariṇī, to praise her or to remember her brings good results. Those who bathe with bhakti (devotion) reach moksha. Those who bathe while troubled by a pāpa are freed from that pāpa. Even animals that die at the lakeside are freed. The tīrtha is the ever-present grace of Bhagavān Vishṇu in the form of water.

Sources

Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapter 1
Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapter 3
Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapter 5
Skanda Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Veṅkaṭācala Māhātmya, Chapters 9 to 14