Why Camphor is placed on Bhagwan Venkateshawara’s Chin
There is a beautiful story of why Camphor is placed on Venkateswara Swamy's chin in Tirumala.
Once, when Sri Ramanujacharya was discussing serving Venkateshwara Swamy, one of his disciples Ananthalwar, came forward to take responsibility for the Tirumala temple. Ananthalwar was a great devotee of Venkateswara Swamy.
Ananthalwar, reaching Tirumala with his wife did Pushpabhishek daily, and for that, he decided to grow a flower garden. Together with his wife, Ananthalwar began digging wells to water his flower garden. Venkateshwara Swamy decided to help them & appeared as a small boy.
The boy started to help his wife in the process of cleaning mud. When Ananthalwar saw the boy helping his wife, he got angry and ordered him to go away. But the boy didn’t listen to him and continued helping his wife.
Ananthalwar got angry & threw his crowbar at the kid which hit the child's chin & the boy rushed into Srivaari temple & disappeared. After finishing the garden work, Ananthalwar went to the temple.
When Ananthalwar came into the temple he saw Venkateswara Swamy's chin bleeding. Ananthalwar realized it was Venkateswara who came in disguise as that boy and felt very sad about what he did to his bhagwan.
He immediately rubbed Swamy's chin with Camphor to stop the bleeding and asked for forgiveness
Ananthalwar heard a voice saying
“From today onwards, camphor on my chin will be a part of my Alankara, without which my alankar will be incomplete"
It is from that day the practice of keeping camphor in Venkateswara Swamy's chin has been done by priests. The crowbar is still on the wall of Srivaari temple in Tirumala.
