Venkateshwara is the lord of the Anahata chakra or the heart center. This center is blocked by attention need and is unblocked by unconditional love and compassion.

Venkateshwara holds the chakra in his upper right hand. It is a weapon and hence represents fear. In his upper left hand he holds the conch or shanka which is blown during times of war, during times when we think something new is added to our life. Hence the conch is a symbol of desire. These are the two factors that move us away from loving unconditionally and make us psychological slaves. These emotions make us crave for others’ approval for all our actions, some times explicitly and sometimes implicitly.

All our relationships have become conditional. It has become just give and take. This is because our entire identity is based on certificates that other give us. Our instinct naturally tries to preserve it in some form. We invest in these certificates from different sources and become fragmented. We seek attention either out of greed to add something more or to confirm our existing certificates and we are fearful of it being taken away as our very identity that we show to the outer world would collapse otherwise. if someone pulls or takes back their certificate our entire identity seems to shake in that moment.

Once we go beyond these two emotions by surrendering to the Divine or Master (represented by the lower right hand pointing to the Master’s feet) we are embraced by Him (represented by the lower left hand). We become centered and integrated. An overflowing energy starts exuding from our very Being. There will be no more give and take. There will be just sharing because we are overflowing. This is the energy of Venkateshwara.