Baba Haathiram Ji was North-Indian by birth. He came down to South. In Tirupati, he constructed a small Math and settled. Every day he used to worship the Lord of the Seven Hills.
Sri Venkateshwara was pleased with his devotion and used to come and play dice with him. One such day he forgot his necklace there and returned to his Sanctum Sanctorum. Babaji noticed it after Swami Ji left his place. He wanted to hand it over to the Lord. He started to the temple. In the meanwhile priests of the temple observed that the necklace was missing. They complained to the authorities.
In the meanwhile Baba ji arrived and handed over the necklace to them. When questioned he answered with all innocence that the Lord had forgotten it in his Math.
They did not believe him, and wanted to embarass him. So they locked him up in a room with ten kilos of cooked rice and ten bundles of sugarcane and challenged him, "If you really are like an elephant you must eat every bit of this food by day-break". Within five minutes of being locked up Hathiram Ji Baba, having consumed the ten kilos of rice and the ten bundles of sugarcane, kicked the locked doors to pieces and stepped out trumpeting like an elephant.
Hathiram Baba's Math exists even today opposite the temple and its a Jiva-samadhi. The scenes of Hathiram's game with the lord is depicted on the doors to entrance of the temple.
Good info
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