Lord Sri Venkateswara Swamy Vaari Temple is considered the richest temple of India which is popularly known as Tirupati Balaji temple. It is one of the most famous temples of India situated in a small hill town called Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh. It is also the most visited place of worship in the world with more than 50,000-1,00,000 daily visitors and an average of 35 million visitors a year, while on Brahmotsavam, Vaikuntha ekadashi and other special occasions this number shoots up to more. Located on the seventh peak (Venkata hill) of the Sheshachalam Hills in Tirupati, the temple is dedicated to the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, Venkateshwara and is also called as 'Temple of Seven Hills'. The town is well connected to other parts of country by road, air & rail networks. The complete day-to-day administration of the temple is controlled by the Tirumala Tirupati Devsthanam Trust (TTD).
Advance booking
Since millions of devotees come regularly to this small town, so i would recommend advance booking of accommodation as well as for darshan slot as i did in my trip to Tirupati. It was my first visit to this place so i had no idea about the hotels available there but I was well aware about the rush happening every day in Tirupati. Being a North Indian, I had no detailed information about Southern India as I'd never been there before. As the security comes first in my travel plan so i decided to book online the accommodation provided by TTD i.e. Tirumala Tirupati Devsthanam Trust. I opened the official website of TTD (https://www.tirumala.org), created my account & booked my 4days accommodation in advance along with the darshan slot. Here one thing is to be noted that identity proof is compulsory & only one account could be created with one i-card to do the online booking. Here comes another catch that you can book the room only for 24hrs from a single account associated with a single i-card & that identity card no. can not be repeated again. So I'd to create 4 different accounts by using 4 different identity cards of mine along with 4 different G-mail ids for registering myself for advance booking of the room for 5days. After this i got one room for 2days & another room for next 2days. I think it's due to the heavy rush usually occurs there, that's why this kind of restriction would have been made so that people could not occupy the rooms for long & rooms could be freed for others also. Also keep in mind that here rooms are not given to single person or unmarried couples.
History of the temple
The construction of the Tirupati temple was started by King Thondaiman of Tondaimandalam kingdom in 300 AD and additions to the temple were made from time to time. One of the earliest recorded evidences state that Pallava queen Samavai had donated precious jewels and 23 acres of land for celebrating the major festivals of the temple. During the Chola dynasty, the temple was developed further. When the Vijayanagara Empire took over, diamonds and gold were donated to the temple.
The larger than life statue of the main deity of the temple is said to have formed on its own, making it one of the eight ‘Swayambhu Kshetras’ (self-manifested image) of Lord Vishnu. Many ancient texts, including the Rig Veda mention the existence and prominence of this age-old temple. Many other texts and theories link the history of Tirupati Temple to Lord Varaha, one of the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu. According to a legend, Lord Varaha created the entire Sheshachalam Hills so that Adisesha, the seven-headed snake on which Lord Vishnu rests, could rest on earth. Interestingly, Sheshachalam Hills has seven peaks, which are said to be the representation of the heads of Adisesha. According to another legend, Lord Vishnu assumed the form of Sri Venkateswara to save mankind from the adversities of Kali Yuga.
How to reach Tirumala
We checked-in the hotel in Tirupati at night & next day in the morning we headed towards the main temple. Tirupati is the name for the town at the foothills. Tirumala is the temple town on the hills. Accommodations for stay are available at both the place, but if you want to stay close to the nature, then Tirumala would be better to stay. The main temple is situated atop a beautiful hill at Tirumala. To reach the top to the temple, either you have to walk a stretch of 11 km or you can take a bus/taxi frequently available at the downtown. We paid at the ticket counter & got the tickets of 30Rs. per person for the bus of APSRTC(Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation). Now the bus was moving upwards on the paved road built over the green deep valley. The route was so serene & beautiful as we could see from the windows of our bus. We had a picuresque view of the Tirupati town.
Special darshan booking
My strong suggestion for the temple visitors is always book a ‘special Darshan’ by paying 300/- per head to avoid the long hours (7 to 8 hours) queue to shorter 2 hours queue. Be fresh to stay in queue, carry enough 2 bottles of water with you to avoid dehydration. Book the special darshan tickets at least a month in advance. Choose a weekday and non-festival day to expect a lower crowd. Choose a time slot for darshan and try to reach before that. The special darshan queue has a slot based system and you should follow your slot. Carry a printout of the darshan ticket as you would not have access to phones in the temple premise. Dress code for ladies is saree or decent Churidar. Men shall wear white dhoti and decent shirt.
Darshan in seconds
So after crossing several security checks, very soon we entered into the main temple with the help of our VIP tickets. The divine chants of Lord Sri balaji & the high frequency veda chants were blossoming divine feelings in every pilgrim. Alive with the chants of 'Govinda Hari Govinda Venkataramana Govinda, Govinda Hari Govinda Venkataramana Govinda'.. You get a total of about 5 seconds to see the main deity and that too while the temple staff rudely pull your hands to walk faster (even if you are separated from the person in front by 15 cms!), and again the temple staff push you from behind to make you walk faster, even if you are touching the person ahead of you! Horribly rude staff, I think they have become insensitive to humans because of the crowd. But at other similarly crowded temples like Vaishno devi or Shirdi Saibaba temple which i visit every year , the staff are not so rude. It is the specialty of only this place!
It was really a divine experience when i got closer to the gopuram & had a glimpse of the black-stoned idol of the deity. There was no artificial light inside & his aura was so magnificent that i couldn't even blink my eyes off from the idol. That time i felt like the real god was sitting inside, it was something that can't be explained in words.
Fascinating facts
There are so many interesting mystical facts are popular about the most well-known shrine in India. Like the fact that the idol of Lord Balaji wears real hair. Or, that the idol of the deity has a tendency to sweat & the back of the deity always remains moist. The locals believe that the sound of enormous sea waves can be heard if one puts his/her ear on the back of the deity’s image housed in the shrine. The idol of Lord Tirupati Balaji placed may appear to be standing in the centre of the sanctum sanctorum, but technically, it is not so. The idol is actually placed in the right hand corner of the shrine.
Temple architecture
The temple in Tirupati Balaji has a lot of Dravidian architectural influences and the intricate designing and sculpting done over centuries. The temple has three entrances, which lead to the sanctum sanctorum. The first entrance is called as ‘Mahadwaram.’ A towering gateway (Gopuram), measuring 50 feet high, is placed right in front of the first entrance. One of the most captivating aspects of Tirupati Balaji is the 'Ananda Nilayam'. Ananda Nilayam, when translated, means “Abode of Happiness,”; a golden plated gopuram, absolutely stunning and one of a kind that houses the main deity. The temple also has 640 inscriptions in different languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Sanskrit. The temple compound also has a holy pond called Swami Pushkarni, located towards the northern side. Pushkarni, which covers a huge area of 1.5 acres, is one of the most sacred places of the temple. A legend states that the pond was carried to the hills all the way from Vaikuntham (Lord Vishnu's abode) by Garuda.
Tirupati Laddus
Originally termed as ‘Manoharam,’ Tirupati Laddus are heavenly sweets made of gram flour dipped in ghee with delicious fillings of almonds, cashew and resins. TTD manages the preparation of the laddoos. It is said that Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams makes more than 7 lakh laddoos on a daily basis and makes sure that no devotee goes home without the prasadam after Tirupati Balaji Darshan. This Tirupati Laddu has received Geographical indication (GI) tag which entitles that only Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams can make and sell it & they actually worth it because these laddus are just super delicious. So don't forget to take the laddus.
Offering hair
Another fascinating thing about the temple is the hair cutting (Mundan). Most of the pilgrims offer their hair to Lord Balaji including ladies also. Although I was well aware about this but it was a little bit shocking for me to see a number of ladies bald-headed even young women also. According to a belief, the reason behind giving this donation is said to be that Lord Venkateswara repays the loan taken from Kubera. It is believed that the price of hair we give, Lord Venkateswara, gives you ten times more than that. The good thing is that devotees here donate hair of their own free will.
Mismanagement of footwears
Even in the last week of October, temperature was quite high. TTD clearly doesn’t care about what the devotees should do, when they have to leave the footwear near one gate (in our case it was ATC Circle) and exit from another gate after having Darshan and comeback searching for footwear in scorching heat of Sun. Absence of clear directions made us run bare foot in the wrong direction only to realize the correct direction later. Road surfaces are hot enough to cause blisters on your feet. TTD can lay walking mats and keep them cool by pouring water on it. But clearly they don’t bother about this (Typical argument could be – “Hardship is a must to receive God’s grace”).
After exiting, there are a couple of more temples and you can plan to visit them if you’ve time. You must try Anna Prasadam which is a food distribution service run by TTD.
All restaurants on the hill are managed by TTD and you can expect a good meal at extremely low prices. You can also do some street shopping from the local market available outside the temple premise.
Language & Food
After reaching back to the town, we had rest for some time in the room. Then in the evening we went outside in the hotel premise which was a quite big compound, where a plenty of people were walking around & talking in different languages. It was like a mini India where you can see devotees from every corner of India. Then I saw that there was a stage in the hotel campus on which a south-indian lady was performing the classical singing in Carnatic music. The audience sitting on the chairs in front of the stage were applauding her performance, although i couldn't understand a single word because she was singing in Telugu. Then we just roamed around the city to explore the market & obviously in search of some good & hygienic restaurant as it was the dinner time. Since we had eaten south indian food (Idli, Dosa, Vada etc) at last night dinner, today's morning breakfast as well as in lunch, so now i was wanting to eat some Chapati, but it was not available in any of the restaurants; then i realized that i am in South India. So again we had to order the same menu but this time with different flavor of Dosa. One thing i seriously didn't like here was the serving style. They were not serving Sambhar/Rasam & Coconut chutney in separate bowls as it's been served in North India rather they were just pouring all the Sambhar, Rasam & Chutney all together over the Dosa. It was looking so messy in the plate, that's the reason that most of the time during my trip i had to leave my food half-eaten. Another problem was the language, u can say that i could talk with them in English; i thought the same but it's the biggest misconception that all South-Indians could speak in English. It may be the case for the educated ones but what i found here in Tirupati that many of the shopkeepers, auto drivers & even restaurant owners were not comfortable with English either.
Rude behavior
Besides the food & language, there was another discomfort for the North-Indians & that was the behavior of the people especially the TTD staff of our hotel. I noticed that they were prejudiced towards North-Indians. Despite of the fact that I'd already booked the rooms in advance, each day on completing 24hrs from my check-in time i had to report to the reception & each day they used to check all of my identity cards which should be the same through which I'd booked the room. Then they start questioning that why we have planned to stay there for 4days if we have already availed darshan of the main temple. I was feeling like i was an illegal immigrant to America. I know that they were following the security protocols due to the heavy rush of public but in that case protocols should be the same for all. But i witnessed at the reception that they were providing the rooms to the South-Indians on the basis of their train tickets without checking any i-card, on the other hand they didn't allow a Hindi-spoken old-aged father & his son for stay there as they were unable to produce the same identity-card through which they have booked the room online whereas they have other identity proof with them but the staff rudely rejected it. I don't know where they got the shelter as it was already 11pm in the night but the TTD staff was simply not concerned about it. Another incident happened with me in the market when i went to a shop to purchase something then suddenly a puppy came from inside the shop & started jumping over me & tried to bite me and shockingly the shopkeeper-cum-owner of the dog was just laughing at me instead of pulling it away from me. Somehow I've managed to survive at my own & didn't buy anything from his shop. It's the fact that literacy rate of South-India is much higher than North-India but what i personally observed there is slightly different from the well-known fact.
The ISKCON Temple
For the next 2days we have planned to visit other nearby temples. We went outside where i bought a flower made Gajra for myself, fixed it into my hair like the South-Indian ladies do & moved towards the ISKCON temple. I've visited the ISKCON temples of Ujjain, Indore, Vrindavan & Delhi but i must say that the temple located in Tirupati is the most beautiful among all of them. The grand idols of the deities were situated there inside the temple which were as bright as the diamonds. A beautiful garden containing a variety of plants & flowers was stretched outside the temple in a big area in which I've clicked multiple pictures. I've bought the original Sandalwood powder from the temple's shop.
Sightseeing
You can also take a trip to the old city after you are done with Tirupati Darshan and visit the historical temples constructed in this area. Apart from the highly revered Venkateshwara Temple, there are a lot of other temples also to visit in Tirupati like Govindaraja Swami Temple, Srivari mettu, Sri Padmavathi Ammavari Temple, Sri Agastheshwara Swamy temple Mukkoti, Sri Kapileswaraswami Temple & the Gudimallam Shiva temple etc. These temples are known for the beautiful architecture and designs just like Tirupati Temple. You will be mesmerized by the number of intricate designs that these temples contain.
The most ancient Shiva-linga
Among all these temples, the least known Gudimallam is also one of the most fascinating. Gudimallam, located just 30 km from the temple town, is one of the most ancient Shiva temples in India. The lingam here is believed to the longest continuously worshipped lingam in the world and is said to be over 2200 years old. Archaeological studies suggest that Gudimallam Lingam, one of the oldest Shiva Linga in the world is in the Parasuramesvara temple, one of the temples in Gudimallam. The temple is picturesquely located on the banks of the Swarnamukhi River, and the deity here is unique, a 1.35 M, seven-sided monolithic lingam. The front plane has the figure of Parasurama standing on the crouching figure of a Yaksha. It rests on a base of seven concentric rings, only two of which are visible above the surface. The lingam is believed to be a manifestation of the trinity―Brahma at the bottom, Vishnu in the middle, and Shiva on top. It is said that the sage Parasurama, having killed his mother at the behest of his father, wanted to atone for his sin. A sage advised him to perform penance on the banks of the Swarnamukhi River, and he chose this sacred spot for the purpose. There is an atmosphere of spirituality which pervades this temple, even in the absence of priests or devotees. After the crowd at Tirumala, a visit to this temple can be an uplifting spiritual experience!
Agastheeswara Swami Temple
Another famous historical temple is Mukkoti Agastheeswara Swami Temple Tondavada. Here Lord Siva is known as Agastheeswara Swamy. The sacred shrine is famous for the god Shiva in linga rupam, which was installed by the great saint Agasthya, the son of Urvashi. The wise Agasthya here made a penace for Lord Shiva and caused the origin of the “Swarnamukhi” river from this place. Here a free community kitchen is run by the villagers in the open ground in front of the temple where Idli, Sambhar & Rasam were being cooked in the huge vessels. We had the delicious food served in the banana leaf. It was an amazing experience to have traditional South-Indian meal in an open area in the lap of nature.
The divine experience
Sri Venkateswara Temple at Tirumala (Tirupati) is really significant to the Hindus from a religious point of view. Every year, the temple attracts tourists and devotees from all over the world. To SUM-UP! in my personal experience,I experienced a state of bliss after visiting the temple. Darshan experience of barely a few seconds itself was very powerful experience. Tirupati is far better managed than many other Pilgrim Places in India. But there is still scope for improvement for TTD.
Image source: Pinterest.com
Govinda, Govinda!!
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