Last week was an amazing week, with my parents in Bangalore; the house was full of happiness and blessings. We planned for some divine intervention, and planned a trip to Balaji Darshan. Tirupati Devasthanam, is Venkateswara Temple is a famous Hindu temple of Lord Venkateswara located in the hill town Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh. The temple is located on the Venkatachalam hill that forms part of the seven hills of Tirumala and hence the temple is also known as the Temple of Seven Hills (Edukondalu in Telugu). The presiding deity of the temple, Lord Venkateswara is also known by other names - Balaji or Srinivasa.
This is one of the richest temples in Asia, and second in the world after the Vatican City and also second in terms of having the most number of pilgrims, approximately 60000, daily. The wealth accumulated by the Tirumala Trust, is from donations made at the temple. There is a mythological story behind the same.
Tirupati is located around 250KM from Bangalore, and we started at 5AM from our residence in south Bangalore. We hit the old madras road and drove around 70KM towards Kolar in Karnataka, are famous for its gold mines, the Kolar Gold Fields. The drive is pleasant, and the road is just perfect for a hitting, at least 75Kmph.
Straight down the same road we hit Chittor, which is arround 100KM from Kolar, and the road continues to be perfect. With some bhajans to start with, the drive was pretty comfortable. Before we hit Chittor, we had some quick wada sambar, at the road side eating joint. The sun was up and it was getting a little hot now. Before we hit Chittor, we found a diversion to Tirupati, and here we leave NH4 and get into the state highway.
The first few kilometer in the state highway was painful, (painful is an overrated, considering the road we came by), otherwise pretty motorable, and we finished the bypass, and paid a toll there. We traveled another 79KM, to reach Tirupati, and the road was awesome. I hit about 110kmph on my speedometer and covered all grounds which I lost during covering the bypass. With the clock striking 10AM, we were in Tirupati.
We had to go to Tirumala, which was 25 km up north on the Venkatachalam hill, complete ghat roads. Before hitting the ghats, we had to go through few security checks. The drive was smooth, only because, there were two roads, one to climb, and other to descent, thus no speeding vehicles, coming from the opposite direction in those hair-pin bends!!!
Tirumala devasthanam was ever crowded, with pilgrims of all class and creed. The poor and the rich all looks the same, with their tonsured heads, as it is a good amen of donating hair at the devasthanam. We saw people all over waiting in the queue for their turn, to have a fraction of a second darshan of Lord Venkateswara.
We had organized our special darshan through a banks staff, who took some time to organize the tickets and finally we entered the queue, at 12.30PM. The temple doors closed for a while for some seva, and we got stranded at one point for more than an hour. It was people packed in a box. No one left any void, no one felt for the other person’s comfort, the only mission everyone in the queue had was to have darshan; a darshan which lasted less than one could realize where the lord was, if he or she is a first time visitor at Tirupati.
I thought to myself, this was my 4th trip, and I consider myself luck, as I and lot of other people who do pilgrimages, believe, that you never come to meet a deity, if he or she calls you or gives and appointment, you are bound to come. That’s true for my case, the first time I came, I was small kid, and only thing I remember about tirupati was a golden pillar, and the ghee overflowing laddoos, which is the main prasad at Tirupati.
I have stayed in Andhra Pradesh was 4 years, and so many time, I planned a trip to tirupati, and could never make it. When I shifted to Bangalore, I made 3 trips, and all of them unplanned, and I was merely a mediator to bring devotees to tirupati on HIS commands. First it was my friend’s brother who wanted to come, next my cousin and today my parents. I just agreed to accompany and was lucky to meet the divine all the 3 times.
The line finally moved, with a roaring chant of “Govinda”, and I came back to reality of pushing and taking care of my folks and guiding them the right way. In an hours time and lil more, we finally were inside the temple, and was blessed by Divine Intervention. For my last two visits, I have been in a trance when I entered the temple, neither could ask for anything nor could see him properly. I could never explained, what I saw, and what I felt. This time, I was determined to see HIM, and did not have any plans for asking. I just thanked HIM, and asked for HIS blessings. I saw HIM!!
With the lady scouts pushing you to clear the bay, my eyes stuck on HIM and I could still visualize HIM which is beyond any definition. We were literally pushed out of the temple, and we came out to make our contributions to the sacred Hundi. People get into a trance seeing HIM, and I have seen people donating everything in this Hundi. The reason, being, it is said that Lord Venkateswara, took some loan to get married, from Kuber, which he is still repaying. Thus all devotees come and make contributions, in tens hundreds, thousands lakhs and millions, to help the lord repay. It is believed, that for so many years, the lord is still paying the interest.
We also made our contribution, and also for all who asked us to make one. When we came out of the temple it was 3.30PM, our schedules had gone haywire, because of the delay in the queue, and we skipped lunch and rushed back towards Bangalore.
On the way back, we picked up some packed juice and wafers to keep our stomachs full, and I drove to cover maximum, till we had daylight. It was a tiring, drive, and the maximum I ever drove in a single day, with almost 3 hours driving in dark, on a national highway. I got a pat on my back from my parents, as we safely reached home at around 10.30 at night. A long day, 580KM of driving, 3 hours of darshan queue, 3 hours of night driving on highway, it was a worthy divine intervention, it adds to some of my best traveling experiences ever.
