Jun 23, 2010 07:18 PM
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Went to Thirupathi last week. Thought would write a review on the visit. Thirupathi is the most famous Hindu Temple in India and it is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. The story goes that Saint Brigu cursed Goddess Lakshmi that she will be born as a human. So inorder to reclaim Lakshmi who is born as Padmavathi Lord Vishnu took the avatar of Srinivasa and came to Thirupathi. The myth goes on to tell that when Srinivasa asked Padmavathi's hand in marriage he was asked to pay a huge sum as bride money. For this Srinivasa went to Kuber the heavenly tresurer and took a loan. The agreement was that he will abode in the sacred hills of Thirumala and the offerings from devotees who visited him will be used to repay the loan with interest. This loan is now continuing for ages. The temple is crowded with devotees on all days. It is truly an amazing sight to see aged ppl, women with infants stand in the long queue for hrs to get a glimpse of Lord Balaji just for 2 sec. But to be frank with my experience even that 2 sec darshan sends a lot of positive vibes in ur body. That is the flow of positive energy flowing from the idol.
There are various ways of getting the darshan. You can get a Rs 50 ticket or a Rs 300 Sheegra Darshan( Quick darshan within 1 hr). Also u can perform multiple sevas. Along with each seva u will get a darshan. One of the most famous Seva in Thirupathi is the Kalyanotsavam. In this seva the devotees can watch the divine marriage between Srinivasa and Padmavathi performed by the priests. If you are a newly married couple or planning to visit the hilly abode as a small family this is the best seva you can choose. Seva is there for 1 hr and you will get the darshan in another 30 minutes. It is believed that watching the divine marriage will bring prosperity and happiness to your family life. The seva costs Rs1000 per couple and u have to pay Rs 300 for every additionl person. When this seva is performed you will get a silver locket of Goddess Padmavathi and Balaji and also a semi silk shawl and a blouse piece.
There are additional sevas like Vasantholsavam, Unjal Seva, Vishesha Pooja etc for which rates and number of ppl differ. You can book the tickets for seva online at ttdsevaonline.
There is also facility for booking accomdation online. The rates range from Rs 100- Rs 2000. Rooms of Rs 500 are really spacious and well maintained. The online booking for seva and rooms starts 90 days in advance and if we don't book well in advance it is difficult to get tickets for weekends.
In addition to Thirumala you must visit other temples like Padmavathi Temple, Kalahasthi and Hare Rama Hare Krishna temple which are in the down hill. A 2 day trip would be ideal to cover all these sacred places.
Thirupathi is well connected by bus and train. If you can't geta direct transport you can easily go there from Chennai or Banglore. IRCTC also runs a 1 day package to Thirumala from Chennai.
Now coming to the problems. Inspite of people flocking from all over India not a single person in the TTD counter can speak English or Hindi. You are literally lost if you don't know Telugu or atleast a bit of Tamil.
TTD officials are mostly arrogant and offer little help. You survive there because of good samaritans who are small shop keepers, jeep drivers who believe that helping the pilgrims who come for balaji darshan is a noble cause.
Priests are greedy like anything. Thirumala is the richest temple in India with donations pouring from all quarters. You can see the contributions from all major industrail houses to Thirumala. Still the priests will hold you, perform some non existent pooja and demand dakshina at each and every point in the temple. This is really irritating.
Last but not the least in front of Lord Balaji even before you get a good look at the idol you are pushed with brute force. I understand there is lot of crowd, still feel some consideration can be shown to people who are standing in long queues to atleast get a good darshan.
