Tirupati Tirumala Deivasthanam (TTD)

I had ideas of other posts in mind, but this was one I had to write before anything else!

I was in Tirupati on Tuesday nd planned a trip to Tirumala early next morning with a colleague. Tirumala is what Tirupati is actually famous for.. it has the Lord Venkateshwara temple, which is supposed to be the world's most visited religious site - at an average of 60,000 pilgrims a day! (Tirupati is the city.. Tirumala is a hill a few kms from the city)

I prefer to visit a temple if its nice and quiet and peaceful. So I was a bit skeptical about going to this temple. There was going to be one helluva rush, no matter what time we went.

So we woke up at around 3 am, ready for our 'adventure'! By 3.45, we were off in a tiny Indica up the hill. The ride was interesting. At this time of the day (err night), you really don't expect too many vehicles on any road.. But there were buses upon buses, full of people, screaming up the slope! There was a jeep rammed into the side of the road, an eager driver turning too fast for his own good. It got chillier as we climbed but I was still quite comfortable in my t-shirt and jeans. It must've been like 21-22 degrees C.

4:35 am - We reached the top, had to leave our cellphones and chappals in the car.. and headed straight for the serpentine queue which had already started forming!

The queue moved quite slow. The point where we joined the queue, we really didn't know we were entering a temple. In front of us was a huge building that seemed to be full of halls, and the queue was heading right for it. As we got in, the queue split into two.. one going up a flight of stairs and another going down... Both eventually of course leading to the same destination.

As the queue moved forth, I could get glimpses of the humongous complex inside. It was a large space, prolly the size of two football fields, and on one side was the temple.

The queue then emptied out into a seating hall of sorts and the door at the far end was closed. We waited there for around 30 minutes. Without much notice, the door was pulled open and pilgrims spilled out towards another entry, again falling back into a queue. This queue finally led up to the temple, just before which, it merged with the other queue.

There were just so many people around. But there was very little noise. Occasionally someone would cry out "Govinda", and everyone would follow the 'chant', saying "Govinda' twice or thrice.

As I neared the idol, there was quite a mad rush of pilgrims as the entrance to the temple was a bit wider than the queue. The entrance to the temple is from its left side. One has to go straight towards the centre and then turn left to get a glimpse of the idol. As I moved forward, being shoved from all directions, I thought to myself.. well what's really there to it!?

But as I turned left, I had a clear view of the idol - Lord Venkateshwara.

Now, I don't really know how to explain it, but I was transfixed. There was some energy holding me at that point. My mind was clear, still, motionless, at peace. And as I reached the closest point to the idol and turned left away from it, I felt a sense of deep contentment. I walked out amongst a crowd of smiling, happy, people. Perhaps, I was smiling too...

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It had been a great experience, and a most unexpected one at that. The cherry on the icing on the cake was the sweet laddu packet at the end, which I had, and shared gleefully with my team the next day!