Is it true? Let's see.
Tirumala shells a glimpse of
Lord Balaji, queues for hours, crowds of devotees,
laddu prasadam. Children get
bored and irritated in the queue lines and cry to get out
of queue line. Adults are
anxious as to when they would get that glance.
A sigh of despair until the
sight of Him. One should arrange the tickets two
months in advance to goto
Tirumala. My mother would be upset since a
month before we set off to
Tirumala, thinking of long queue lines, despite my father
puts all his sincere efforts to
bring her out of the queue at the earliest possible.
Tirumala is not a vacation for
us; rather, it's a norm,
just like every year Dussehra,
Diwali and Sankranti are celebrated.
We went in 2020 as well. One
week after we returned, the shutdown was declared 😃.
If I have to compare most
difficult things with any thing, I would compare it with
Tirumala Darshan. When I was
made to wait for a doctor as he had too many
patients on the day of my visit,
I told him as soon as I entered in,
"Tirumala Venkateswara
Swamy calls me in much easily into his shrine than you do😄".
During a recent conversation in
the office, my superior
Prasad said, "Bhargavi,
everyone are coming to me with so many problems".
I said, "You are probably
the last resort after Tirumala Balaji
for all their problems to be
sorted, feel proud".
Every year, I
distribute Tirumala prasadam in my office.
My ex-manager Vipin asked,
"How many times have you been to Tirumala?".
Me: "I went so many
times", I replied while distributing to the folks at my desk.
Vipin: "Many, you mean how
many times? 10, 11, 12, how many times?"
Me: "soooo...oo... many
times".
Vipin: "Yes, ok, soo many
times is how many times? There must be some figure.
Tell me roughly."
Me: "One or half here and
there, as many a time as my age is."
There are no luxury hotels on
the hill. Don't I get bored of going to the same temple so
many times? Are all my troubles
being sorted visiting Tirumala?
How am I going to the same
temple so many times, a place with the crowd of devotees,
the stampede and the fear of the
waiting inside the temple? Why am I going?
I heard so many questions in his
one question - "how many times".
Not only him in the office, some
other friends asked me similar questions.
Refreshing the memories of the
ones who visited and some information glance here to
the ones who did not visit
Tirumala, here I will tell you some special things and
experiences that I have
observed, learned and known while going to Tirumala in
all these years.
Some interesting mentions
PVRK Prasad garu, an ex- I. A. S
officer had worked as Tirumala Executive Officer 30-40 years back.
Few interesting stories that he
narrated while he was working as Tirumala EO.
The Chidambaram rahasya (secret) - Govindarajaswamy
Anything that is not known ever is casually termed as Chidambara rahasya
in South India.
A Chola king who was a devout
Shaiva was completely against the Vaishnava
tradition. Upon his order,
Ranganatha swami's idol in Chidambaram Temple
was uprooted from the shrine and
thrown into the sea. Naah! I am not narrating
Kamal Hassan's
Dasavataram movie story here; this
is the Chidambaram's secret.
Some Vaishnava devotees who
worshipped that uprooted Vishnu idol all their life,
saved it from the sea
and moved to Tirupati.
Before the moment of
consecration (sthapana) of the idol it was realized that
Ranganatha swamy idol was
slightly broken during the transit from Chidambaram to Tirupati.
Because a broken idol cannot be
established, Sri Ramanujacharya got a
statue of Govindarajaswamy made
with sand and installed it with sacred hymns in today's
place of Govindarajaswamy
temple.
That's why they don't anoint or
do abhishekam to the idol we visit today as it is made of sand.
It is done only to ceremonial
idols in the temple made with metals.
Along with these, the idols of
Parthasarathi, Rukmini and Satyabhama were also consecrated.
To protect the idol from Mughal
vandalism,
the idols of Parthasarathi,
Rukmini and Satyabhama are completely covered with bricks in
all directions and closed. A few
decades ago PVRK Prasad garu read about these idols in
the old scriptures of the
temple. The idols were then taken out and re-consecrated.
Govindarajaswamy temple is one
kilometer away from the railway station.
It is believed that this
Govindarajaswamy was the elder brother of Venkateswara Swamy of
Tirumala.
And it is believed that this
brother can easily persuade Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala 😄.
Try recommendations 😄.
So, where is the statue of Ranganatha Swamy that was saved from Chidambaram?
There is a pond like structure
called manchi neeti gunta close to Govindarajaswamy.
Many years back, , when there
was a severe drought in Tirupati, the water in this pond
did not dry up.
This pond of fresh water helped
the people in the village during the drought.
Ranganatha Swamy is now resting
under the shade of a
peepal tree near this fresh
water pond.
Japali - the birthplace of Hanuman
The names of seven hills in
Tirumala are Seshadri, Niladri, Garudadri, Vrishabhadri,
Narayanadri, Venkatadri and
Anjanadri. Kannadigas believe that the birth place of
Lord Hanuman is on the hilltop
near Vittala Mandir in Hampi.
While Teluguites faith is that
the birthplace of Lord Hanuman is near Japali on Tirumala Hill.
Hence the name of that hill is
Anjanadri, Anjana Devi being the mother of Lord Hanuman.
Japali Anjaneyaswamy temple is
two to three kilometers away from the road.
The tall lush green trees along
the road are home to various birds. In the interest of
Zoology students there are
different kinds of insects also here 😄.
Kirtans by MS Subbalakshmi garu
Renowned musician MS Subbalakshmi Garu was in
severe financial crisis during 1970s'.
As a person with immense self-respect she would not
accept even a debt.
That is why PVRK Prasad garu offered her to make an
album of Annamacharya's kirtans
(songs). (Annamacharya was a saint and music
composer who composed thousands of
songs in praise of Lord Balaji).
Subbalakshmi garu was already a Padma Vibhushan
recipient by then. Being in
financial troubles, she would have done the
recordings in an hurry and no one would
even dare to ask such a Vidushimani either.
But Subbalakshmi garu learnt the meaning of every
sentence in every kirtan, practiced
them well and then gave her recording for album,
which was an immense hit those days.
Der hain, andher nahin (sometimes He is late, not unheard)
She was (apparently her children were) then given a
share of the profits from the
Annamacharya's kirtans
album sales as remuneration to bring her out from
financial crisis.
By the way, the question why am I going to Tirumala
every year is still open.
Some more interesting details about Tirumala in my
next blog.
Click here to tour Hampi.
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