A Soaking Wet Darshan

The place which boasts of the highest number of visitors in the world, with the administration trust there being the one to record the second highest figure in the whole year in terms of religious contributions, is definitely one of the places in the world that defies any logic that man can fathom. Yes, Tirupati is indeed a very simple example of the fact that there are things in this world that man cannot just reason with.

For people who are familiar with this place it wont come as a surprise that one has to wait for 7-8 hours on a slightly crowded day to get the darshan of Lord Balaji. HE is supposed to be the most non-violent god in Indian mythology. People from various parts of the country come on a pilgrimage in regular intervals without fail to get HIS darshan and provide their religious contributions to HIM.

Regulars from outside Andhra make it a point to visit the place once in every 3 or 6 months whereas people who are more nearer to HIS abode visit Tirumala even weekly. When me and chinni went there about a week back we reached tirupati at about 2.30 AM. We were planning to get the tickets and climb u to tirumala to be in time for the darshan. The irony of the ticket issue was that the 50 rupees spl darshan which was supposed to be less crowded than the free darshan was issuing tickets for darshan at 9pm where as the free darshan, which was supposed to be crowded was issuing tickets with the darshan time as 12 noon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nobody even stopped to look at the free darshan counter’s timings, they were just following the person in front.

Tamizhla sollanumna aattu mandhai……

We got our tickets for 2pm and we had ample time at hand to climb up the way to tirumala and take a room, get ourselves refreshed and visit Papanaasam, Akasha Ganga and another smaller Vishnu temple in the meantime. We went in at about 1.30pm and reached the queue near the temple’s entrance only to be greeted with a chill breeze followed by a steadily increasing drizzle. By the time we were inside the temple it was pouring down heavily and we got drenched even before we entered the final praharam. Inside the praharam we had to run through ankle deep water to reach the final garbha graham and I have never in 25 years ever crossed the queue inside the temple praharam in such a flash as we did that day.

To make it a perfect finish when we were coming around the golden gopuram in pradhakshinam the clouds on one side of the sky gave way to the sun god and he shone ever brightly on the golden gopuram. It was a great sight because the gopuram had been just washed off by the rain and the wet surface gave us a glistening look which otherwise would not be possible during any other normal day. We had no doubts whatsoever that we would surely have the lord’s blessings as all these were enough indications. A fairly quick darshan (we were out of the temple in 2.5 hrs total), a dash through the praharam, which is otherwise an ordeal what with the pushing and shoving of devotees with the never stopping cries of jarugandi, the sight of the glistening wet golden gopuram and finally the rain relenting to just a steady drizzle right at the time when we came out of the temple, was enough activity in one single trip to Tirumala.

Somehow these things, even though natural, make you associate them with the lord’s darshan when they happen on a pilgrimage trip. And why not, if it is not the lord who controls the nature then who else….. ????

It was a proper fulfilling darshan for me and more special one for chinni as it was her first time by foot from Tirupati to Tirumala.