SURAJ NANDREKAR
A visit to the Temple happens only when there is a call from the Lord himself and a connect establishes with our soul, thats the starting point.
No amount of planning and perfection helps as its the God’s connect with you and his grace that decides your coming to the temple and having a good darshan of the Lord.
So our trip started with a casual talk during our weekly Thursday Aarti at Dutta Mandir in Saligao. As I floated the idea my friends Pradeep Padgaonkar, Krishnanath Colvalkar, Krishna Mhaloji and Devanand Kudnekar agreed for the visit. However, six more people joined us for the tour pilgrimage – Sadashiv Kudnekar, Manguesh Rane, Devesh, Nilesh Salgaocar, Vijay Govekar and Nimai Kumbharkar.
We booked a early direct train from Margao to Tirupati which was early morning and reached our destination around early next morning (3.00 am).
So 11 of us checked into a hotel around railway station and decided to rest for some time.
As per our e-pass for darshan the timing was 2 pm. So we had some rest and left around 10 am for breakfast and then the bus to Tirupati which takes aroun 30 minutes.
The charges for bus is around Rs 90 per person one way.
The darshan of Lord Venkateshwara…
For the first timers should know take a e-darshan ticket on Tirupati mobile app and be on time at the gate with the ID proof that was used for booking the ticket. Please take a printout of the ticket.
After scanning and checking of ticket you will be directed to a long queue and the waiting cells. Once in the queue, it’s your luck how long it takes. It also depends upon the time of the year and whether its peak time or otherwise.
For the Rs 300 online ticket, one can expect a wait time of 1 to 2.5 hrs normally. We took the same time.
Be mindful of the attire as you need to completely attired head to toe with traditional Indian attire and preferably in white dhoti (called Veshti) for men and women indian attire. No trousers/ jeans please.
One cannot describe the darshan in words. The darshan of the lord is ultimate connect of the Soul. Its so powerful and the vibes and the current it generates is unbelievable in the backdrop of the chanting noise of ‘Govinda, Govinda, Venkataramana, Govinda, Srinivasa Govinda’ be with the rhythm and the flow and submit with focus to the Lord.
The brief face to face with the God is ultimate and life undergoes a sea change with a visit.
Offer your prayers and his grace will be all over you for transformation and a new beginning.
You feel full of positive energy when youu see Lord Venkateswara.
When you enter inside the temple keep all eye on Lord Venkatramana as the guard will just push you & will not allow you to stand in front of God please don’t miss the glance of God.
Before the darshan we were guided towards the area where people give their hair. It is not compulsary to give your hair It is a popular belief that donating hair helps in getting rid of sins and ego. Every day, thousands of devotees at Tirupati Balaji temple donate their hair to the Lord’s service.
The spiritual significance of hair donation
The reason behind hair donation is that Lord Venkateshwara repays his loan taken from Lord Kuber. It is believed that God gives you 10 times more value in the form of money than what the devotees donate hair at the Tirupati Balaji temple. It is said that whoever donates their hair is blessed by Goddess Lakshmi. Here, not only men, but women also donate their hair after the vow is fulfilled.
According to another popular belief, once in ancient times, a mountain of ants was formed on the deity of Lord Balaji. A cow used to visit here and go to the mountain of ants to give the milk. Seeing this, the owner of the cow got very angry and he hit the cow’s head with an ax. Balaji was wounded by this blow and some of his hair also fell out. Goddess Neela Devi cut her hair and placed it on Balaji’s wound. As soon as Neela Devi put her hair on the wound, her wound was healed.
Pleased with this, Narayan said that hair is the most important part of the beauty of the body and seeing the Goddess sacrifice her hair really impressed him.
It is the belief that whosoever will give their hair, their wishes are fulfilled. As a result of this belief, there is a tradition of donating hair in the temple of Balaji.
After the darshan, we waited in queue for Tirupathi Laddu, which is very famous all over India and very tasty too.
This is how our trip to Tirumala ended as we took a return bus to our hotel in Tirupati.