Thirupathi Darshana
Thirupathi, the most widely visited holy place, an abode of Lord Venkateshwara ,is the place that i had longed to visit , atleast once in my lifetime.Its often told, one gets to see Lord Venkateshwara in Thirupathi, only when Lord Venkateshwara himself gives you an invitation.
I got one such opportunity to visit Thirupathi , all credits to my friend (for the open invitation ) who claimed to have had it planned very well. We were 5 and we started our journey to Thirupathi from Bangalore on Tuesday 16th novermber 2010 , at around 11 pm. It was yet another rainy day .The journey was slow and smooth ,we had a good time singing , teasing and exchanging informations together.
We were not too far from Bangalore, when We all decided to take a break , for the coffee and our interim destination was Coffee Day at Kolar. That is where, the expert Driver (claims) ran over the divider , making the front left wheel to sink comfortably into the swamp. Many efforts to take the wheel spilled the slimy water all over us.
It was 3 am then ,the very hardwork from the other two guys in collecting the pellets, fitting the jack , made the car to land back to the proper lane, the adventure ended for an hour . We then had a strong coffee and resumed our journey back.
We reached Thirupathi by around 7 in the morning, got ready and reached the temple premises by around 10 am. I was amazed to see this never ending queue. I had heard from many about the value/(mahime) of this holy place. I said to myself, it may be soo true and hence this crowd. We made ourselves comfortable in the special entry queue costing us 300 Rs per head. This special entry queue was no longer a special queue, but equally crowded to that of normal 50 Rs queue.
It was 17th nov 2010, the Ekadashi day. Ekadashi is considered as one of the auspicious day to visit Thirupathi.Even more auspicious if you get to visit Thirupathi on Vaikunta ekadashi, the vaikunta dwaram i.e. often referred as “Door to the Heaven” will be open and any pilgrim who visits it on this particular day is assumed to achieve the salvation.
I have heard ” Thirupati temple is one of the richest temples in the world “, hence has got an entry in the guinness book of records. We stood in the queue until 7 pm (for about 10 hours) – just to get the glimpse/glance of the diety. I was getting exhausted as had not taken lunch. But managed to get a cup of milk that they serve it for free for all the pilgrims and few pop corns (tasted like a plain thermocole). I regained my energy back and we all continued moving forward with the rest of pilgrims.
Finally we made a round about to the temple, went in to the golden shrine where Lord Venkateshwara resides. Got just couple of seconds only to see him, we were all pushed towards the exit. For having waited for about 10 hours, we were never allowed to stay there for not more than couple of seconds too.
But this one glimpse did make a unforgettable print , deep in my mind and heart . Thanks to everyone for making this trip more memobrable.
- Regards
Priyanka
