Tirumala Tirupathi
From Thiruchanoor we drove upto Govindaraja Perumal temple near Thirupati railway station. After some waiting for the doors of the sanctum sanctorum to open, we had darshan of Govindaraja Perumal, Andal, Lakshmi Ammavaru and Ramanujacharyar.
It is believed that what how when and where you will have darshan of Venkateswara Swami is totally in His hands and no plan can be made for this. I like walking up the hills and reach Tirumala from Alipiri on foot. Though it involves 11 kms of trekking through some steep steps and some stretch of straight walking, and then crossing "mokalimurichu" which literally means "breaking your knees", it is sheer happiness one gets trekking this part of the Tirumala. This is not just trekking, but a way of devotion to the Lord of Seven Hills. This time we could not walk up as it was already beyond 7:30 pm in the night when we reached Alipiri. I am talking of 24th August 2013.
So, this was working on my mind that I did not come to Him walking. It is believed that VarahaSwamy was already in Tirumala hills when Venkateswara Swamy asked Him to give some place for Him on the hills. VarahaSwamy agreed with the condition that anything offered to Venkateswara would first be offered to VarahaSwamy and then alone it can go to Balaji. So it is a vaishnavite tradition that a visit to VarahaSwamy temple is must before we go for Balaji darshan. We rushed to VarahaSwamy temple after a short visit to the Cottage allotment office. Fortunately (God's blessing) we four were in the last set of devotees that they allowed inside VarahaSwamy temple for darshan. We can go very near the Perumal and can fill our eyes and hearts with this Divyaroopam.
We went back to cottage allotment office and we learnt that there is going to be good hours of waiting to get our room, though our friend was trying to get a room for us. We went to the free bhojanalaya to get anna prasadam, but seeing the rush, we decided to eat in some road-side restaurant and take anna prasadam the next day. We did the mistake of going to the nearby IRCTC canteen and ate something which was refusing to cross my tongue. We gulped something and rushed back to cottage allotment office. Our wait of 2 hours and help of our friend Prasad got a room for us around 11 pm.
We had read in some newspaper that Tirumala is witnessing less number of devotees due to Telengana agitation. But the night and day that we spent there, we knew for sure that the crowd has not reduced - rather it has increased so many times. It was Tirumala as usual and the agitation has done nothing to the inflow of devotees, at least on those days.
25th August 2013 dawned with the sounds of Suprabadha seva in the temple. We joined the queue for Rs.300/- ticket darshan around 6 am. We crossed vendi vakili (Silver gate) and bangaru vakili (golden gate) around 11:30 am and got darshan of VenkateswaraSwamy around 11:45 am and were out of the temple around 12 noon. Sun was blazing and our bare feet notused to hot Sun, got literally roasted when we ran to Laddu counter to collect our Laddu prasadam.
We realised that the usual number of TTD employees were not there and hence the way queue for darshan, laddu distribution etc were slightly unruly and unorganised. Still, we got darshan and got the prasadam as well. We literally ran to Bhojanalaya for Anna Prasadam as the Mada Veedhi was too hot for our bare feet. WE had nice Anna Prasadam with sambar, rasam and buttermilk.
The way thousands of devotees are treated to hot rice, sambar, rasam and butter milk within seconds is something to be seen to believe. Dharmasthala in Karnataka also has an admirable tradition of providing healthy, clean free food to all devotees. In fact, almost all temples in Karnataka provide nourishing good clean food to all devotees. But the sheer number that TTD handles for this Anna Prasadam distribution is something to be seen and not written / read about.
We left Tirumala around 3 pm and reached Chennai around 8 pm. Throughout the journey Velukudi Krishnan Swami gave us company through his beautiful rendering of Thirupavai Upanyasam.
Next day, 26th August, my husband left for Bangalore on his official tour and I spent some memorable time with my mother at Alwarpet with a quick visit to Kalakshetra to pick up my niece. The smell of "magilampoo" - a tiny mild fragrant flower fills the air as you step inside the complex.
Though I lived in Tamilnadu, I was not aware of the institution called Kalakshetra in my childhood days. Learning meant completing B.Com in Madurai Kamaraj university with a I class and completion of ICWA, CAIIB, software courses and subsequently CPA in United States of America. Career and profession meant working in commercial organisations on finance, marketing and Human Resources.
Dance was in my soul silently and it longed to dance as a means to salvation, as meditation. At the age of 45, I joined SNDT University's part time course for Bharatnatyam and learnt for one year under Smt Indu Raman, a Kalakshetra alumni. That one year was a blessed year of beautiful learning, dance, and music, and making new friendship with other batchmates and my Guru as well! So, any opportunity to visit Kalakshetra makes me excited and I actually feel jealous of the girls and boys learning dance and music in that hallowed institution.
This trip to Chennai also gave me a nice opportunity to meet Smt Rajam - wife of (late) Lalgudi Jayaraman and take her blessings. I could meet his son Lalgudi GJR Krishnan and discuss the book "An incurable romantic - a musical journey of Lalgudi Jayaraman" which is an unforgettable moment for me. Just missed the opportunity to meet Lalgudi Viji who is the brain behind this book.
This trip to Chennai became very memorable in so many ways!
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