My trip to the "religious heaven" - Tirupathi

I am seriously agnostic. As any fellow agnostic human, I too have my two sides. One of which is the belief in the existence of god. Perhaps my "never take chances" attitude makes me agnostic. Who knows, after I die, if heaven and hell exist? And that If I don't care about god through out my life, I will be taken to hell straight away. Therefore, as I never take chances, I do place a bit of belief in god.

To me, if there is god it has to be Lord Venkateshwara(Balaji). This belief has been passed on to me by my grandmother in particular and the rest of my family in general. I don't place a lot of overhead on him though. However, I feel that I should do my best and the god will 'then' do the rest. As, my wish is full filled and as I promised god that I would climb the seven sacred hills on foot and as I promised him that I would get a tonsure done, I decided to make a trip to Tirupathi.

Making a trip to Tirupathi is by no means a joke. If you screw your planning then it will be a religious hell. Especially, in this season, the crowd will be terrible. I booked my tickets 20 days ago and planned that my mom, dad and my cousin from Bangalore would join me at Tirupathi on 30th. To make our lives easier, my mom has a very close friend there who is a Judge in Tirupathi. What else is required with a Judge around. I met my parents in the morning at my aunt's place and after refreshing and regrouping, I started off with my cousin to climb the hill by foot. Well, this is my fifth time by foot and I have a substantial experience in this regard.

All the difficulty lies in the first leg. It will be literally a mountain to climb in the beginning. Once that phase is finished, one can feel a lot better. Along the way, we were accompanied by people from different backgrounds, the rich and the poor, some climbing by applying Pasupu(turmeric) and kunkum and also placing a lit candle on each step. Two other guys were climbing each step by their knees. I was amazed by the piece of belief that these people had. With minimum of the stoppages, my cousin and I, climbed the mountains and reached the Tirimula (Hill top) in 3 hours. My father, who reached before us in my aunt's car, had received us and took us a plush double bed room cottage. I have seen places packed with pilgrims and people having a tough time. It was lunch time and after a sumptuous meal at a nice restaurant, we headed back to our cottage.

Now, the moment. The barber had finally come to shave my head off. I was reluctant to go first and asked my cousin to get it done. Then, on my turn, I bribed the barber with 10 bucks and asked him to do it smoothly. It started, now all kinds of thoughts went around my mind: A few months of agony with 'gundu', my already useless look would go worse etc. However, I felt, it is all for the sake of the god and remained calm. I asked the barber about his earnings, which are staggering(100 tonsures in a matter of 12 hours each day and gets a minimum of 10 rupess per head). After that, I had a look at my face in the mirror. I instantly laughed at that sight. It's all over now.

Around 6 p.m, we were escorted by some judicial office staff to the temple entrance. It was people, people and people and nothing else. This is considered 'the rush hour' and with summer break on, Tirumala has been hit by a human tsunami. Both the rich and the poor, no matter what their back grounds are, no matter what places they had come from, they are dwelling on roads, waiting for hours and hours, running behind officials for rooms, for shelter and most importantly, one small glimpse of the Lord himself. People waiting in the line for 20-30 hours, just like prisoners inside Jewish camp, amidst horrible stampedes and hustles, made me feel that what great power is that, lying in the middle of the temple, and what great belief people place in one stony structure that is driving these millions.

I felt that I am blessed to have such a comfortable life and at least now, I should stop cursing god for what he hadn't given me. We were escorted all the way inside the temple for a 'break darshan'- the VVIPS alone get it. And came out after a small meet with the Lord. We also got tickets for 'Suprabhata Seva' and "Archana Anantara Darshan', which had 2:30 am and 4:30 am as the reporting times respectively the following day. My cousin, who came by foot with me, was seriously troubled by the aching legs and dropped out on the next darshan. My father too was reluctant for a second one. Therefore, my mom and I decided to go for the 'Suprabhata Seva' early in the morning at 2:30. We reached on time and not many people were around. The queues were just starting to get populated. This time my 'Darshan' was much more pleasant. We were made to stand inside the main temple and for the first time, I found some time to observe the beautiful golden cravings on the roof , a sight we generally miss out concentrating on scouts who would drag us off mercilessly. I just prayed god and told him that I hadn't had enough time to read my lengthy wish list now and as he is the god, he must have already known what I want and asked him to make me and the people around happy.

Then, my mom and I went to a place were we get the 'Laddu'(the sacred and famous prasadam). Then returned, looking at the plight of some well-to-do families, who couldn't find accommodation, sleeping under the trees. We had reached home at 4:30 am and I slept happily. I got up and was ready to get down the hill by foot. This time, I was all alone, as my cousin gave up due to his sore legs. I got down the hills without much hassle in 2 hours and reached my aunt's house. That evening we went to "Alivelu Mangapuram Temple", temple of Lord Venketeshwara's wife. We were escorted by the office staff and were treated royally. That trip was a breezy one even with hundreds of pilgrims fighting inside the queues.

TRIP TO SRI KALAHASTEESHWARA TEMPLE :

The following day, as we had a day in hand and more importantly a vehicle in hand, we decided to go to Sri Kalahasti. It is a 45 mins drive from Tirupathi where a very famous Shiva temple is located. 'Sri' means 'Spider', 'Kala' means 'Serpent', 'Hasti' means 'Elephant's tusks'. As the Shiva Lingam has Spider as its base, two Elephant's tusks as its trunk and a Serpent as its head, incarnation of Shiva is called "Sri Kalahasteeshwara". The temple is known for its huge four-fold structure and beautiful stone carvings, that survived hundreds of years. It is truly a beautiful temple.

As the E.O (Executive officer and the head of the temple) is known to my father and my father himself was a Regional Joint Commissioner of Endowments, we were greeted very warmly with priests and other staff guided us at each and every step. I had a 'Rahu-ketu-Sarpa' pooja done and then saw that famous Shiva Lingam without any coverings. That was really amazing and a aura of religious feeling struck within me. After that, we headed back home in the afternoon. I had lunch at my aunt's place and that evening caught the train back home to land of Biriyani, that I missed on this pilgrimage.