Govinda, Govinda .... Govinda
Was out with my family to a famous temple in south India, Tirupati Balaji. Had a great time together.
It was my third time to visit this place. And with every visit I have had a different experience. During my first visit I was just 8. I liked the hilly setup of the place and the food too. Second trip was ok, but in this third trip I had some unwelcomed experiences. May be I'm grown up now ;)
Firstly the trust operating there has boundless resources, but I don't see it put to use in any efficient way. May be IIMS (minus corruption) should takeover. Bad-dest thing we had - no place to stay for the night we went there. The rush was abundant and couldn't get any place. This trust has a monopoly around that hilly area (Tirumala) and owns every rock there. So no private hotels and no private buildings. We nighted out and camped outside the open area of the Muth.
There are many temples in the southern part of India. During my this visit I particularly noticed that temples are constantly looking for various sources of income and are converging to a service providing companies than a holy place where a poor soul comes with all his faith. There are long queues for darshan, you pay some odd amount and you enter a little shorter queue - more the money you pay shorter the queue you get. ok, agreed this is an acceptable way of splitting (or parallalizing) the crowd. So here free darshan is still available but it would cost you more time (takes around 14 hours in Balaji temple). But there are few temples I saw where they have mandatory tickets. The amount is taken for the so-called 'dvelopment' of the temple. The amount is trivial, but the fundamental question is why should one pay to see the God. This is ridiculous! Totally unacceptable! You can shorten the queue by taking money but there should also be free queue where-in a really poor fellow can go. I grilled the ticket vendor over this, he said we have to survive! God knows where that moeny goes.
We waited like 3 hours for the darshan (in a Rs. 50 queue). People cheer eachother by chanting Govinda, Govinda ... Govinda. When the Balaji idol comes closer you feel as if you are put ona fast moving conveyor belt. There are like 12-14 people standing in front of the idol with only job to push people and keep them moving. Due to my height I was able to see the idol clearly before I came near to it.
Forgetting my dislikes over the temples trusts, the trip was awesome! We were in all for 3 days there and visited like all temples in that area. I took huge amount of awesome pictures. Will upload it somewhere soon. (I have been warned by my niece that not all will be made public! So need to take care of that ;))
In all time spent with family was precious. Had great fun! But the direction in which these temple trusts are moving is simply not good. Doing more harm to pilgim's faith than any gain!
It was my third time to visit this place. And with every visit I have had a different experience. During my first visit I was just 8. I liked the hilly setup of the place and the food too. Second trip was ok, but in this third trip I had some unwelcomed experiences. May be I'm grown up now ;)
Firstly the trust operating there has boundless resources, but I don't see it put to use in any efficient way. May be IIMS (minus corruption) should takeover. Bad-dest thing we had - no place to stay for the night we went there. The rush was abundant and couldn't get any place. This trust has a monopoly around that hilly area (Tirumala) and owns every rock there. So no private hotels and no private buildings. We nighted out and camped outside the open area of the Muth.
There are many temples in the southern part of India. During my this visit I particularly noticed that temples are constantly looking for various sources of income and are converging to a service providing companies than a holy place where a poor soul comes with all his faith. There are long queues for darshan, you pay some odd amount and you enter a little shorter queue - more the money you pay shorter the queue you get. ok, agreed this is an acceptable way of splitting (or parallalizing) the crowd. So here free darshan is still available but it would cost you more time (takes around 14 hours in Balaji temple). But there are few temples I saw where they have mandatory tickets. The amount is taken for the so-called 'dvelopment' of the temple. The amount is trivial, but the fundamental question is why should one pay to see the God. This is ridiculous! Totally unacceptable! You can shorten the queue by taking money but there should also be free queue where-in a really poor fellow can go. I grilled the ticket vendor over this, he said we have to survive! God knows where that moeny goes.
We waited like 3 hours for the darshan (in a Rs. 50 queue). People cheer eachother by chanting Govinda, Govinda ... Govinda. When the Balaji idol comes closer you feel as if you are put ona fast moving conveyor belt. There are like 12-14 people standing in front of the idol with only job to push people and keep them moving. Due to my height I was able to see the idol clearly before I came near to it.
Forgetting my dislikes over the temples trusts, the trip was awesome! We were in all for 3 days there and visited like all temples in that area. I took huge amount of awesome pictures. Will upload it somewhere soon. (I have been warned by my niece that not all will be made public! So need to take care of that ;))
In all time spent with family was precious. Had great fun! But the direction in which these temple trusts are moving is simply not good. Doing more harm to pilgim's faith than any gain!
I heard a story behind giving Dakshaina to Tirupati…I think it’s just a belief…
I don’t think god thinks that he needs a grand wedding and for that he took money from Kubera… It is just a story which applies to Kaliyuga meaning don’t get Loan which u cannot return on time :)