Though we have all made trips to Thirupathi many times, this trip is completely on a different emotional plane for me and Prabhu [My friend]......... Read on
To start with, there was this holy call from my pervious manager, Bindu, who as a matter of fact told me on a very casual note, “Ashok why don’t you go to Thirupathi”. And as destiny may have it, it rang bells in my mind and i immediately asked Prabhu about his convenience. After a momentary though he said okay and it all started and got concluded within 30 minutes, our decision to make this holy trip............
Friday Night – June 19, 2009: Prabhu reached Thirupathi at around 10:30 in the night on Friday and i started around the same time from Bangalore and reached the next day at around 5:00 AM. In spite of having made this holy trip to Thirupathi many times, this time around i was lacking information about the procedural changes that has taken place. Earlier in the day Prabhu and myself agreed that we will climb the hill and offer our prayers.
Saturday morning: There was a huge rush of devotees and as usual we were not able to take a proper decision as to where we will get the tickets from (darshan tokens). Though we wanted to take it from the counter in Srinivasam pilgrim centre, looking at the mile long queue we decided to go up via a bus and stand there in the queue. The idea was to reach the hill top ASAP and manage the earliest possible darshan........this is where the first twist in the tale sprang up. Due to the recent changes in the TTD board they have decided to remove the token counters at the hills. So the only option left with us was we have to go in Dharma darshan and so we started walking towards the Vaikundam counters. As we left our slippers in the counter near the Vijaya Bank.....came the next surprise that for all dharma darshan people we have to leave our mobiles in a separate counter. We decided to take this long walk and as we were standing in the queue there were a couple of miscreants, who were troubling me and pat came a fitting question from Prabhu “ Have you guys come here to offer prayers or else for something else?”. Those guys became a little quiet more because of Prabhu demeanour and we decided to neglect them rather than paying attention to them.
As we were standing in the queue, i felt troubled at heart and was a little worried. Though we could see the glimmering Sanctum Santorum, something in my mind said that this is going to be a very long walk. By this time we reached the counter for depositing the mobile phones and the guys at the counter ensured that we may have to wait for a couple of more hours to deposit our mobile phones. As i was standing my mind started playing games with me. My mind was full of doubts as to whether i have made a mistake of coming to Thirupathi at this time of year. (Bear in mind that it was Saturday and it is a second Saturday and also a Good MUHURTHA day). After half an hour of standing in the queue we decided to leave the queue and look for other ways to get a darshan ticket.
We thought we will try our best by going around the hill to manage a ticket by hook or crook. We walked towards the JRO office only to learn that we should have a letter from a minister to get the tokens from there. Many thoughts came to my mind but i knew nothing would work for us now. I was cursing myself and my bad luck. We felt hungry and we started looking out for a hotel. Every now and then we managed to see only a restaurant name board but there was nothing in that place. And so like this we walked for about another 20 mins to find a good hotel and we had our food. Finally we decided to go down to Thirupathi. The thought was to go down to leave the mobile phones in the room and come by 4 PM to stand in the ANGA PRADARSHANA queue and have the darshan of the LORD early tomorrow. I thought time was passing much faster. We reached the room at around 11:15 AM and Prabhu decided to take some rest and i took out my LALITHA SAHASRANAMA book and started chanting the prayers and another 30 minutes passed like this. By now Prabhu was fast asleep and i had to wake him up to get going. I felt a little better after chanting the mantra and felt a fresh lease of energy. The magic has started.
We decided to approach the ticket counters at Srinivasam PC and another twist came. The counter is not operated 24 x 7 these days and the person sitting there told us to come the next day morning. I felt a little disappointed and as we were about to leave the place that guy told us that at the other end of the building we may get the 200 RS token. We rushed there only to find a lengthy long queue. We decided to try our luck and a guy in white and white (I Guess he might be a cabbie) came to us and told that we will not get the tickets as only 300 tickets will be given. He said if we pay him 350/ticket he will get one for us. We tried to bargain but eventually gave up for his demands. He took us to another pilgrim centre near the railway station and we stood in the queue. We managed to get our tickets this time for the next morning 4:00 AM darshan. I was a lot happier by now and smile returned to our faces finally. As we came out of the counter the guy who took us there was no where to be seen and we left the place in an auto and reached the lodge. Prabhu wanted to stick to the original plan of going up to the hills and wait for the ANGAPRADARSHAN token and it was all fine till the time i decided to call upon my dad to convey this news. There was a lot of energy in our conversation and my dad asked me casually. “So are you going up by walk?” (He was not aware of the fact that me and Prabhu wanted to take the steps to the hills but went in a bus only to learn that we made a mistake in doing so). As the conversation ended it dawned on me that Lord Balaji through his DIVINE intervention made us come to the top and take the long way back to the lodge and has given us a ticket now and have asked us to fulfil our obligations. The feeling was eternal and we decided to have a good sleep and start by 9:00 PM.
And so finally the journey to the hills of the Lord started. We started climbing up the hills and remembered our previous trip to Thirupathi in Dec 2004. Time has passed by like anything. It felt like only yesterday we all had come together but its been 5 long years. We reached the top at around 12:30 this time without the burden of mobile phones. We approached the lady cop who guarded the entrance to the queue and she asked us to wait till 4:00 AM. Couple of hours passed by. By 2:45 another cop came there and allowed everybody to go in. By then lot of people had come and though we were one among the first to arrive we joined the queue only after some 1000 people. Though we felt a little bad about this unpredictable behaviour we were happy that we are finally going to get darshan. Believe me it just took about 45 mins to pass the check points and there was nothing to stop us. We finished the formalities and were on our way to have the darshan. Our only prayer was we should have a peaceful darshan without the push and pulls of the volunteers and fellow pilgrims. To our surprise, thought Lord heard our prayers, there was a bit of discipline among the crowd by now and it was around 4:30 we have managed to enter the Sanctum Sanctorum. I asked Prabhu to switch lanes to ensure we get a good glimpse of the Lord.
As we reached the Sanctorum the magic unfolded. We could feel the blessing of the lord. The Mangala Aarathi was about to happen. Had we reached 5 mins earlier or 5 mins later we would have missed it. It was for the first time in very many trips i saw the Mangala aarathi was performed. As we reached the Scanctorum, Only eternal space to separate us and the Lord it all happened. The volunteers who were pushing all other people stopped upon our arrival and we had about 15 seconds of eternal divine time. We offered our prayers. It was purely magical. All our wishes were granted. Darshan without the push and pulls of the pilgrims and specially the time in front of the magnificent Sanctorum ...........words can never describe our feeling. We felt blessed. We can never forget this trip as long as we live........ Bliss everywhere.
By 5:30 we were out of the temple premises and as we started walking down, Vishnu Sahasranama, chant began in the voice of M.S. amma. We started with Lalitha Sahasranama and we ended our trip with Vishnu Sahasranama. This trip has only reinforced my belief in God and now with more conviction i can say, “Yes he is listening to all our prayers. He might test us, but in the end we will be rewarded if we keep our faith in God”. We prayed for the well being of this world and yes i would like to end this mail with “ Lokahah Samastahah Sukinav Bhavanthu”.
Regards
Ashok
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