Thirupathi

Tirumala Venkateswara Temple in Thirupathi

Tirumala Venkateswara Temple also known as Thirupathi Venkateswara Temple is a famous Hindu temple of Lord Venkateswara located in the hill town Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh. The temple is located on the Venkatachalam hill that forms part of the seven hills of Tirumala and hence the temple is also known as the Temple of Seven Hills (Edukondalu in Telugu). The presiding deity of the temple, Lord Venkateswara is also known by other names - Balaji or Srinivasa.

According to the legend, the temple has a self manifested murti of Lord Vishnu with the lord believed to reside here for the entire Kali Yuga. The temple is the most visited Hindu place of worship and is the world's second richest in terms of the offerings made by pilgrims to the God and gifts given by visiting pilgrims. The temple is visited by about 60,000 pilgrims daily while on special occasions and festivals, the number of pilgrims shoots up to 200,000 making the temple the second most visited holy place after the Vatican annually.

Story of Thirupathi:

Thirupathi

The Tirumala hills comprising of the seven hills of Vrushabadri, Garudadri, Anjanadri , Simhadri , Neeladri , Venkatadri and Seshadri is the abode of the Tirumala Venkateswara temple. The hill town (Tirumala) and the temple (Venkateswara Temple) is located on the Seshadri or Seshachelam hill. The temple complex comprises a smaller traditional temple building along with a number of modern queuing and pilgrimage holding sites.

The varied names ascribed to the main deity are Balaji, Srinivasa, Venkateswara and Venkatachalapathy. The goddess Sri or Lakshmi (Vishnu's consort), resides on the chest of Venketeswara thus he is also known by the epithet Srinivasa (the one in whom Sri resides). The deity is considered the Kali yuga varada, that is 'the boon-granting lord of Kali yuga' (the fourth and final age of Hindu cycle of ages). The temple is held in particular reverence by the Vaishnava sect of southern India, known as the Sri Vaishnava.

Other attractions of Thirupathi

Festivals of Thirupathi:

Thirupathi Temple

The town celebrates most Vaishnava festivals including Vaikunta Ekadasi, Rama Navami and Janmashtami with great splendor, while the Brahmotsavam celebrated every year during September is the most important festivals in Tirumala, when it receives millions of devotees over a short span of a week. Other major festivals include Vasanthotsavam (spring festival) conducted during March-April and Rathasapthami (Magha Shuddha Saptami) is another festival, celebrated during February, when Venkateswara's deity is taken on procession around the temple chariots.

The Venkateswara Suprabhatam, the morning recital of prayers and songs of awakening, is believed to have been written and sung by one of Ramanuja's disciples who visited the temple with his Guru.

Several composers composed beautiful kirtans about Venkateswara, the most notable amongst them being Tyagaraja and Annamacharya. Annamacharya is a legendary devotee of Venkateswara and composed songs almost exclusively about the deity.

The temple brings around 60,000 pilgrims every day. The popularity of the temple can be judged by the annual budget which was estimated at Rs 10 billion in 2008 with almost everything coming directly from donations. Devotees give donations which runs into millions.TTD,the organisation running the welfare of the temple,run various charitable trusts whose money are derived from the budget and donations from the devotees.Some organisations wanted that TTD,should pay tax on the sale of Hair(tonsured by devotees out of their love for the Lord Venkateswara Swamy and wow fulfillment) and prasadam.What these people are trying to overlook is that any non commercial organisation can make its own resource and doesnt need to pay tax as long as they are used for charity and its internal non commercial expenditure.

Darshan and Queue System of Thirupathi:

Varahaswamy Temple

Tirumala possibly has the most elaborate arrangement in India to sequence and guide visiting devotees through the holy shrine. Due to the ever increasing rush of devotees during all 365 days in a year, the temple authorities have set-up a virtual queue system. This has resulted in a steep drop in time that individual devotees need to spend within the Queue Complex leading to the main temple from the earlier 6 to 8 hours by early 1990s to about one to one and half hours typically.

Typically, devotees spend between 60 to 180 minutes going through the Queue complex, depending on the season. The delay increases during weekends, festival periods and special temple puja periods.

Individual devotees are required to register at any of the many queue offices situated near the main shrine, at the local rail and bus stations in Tirumala and Tirupati as well as at TTD offices in other key cities like Bangalore Hyderabad and Chennai. On registration, devotees are provided with the expected time and date of entry into the Vaikuntam Queue Complex. At the time of registration biometrics (finger print and photo) is administered to eliminate the involvement of middlemen. Devotees contributing for Special Darshan or Puja Darshan tickets are moved up the queue virtually as well as inside the temple complex though all devotees are treated equally from the point of entry into the sanctum sanctorum.

Arjitha Seva (Paid Services) in Thirupathi:

View of Thirupathi

Pilgrims can view and participate (in a limited fashion) in the various sevas performed to Dhruva bera (main idol), Bhoga Srinivasa, Sri Malayappa swami and other idols in the temple.

When pilgrims purchase arjitha seva tickets, they get the opportunity to see a seva performed to the Lord, obtain prasadam in the form of vastram (clothes), akshantalu (sacred and blessed rice) and food articles (laddus, vadas, dosas, pongal, rice items) and a darshan of the utsava murti.

Other major thing is anyone can get tickets like VIP and other paid services, this service useful to the people who are interesting in darshan of Balaji venkateshwara, In this facility you can see the god directly except loosing your time.

Travel and Stay in Thirupathi:

Best View in night

Tirupati is well connected by road, rail and air with the major metros in India. Private and Public road transport is available for climbing from Tirupati to Tirumala. Once Pilgrims reach Tirupati, both paid and free accommodations are available in Tirupati and Tirumala.