Recently I went to Tirupati with my parents..I had heard a lot about the place, its mystique aura, and its calming effects and so on. Just like my parents, I was excited to visit such a high-profile place. We started at 8pm and reached the base of the hill at 1:30 a.m. The guide allotted a room for each family and asked us to get ready and re-assemble in an hour. I took this “getting ready” a bit casually and just washed my face and came down in an hour only to be surprised by the transformation in my co-passengers. Almost everyone had taken a head bath and people were dressed up in proper traditional attires. It felt a bit weird to see people all jazzed up in the middle of the night, but I did not ponder over it much as I was still feeling sleepy after the bumpy bus ride. On our way up the hill, I slept like a log, only to be woken up by faint sounds of bhajans which were still discreet owing to the creepy silence of the dark. My watch was showing 4:00 a.m., a somewhat usual time for me to go to sleep. But my surroundings were as alert as a normal day time. Silently, we scurried to the package tour entrance and waited for the gates to be opened somewhere around 5:00 a.m... Till this time, I was pondering over why people used to say that the “darshan” was usually a 2-3 hour affair and it may take longer. Not to be surprised, I would find my answers pretty soon.
At 5:00 am sharp, the still crowd suddenly came alive and people started moving at a constant speed in a queue. What started then was a long journey to the “garbhagraha” – the centre place where the main idol of Lord Balaji resided. We walked through lanes, basements resembling dungeons, covered roofs, and many such winding paths. Although I was a bit fatigued by this night-out, other devotees were chanting “Govinda Govinda” continuously with an amazing energy, which kept us moving. Finally, at 6:15, we managed to reach at the main doorsteps of the garbhagraha, and what I saw there was unbelievable. The entire room was made of pure gold!! The dome, the flag, the kalash…everything sparkling in the morning sunlight! But I thought that this was not the only thing for which I had come this far. So, after walking continuously for 80 minutes and rigorous jostling with the crowd, we finally entered the temple. But to my dismay, I could hardly see the statue for 30 seconds max, when a volunteer literally pushed us out.
I was so worked up! I had stayed up the entire night, walked 2-3 kilometers in the long queue, got stomped over by some people just for these 30 seconds of a distant sight? I felt bad and silently walked out of the temple, collecting the prasadam and still lamenting upon this. But, when I came out, and saw the glow on the faces of my parent and other people, my logic went for a toss. I was amazed to see the light of hope in people’s eyes that they had encountered one of the most amazing sights and all their fatigue had simply vanished in those 30 seconds. I realized that people would have come from farther places just for this single moment, and it gave me mixed feelings. On one hand, it was good to see their hopes getting materialized, on the other hand, I felt a bit sad on seeing the extent of commercialization of this place which has reduced the actual darshan window by several times. Still, it was an experience which gave an overall good feeling after I came back from the trip, but maybe I am still not very satisfied with the amount of efforts put in and the outcome we had.
