Tirumala Tirupathi Visit

Tirumala Temple Towers

Tirumala Hill - A Natural Fortress !

This is about our visit to Tirumala Tirupathi on October 28th and 29th of 2006.

Early during the day we started from Chennai and drove down to Tirupathi. Myself, Sriram and Nana (as my sister calls; well why should i mention this ? Myself and Sriram call him Naina. Effect of Colloquialism ?/!) were travelling through the snail paced traffic from Chennai to Poonamalle. Mom could not join us as she was taking care of the Grandmother. Once we reached Poonamalle we were on the National Highway 205 and swiftly travelled through Thiruvallur, Thiruthani, Nagari, Puthur, Renigunta and reached Tirupathi crossing 150 kms.

One of the traffic constable diverting us to a ring road we had a short drive around Tirupathi town and headed to Tiruchanoor (also called Alamelumangapuram) to worship Sri Padmavathi Devi. The usual scene at the viciny crowds, shops etc. We waded throught the crowd and reached the TTD ticket office and got tickets to Kumkumarchana seva. Now we were before the temple gopuram and i was recollecting the article which i read about Rajaji's appeal for a devotee. His famous composition Kurai Onrum Illai related to this incident. Read this article to get more details http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2002/12/22/stories/2002122200220100.htm .

We were inside the temple and worshipped Sri Padmavati Devi with the Archagar performing the elaborate Archana with Kumkuma. It was a darshan which i will remember ever. After the worship we had our prasadams and we drived again to Tirupathi to have our Lunch. After the Lunch we went to worship Sri Govindaraja Perumal. We worshipped lord Govindaraja giving us darshan in Bujangasayanam. The temple is also called the Keezh Tirupathi. We were now heading to Tirumala.

It was a nice evening with the Sun playing hide and seek we started to climb by foot the Tirumala hill. The distance from Alipiri to Tirumala is 11 kms by foot. Sriram driving the car to Tirumala; myself and father were climbing the 7 hills by foot. It was a nice experience recapping our earlier such climbing. After the sunset and gathering of more clouds there were a few showers on our way. We climbed the hill in around 5 hours. It was an interesting experience again;

We were accompanied by all set of people like college students discussing movies, software professionals discussing Java and Oracle !, Elders discussing philosophy, Shop keepers as usual selling, beggers (also exchanging coins for Notes !) etc etc. Could not forget the person who was shouting Govinda Govinda when he was climbing.

We climbed the hill very slowly resting many times on the way. It was tough untill we reached Gali Gopuram as the steps was very slippery and we were climbing with bare foot. It was told to us that Sri Ramanuja Acharya climbed the hill on his knee as he considered that the hill as the lords Thirumeni. No wonder they termed the climb till Gali Gopuram as Muzhankal Mudichu or Knee breaking as the hill was so steep. It was unfortunate that we did not carry the camera to shoot the wildlife on the way. We met a wild deer starring at every one open in the wild ! There were small frogs, snails, beatles, insects etc on the way which my camera misses to shoot still.

There were small shrines and idols on the way. Some of the Dasa Avataram idols were opened and some were still being installed. On the way we worshipped the huge Hanuman where it was drizzling lightly. We worshipped Lord Narasimha on the way and reached the bridge and started climbing the last part of the hill. We found people doing padi puja by lighting campour on each step. We reached Tirumala after 5 hours.

After reaching up the Tirumala we had our dinner and offered our hair and got ready for the Archana Anthra Darshan of Lord Srinivasa (Lord Venkateshwara). Along with the waves of devotees we were also travelling through Q complex and reached the temple gopuram. We had an excellent darshan of Lord Srinivasa with Archagar still performing the Archana. The Temple is also called Kaliyuga Vaikuntam. Tirupathi is one among the 108 Divya Desams.

We also worshipped Varadaraja Perumal, Yoga Narasimhar, Sri Ramanujar inside the temple. Made our Hundi offering and had our prasadams. It was a swift and memorable darshan of the lord.

After having our break fast we were now heading back again to Tirupathi by car. We took some time to take some photos of the hill and scenic beauty. Amazed with the beauty of the Nature and fully charged with the positive energy of the temple we were feeling great after surrendering our self to the lord.

We had our Lunch again at Bhimas and returned back to Chennai. The weather still being cloudy we drived back home in heavy rains between Tiruthani and Thirumalisai. We reached home with our minds still filled with the Lord.

Mohan Raman V

Google Tirumala Tirupathi to know more about the temple !