By Bhakti Chaitanya Swami
Hare Krishna dear devotees, this is a long read. Please persevere through it all. I hope it is worthwhile
We just had an amazing visit to the Balaji/Venkatesvara temple, the main temple at Tirupati. Or more correctly at Tirumala, on top of the hill above Tirupati town.
Balaji, arguable more properly known as Venkatesvara or even Srinivasa, was looking amazing. By the kind arrangement of the local GBC, Revati Ramana prabhu, I was able to get special darsana early in the morning, around 5.30am.
Balaji was looking mystically beautiful as usual. He was wearing a coppery colored dhoti and a solid gold crown with some emeralds in it. The crown seemed a little larger than His head, and stood about 750mm high. I remember the first time I came here, in 1991, and they told us that the new crown He was wearing, which was also solid gold, but completely encrusted with diamonds, had just been made in America at a cost of $7 million. Today’s crown was not encrusted in diamonds, but was certainly extremely valuable, befitting His generally grand presentaton.
He had His characteristic big white tilaka, covering His eyes so He doesn’t have to see the sinful people of Kali Yuga, but this time I noticed that the tilaka is actually at least 2 centimeters thick, meaning it sticks out from His head that much. His special medicinal psate on His chin, from the blow from Ananta Alvar, was there as usual, and when we entered we saw, on the right side, hanging from the wall just inside the temple entrance, the crowbar which Ananta Alvar threw at Him to inflict that wound.
Over His head was a big garland of white and yellow flowers, with tulasi sections showing up with a very nice green color. Hanging just over His chest were some more, shorter white garlands, from which a white line of flowers was hanging down to almost His knees. Then hanging from His shoulders to beneath His feet were three more garlands, the largest being mainly white with some yellow parts, and the other two being white.
By His shoulders He was holding, on His right, the Sudarsana cakra, and on His left, a conch. They were about 30 or so centimeters across, each, and were completely encrusted with diamonds. His garlands covered any other things He may have been holding in His other two hands.
His lotus feet were covered in solid gold, and it became clear that he is not quite as tall as He may initially appear, due to standing on a platform, raised a little distance above ground level.
We stood in front of Him for about a minute.
As I mentioned, when we came in we saw the crowbar of Ananta Alvar suspended from the right wall as one enters. Then we approached the temple room proper, and saw Lord Varaha on the left of one of the pillars. He is said to be the original proprietor of Tirumala, and we offered our obeisances to Him. Then we passed on our left a small carving of Balaji playing dice (!) with a great devotee named Hathirama Babaji. Then we entered the temple room.
The temple room is narrow, in some places less than 2 meters across, and is dark, today with the exception of just two ghee lamps near the altar. This all enhances the mystical atmosphere there, and engenders a mood of respect and reverence. After having darsana we came out very slowly, looking back regularly for our last glimpse of the Lord.
When we came out we went straight across the courtyard to the kitchen. In front of the kitchen is a Deity of Bakula devi, the mother of Balaji, who is actually Mother Yasoda. There is a wall between her and the kitchen, but there is a hole through it so she can see what is going on there.
Then we proceeded around behind the temple building and passed where they count the fantastic amount of money the temple receives every day. They hadn’t started counting yet, as we were early, but they were, with great difficulty, pulling out some huge pots of money, getting ready for the counting.
We cam around to the other side of the temple building, and had darsana of the Venkatesvara vimana, on the solid solid roof over the altar. It is easy to recognize, as it has a silver frame over the form of the Lord, about 50 centimeters high. We then went to see the Deity of Ramanujacarya, carved by Ananta Alvar, which Ramanuja embraced on seeing it, empowering it with his full transcendental shakti.
Next we went into the clothing room, where the devotee in charge strongly pushed perfumed cloth used for the Deity into our faces, rubbing us quite powerfully. Fortunately some of my tilaka remained on my forehead after that. Then we had darsana of Yoga Nrsimha. Back in our first visit here, in 1991, we were able to sit down inside here and chant japa for half an hour, but now there is a security gate in the front.
Next we went to meet some of the priests to get blessings. There were six of them, and they were extremely friendly, as were all the staff and pujaris etc, and when they understood that I was a sannyasi, they became anxious about offering me blessings, as they were all householders. In the end three were willing to do so, and the other three humbly declined.
Just before going out of the temple area we were served fresh Balaji maha prasadam, in the form of four types of rice preparations. One is a dry spiced rice, another is a kitchri type of preparation, a third was yoghurt rice and the fourth sweet brown gur rice. They were still quite hot, having just come off the altar, and the devotees kept coming around again and again, and making us take more, so by the time we finished we had almost drowned in the mercy.
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Haribol!
Tirupati Balaji Maharaj Ki Jay.....