Lord Venkateswara is the presiding deity at Tirumala-Tirupati Dewasthanam (Seven Hills) in Andhra Pradesh. Thousands and thousands of devotees throng to this abode of faith and prayers throughout the year. But on certain special occasions there is an unmanageable crowd keeping the temple staff on their toes. Puratasi, a Tamil month is very special for the devotees to worship in the temple. The third Saturday is very special for them. The report is that there was a crowd of 76000 people on that day i.e on October 6, 2012. The people stood in the 4 KM long queue to have a darshan of Lord of Seven Hills. For free darshan the wait was for 16 hours, Divya darshan took 10 hours and quick darshan (on Rs 300-ticket per head) was possible after a wait of 7 hours.
Except for VVIPs the darshan means a 2-3 seconds standing only in front of the God. One wonders what sort of darshan the people are able to have in such a mad crowd. Either the Lord's idol could be made visible for more than 100 people at a time by widening the entrance and opening the sanctum sanctorum to a bigger audience, or booking the days of visit to the devotees in manageable sizes in advance that could avoid crowd on such occasions. Some planning is required in this direction from the management committee of the temple. A devout worshipper like me is unable to visit the shrine for the fear of the crowd and satisfy his soul by worshipping the God from his residence regularly.
No comments:
Post a Comment