Memoirs of 2009: Travelogues – 3 [ Tale of 2 Balajis]

I had been fortunate to have Lord Balaji’s darshan twice in the last year; one immediately after my marriage in June 2009 at Tirumala - Tirupati while the other later in the year at Mehekar town in Buldhana district which comes under the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Today, what I want to narrate is the stark differences that I noticed in the surroundings of these two temples of the same God.

Tirupati Balaji devasthanam doesn’t need an iota of introduction. World renowned pilgrimage where tens of lacs of people visit each single day; which is one of the richest temples in the world; where you should consider yourself fortunate if you get more than 3 to 4 seconds to look at the shrine; where Balaji’s darshan continuously happens round the clock; where the bhaktas need to book the darshan coupons 4 to 6 months in advance; I would say that visiting this place is really a lifetime experience. One can compare the aspirations to visit Tirupati Balaji for a devotional Hindu to a Muslim devotee’s aspirations of visiting Haj at least once in his lifetime.

The climate on top of the Tirumala hills is quite superb. In spite of the daily load of the visiting people, the arrangements are quite nice for stay as well as for food. There is absolutely no chaos when one takes the darshan except that one feels the heat as one approaches towards the Balaji idol. When I was sitting outside the main temple hall in the early morning at around 3 to 4 AM before our darshan, the spirituality in the surroundings were slowly sinking inside my body and then in my soul. As I was listening to M S Subbalakhmi’s divine voice, whose Venkatesha Suprabhatam has the powers to wake Lord Balaji up every morning, amidst the vast crowds I could feel the lightness that comes to one’s body and thoughts; I could somehow feel the inner peace which is so difficult to even think of in the hustle bustle of a city life. Overall, visiting Tirupati Balaji is an opportunity I should never miss.

The other Balaji temple that we saw in Mehekar lies amidst one the poorest regions of Maharashtra. The town is quite shoddy with flies and pigs roaming all around. The roads are so narrow and in bad conditions that hardly one way traffic could pass through. The poverty was visible all over the place; from the dilapidated houses to the torn clothes that the villagers were wearing to the garbage thrown over the narrow roads and lanes. Amidst these, this famous temple of Lord Balaji is located.

But once you enter the temple premises, suddenly things change. There is no comparison between the financial state of the temple board of the two temples. Still, the premise is very clean, airy and vast. Unlike in Tirupati Balaji’s case, here you get ample amount of time for the God’s darshan. The stone idol of the God is simply marvelous; a tall stature of close to 11 ft. I felt the warmth from the people inside the temple. The people were very happy seeing that somebody as far from Mumbai has come specially to visit “their” God. I was touched with the kind of belonging the localites had with the God. The pujari spent almost half an hour with us explaining the genesis of the very temple, the beauty of the statue and its importance. He even allowed us to take ample amount of photos of the God. Sitting in the temple verandah, facing the God, as the quietness in the surroundings sinks in my body, I felt the similar calmness as experienced in Tirupati.

Thoughts galore in my mind. Two well known temples of the same God and such a difference in everything you see in and around it; the people, their financial states, their nature, the facilities provided by the government and what not! But I strongly felt that in all these differences one thing that remains exactly the same in both the places is the kind of mental calmness, tranquility and peace that one gets in both these places. There is not an iota of difference in that, believe me!

Tomorrow: Watching the Total Solar Eclipse Amidst Dark Clouds