Visit to Tirupati

Our tour of Tamil Nadu started off with a pretty serious bang. Shortly after arriving in Chennai, I hopped on the phone to see what I could rustle up. I had no idea that our first visit would be to the creme-de-la-creme of Hindu temples - to have darshan of Lord Venkateshwar at Tirupati.

It's hard to overemphasize the importance of a place like Tirupati in India. Some numbers might do it justice. Visited by over 6 million people a year - that's well over 15,000 people a day - Tirupati is more visited than both Mecca and the Vatican. Needless to say, the government stepped into to facilitate crowd control. Which means that to go for darshan with the general public is an all-day affair. The public arrives early in the morning and is siphoned off into holding areas and then over the course of the day, each holding area is permitted into the temple grounds for darshan. It can take up to 8 hours of waiting before a person gets to have his 15-second darshan of Venkateshwar. Needless to say I wasn't too excited about that.

So I called up Ammaji, who had visited our house in Sugar Land a few months before. She is one of India's few female gurus. And as I found out that day - apparently quite influential in Tirupati. That influence works wonders. Call it luck, or even more divine intervention - you decide:

She happened to be in Tirupati that very day AND
The next day was her last day there AND
She was going for darshan the next morning AND
She had two extra VVVIP passes for darshan (read: skip 8 hour queue) AND
One of her ashram's drivers was in Chennai AND
He was going to Tirupati that night AND
There was one last room available in the guesthouse where she was staying.

So Jean-Marc came, dropped his stuff off, and we drove off at midnight for Tirupati. We arrived at 4 in the morning, napped for a couple of hours in the guesthouse, and at 6 were up to meet Ammaji to go with her for darshan. After greeting Ammaji she told me very simply, "When you and I look back on this in the future, both of us will realize just how much the Lord was planning for you to have His darshan." We then sped off to the temple for darshan.

It was only then I realized how many V's were in order. The crowds were already gathering (they were coming in by the busload as we arrived from Chennai), but we just walked right by them and straight into the temple. We walked straight into the inner sanctum area and right up in front of the murti. And what an incredible murti it was. I've only seen pictures of Lord Venkateshwar, but nothing beat darshan in person. We stood there for three or four minutes (they did a special aarti for our visit!) just gazing at this beautifully carved idol.

I don't remember much of what was going on during that time because my mind was totally silent. Not blank, just silent. Content.

I was then jarred back to reality by a security guard, and we shuffled out again, looking over our shoulders to catch one final glimpse of Venkateshwar. I then noticed the public was shuffling by and having darshan from the door behind us - almost another 10 feet away. I couldn't believe it - we were basically all the way inside the inner sanctum - the area reserved for priests only!

Who would have thought that my first meeting with Ammaji even BEFORE I planned to go to India at all would result in a face-to-face encounter with the most revered ishtadev in all of the country?

Wow.