They say that you can not visit a pilgrimage untill the God wants you to do so. It was really true in my case, I wanted to visit Tirupati Balaji for the last 7 years but every-time I used to plan something or the other would come up.Finally the day had come when I got this opportunity to visit or have 'darshan' of the Tirupati Balaji Widely known as "The Devasthanam".
This time we had planned everything perfect and were very sure nothing could stop us from going. On that day, we boarded our flight from Delhi to Banglore on time and reached the Bangalore hotel just before the dinner time. The kids were excited as we had to take a road trip tomorrow morning from Bangalore to Tirupati. Even I was very excited , thinking that my 7 year old vow would be fulfilling tomorrow.
The road trip to Tirupati.
We woke up early in the morning and after freshen up, started our journey to Tirupati. We had already booked a private cab with the help of a friend. The driver was a local and didn't know english or hindi. Initially, I thought it would be really difficult to travel as he won't be of any help, but believe me till the end of the trip he became a good friend of us , specially my 5-year old son couldn't get enough of him. The road from Banglore to Tirupati is really good and the scenic beauty is amazing with the rocks on the sides of the road.Though we were little disappointed as we could not find a good eatery during the whole stretch. We reached Tirupati after 5 hours and we were feeling tired and hungry. Moreover, we wanted to try out the local delicacies. so, we decided upon 'Minrava" , a good looking place to have our brunch. The kids were really excited and then we ordered dosa, idli, vada, coffee and what not. After finishing everything, we were feeling really energized and ready to go.
Moving ahead from Tirupati to Tirumala.
It was a 40 mins drive from Tirupati to Tirumala. It is a hilly drive, though the distance is just 26 kms but it takes 30 to 40 mins to reach up the hill. There is a path for those pilgrimage who want to go by foot and it is 11 kms long. TTD,Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, has made very good arrangements for those who are coming by foot. They have drinkable water facility, free luggage counter, piped music throughout the path. Now, when we started our drive it was already mid-day but the feeling was very different, very spiritual. Just in the beginning of that road , there is a Ganesh temple where you are supposed to stop and take the blessings, we also do the darshana. Now, it was a 30 mins drive wih the most scenic beauty. From the top, we can see the whole city of Tirupati. The driver was very helpful as he was telling us the history of that place in his broken hindi-english.
Entry at Tirumala and Dharshana
The moment we eneterd Tirumala, it feels like that we are at a different place, full of greenery and beautiful flowers. It was not looking as if we are at a hill , the space was huge and it was full of people. Everyone was there to visit the temple, but so many people. Then, our driver told us that it might be his 2000+ visit to this place and I was shocked . Anyways, we did some arrangements to get the darshan tickets , fortunately we got to attend the marriage ceremony of Lord Sri Venkatewara with the goddess Padmawati. After waiting in the queue for a while , we entered the marriage hall,it was 2 hr ceremony . Though, I was not able to understand the mantra chanting as they were in Telugu but I could feel it. After finishing the ceremony, we stood in the darshan queue to get the blessings of Balaji. It took us almost 1 hr to finish that and in the end we got the parsada with 7 big laddus and 2 big big vadas. I was happy that 7 year old vow had been completed in such a good manner all in time. Now, it was time to have dinner. We stared our journey back to Tirupati and in the mid way we spotted wild animals also. My son was really excited as it was a zoo experience for him. When we finished our dinner it was already late. Though, we were tired but wanted to see the streets of Tirupati, so we came out of the hotel and spend some quality time outside before retiring for the day.
All in all , it was a nice spiritual trip with the kids and worth sharing with you .
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