Dream come True?

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

It was our family pilgrimage to Tirupati - abode of Lord Venkateswara (or Balaji) the Lord of Seven Hills. For the uninitiated, Lord Balaji is an 'Avatar' (Incarnation) of Lord Vishnu, one of Hinduism’s Trinity. Lord Balaji is the most visited God in India and apparently Tirupati is the second most visited holy place on the Earth after The Vatican with Annual Visitors close to 20 million (works out to an average of 60000 per day). He is also said to be the Richest God in the world with annual offerings from pilgrims touching a whopping Rs 300 Crore ($ 66 mn) per year. The actual temple is in the top of a hill (rather a string of seven hills, thereby earning Lord Balaji the name Lord of Seven Hills) called Tirumala, which can be reached by long and winding Ghat Roads from the town of Tirupati.

On the morning we arrived, my Dad said he had a strange dream overnight in the train. He saw Lord Balaji in his dream (this on its own is nothing great - Indians regularly see their favourite Gods and Goddesses in dreams!), with the same dark Idol, huge 'Namam' (Large Mark in the shape of U) on the face and the body adorn with glittering jewels and fresh flowers. But he said the similarity with the 'vigraham' (Idol) in the Sanctum Santorum of the temple in Tirumala ended there.

For one, the figure he saw in his dream was much bigger than the one in Tirulmala and one had to walk up a small ramp to get to the sanctum sanctorum. The sanctum sanctorum was also filled with bright light from large floodlights, unlike the normal practice of Oil-lamp lit sanctum sanctorums. He being a deeply religious person attributed some great meaning to it though he could not quite figure out what it meant. My Mom, no less religious was also awed by the whole thing. I being slightly less devout and more rational, saw it as just another dream. I thought, just as I dream of my favourite heroines, my Dad dreamt of his favourite God.

We had our 'Darshan' (translated literally means 'seeing', attributed to seeing the Deity in a temple) after standing for 2 hours in the queue, which is less compared to the normal standards. I should hasten to add here that the actual 'Darshan' itself lasted not more than 5 seconds. Given the huge rush, you are literally pushed along the queue by guards manning the queues. It is normally advised that while seeing the Lord in Tirumala one should not close one's eyes (as the practice generally is with Hindus, who bow and close their eyes in prayer in front of God) lest you miss seeing him in those crucial few seconds.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the day touring other smaller temples in the temple town of Tirupati and retired for the day. The plan was to visit a nearby pilgrim centre known as ‘Kanipakam’, which houses Lord Vinayaka (or Ganesha, the elephant headed God and son of Lord Shiva, second of the Holy Trinity). This place has special religious significance, as its widely believed that the Idol at this place is a 'Swayambhu' idol (Self manifested). Let me explain. Normally, idols are consecrated in temples, which means someone makes the idols and they are placed in the temple amidst great pomp and fanfare. However there are a clutch of temples have that have legends, which claim self-manifested idols. This means that the idol was not placed there by someone, rather it manifested itself there on its own. The idol of Lord Vinayaka is one such self-manifested idol, believed to have emerged from a well.

We completed our darshan at Kanipakam, andwere returning to Tirupati in a taxi. We got into chatting with the taxi driver who like a true blue taxi driver, was offering his quips on local politics, the administration in Tirupati and life in general. He also got to mention some lesser-known temples in the region, which he said were no less magnificent than the other famous ones. He mentioned one such temple, called Srinivasa Mangapuram, where again the presiding deity is Lord Balaji (Srinivasa is another of his many names). We had never heard of the place before, but having nothing else to do, we asked him to take us there.

It was mid-afternoon, around 2:30 PM, and it was a sweltering hot day (as usual). We had to literally run into the shade to avoid getting our bare feet burnt on the cobblestones of the temple courtyard. My father was the first in the line and as soon as he turned the corner and came face to face with the idol he suddenly stopped and let out a loud gasp. He stood transfixed there for a moment. We hadn't turned the corner yet, we couldn’t quite get what led him to be so mesmerised. He looked at us and slowly walked in.

As I turned the corner, I slowly realised why my Dad was so amazed. The scene in front of me was exactly like the one my Dad saw in his dream. The idol was tall (taller than the one in Tirupati) and dark, the sanctum sanctorum was filled with bright light from floodlights and leading up to it was a ramp. If I, who heard the dream from my father could be so amazed, I could only imagine what my father felt having actually had that dream.

As my father remarked later, the best part of the visit wasn’t the visit to Tirupati (which was itself great), but it was the visit to the little known Srinivasa Mangapuram, which made the day for us.