Tirupati/Tirumala

The Balaji or Venkateswara (meaning: the Lord who destroys the sins of his devotees.) Temple in Tirumala, just outside Tirupati, lends itself to superlatives. It is one of the most important Vishnu temples in India. It is also the richest temple in India, the most visited temple in India and one of the most visited places of pilgrimage in the world.

Tirumala, Tirupati, India's wealthest temple

The deity is an impressive 2 metres high made of jet black stone with his eyes  covered with the white tilak marking of the Vaishnava tradition. It is said that these eyes are so beautiful that if they were uncovered, no pilgrim would want to leave. However I had a little difficulty trying to stay.

Lord Venkateswara, Balaji

Having set  off from Kanchi about 3pm on Monday 18th, I arrived in Tirumala (27kms from Tirupati ) around 7.30pm that evening. Darkness had set in and with it a  bit of the old Mumbai blues descended. I spent two hours with an overly heavy rucksack, wandering around guest houses, ashrams, hotels and enquiry desks. I cursed the Lonely Planet guidebook for being about a mile thick, and for having accumulated so many other little books on my travels.

I think I expected a tranquil and relatively small pilgrim site. What I met was a huge sophisticated pilgrimage complex with millions of people (it seemed)  happily milling around knowing exactly what to do. Many of the pilgrims, men, women and children had freshly shaved heads. This act of renunciation, in gratitude for blessings received or  in the hope of gaining them, is a traditional part of pilgrimage here for thousands.

Free buses conveyed people all around the vast metropolis  of shops, restaurants and endless accommodation facilities, yet everywhere I tried was full and no one seemed able to explain to me why. Naturally this was because I did not speak Tamil and I didn’t meet anyone who spoke English very well.

Apparently accommodation is mostly pre-booked here, and if it’s not, it’s full. Also much of the accommodation is for specific groups and ashrams and is not open to others. Furthermore i was told that  they don’t have rooms for single people. It is all families and groups and I would have to go back down to Tirupati and find something there.

So, At 10pm  I found myself  sitting under a tree away from the crowds,  feeling like an alien on the planet – a lonely planet – and worst of all feeling I might not be able to stay on this sacred mountain for the night. I was just about to give up and descend again to Tirupati when I remembered something casually said by someone I spoke with in Sri Rangam about free hall accommodation for pilgrims in Tirumala.  Within ten minutes I found it.

Free Pilgrims Accommodation

So I did get to stay on the mountain for the night , and got to do it in serious pilgrimage style. I slept on the floor with a million others and showered with the same million others and somehow after about 3 hours of queuing, I got to see Lord Balaji, and I got an extra 10 seconds more than anyone else because I don’t think they get too many white and freckled females visiting, and they were kind.

So now, as usual with such matters, the Balaji Blues, just like the Mumbai Monsoons passed and I feel very happy that I got to go through all of that because I  really appreciated my brief moments of darshan with Balaji.

Nothing like a little bit of a stretch to sharpen the focus and desire a bit. I felt much lighter, despite the rucksack, leaving Tirumala but nonetheless posted home all the heavy books from Tirupati next day.

 

Festival Time

On my last night in Vrindavan (Fri 24th) I was lucky enough to catch the start of the festival of Jhulan Yatra, the Radha Krishna swing festival at the famous Banke Bihari Temple, the most popular temple in Vrindavan.

Every year at this time the deities are put on a swing and bedecked with flowers. Some temples allow worshippers to participate in this festival by pulling the swing with a rope. Unfortunately no photos were allowed, but you can see the throne without the deities on their webpage photo gallery here

The temple was a forest of flowers and greenery and packed with pilgrims.The ornate golden throne on which the deity was swung was strewn with hundreds of garlands and everybody seemed intoxicated with the sheer delight of being there. Contagious stuff and a really uplifting send off from Vrindavan.

Next morning took the 6 hour bus journey to Jaipur. As we set off the whole bus sang songs to Banke bihari. That was the only word I understood. Seems they were a whole community or village who had travelled from Jaipur for the festival.I like travelling on buses as it offers more insight into life here than a taxi. And even though I unfortunately speak no Hindi, the language of travellers is universal. The sharing of food, water and space along with the non-verbal language of gesture and expression forge a comfortable camaraderie that doesn’t need words. I like this.

I arrived in Jaipur at midday was met by a friend who lives there and off we went zipping through city traffic on her moped. After a wash and change we were lucky enough to catch the annual festival of Teej, the festival for married ladies.

The deity of Parvati (wife of Shiva) is taken out on the streets preceded by a fabulous procession of Rajasthani colour, splendour and pomp.On this day married women pray for the well-being of their husbands and their marriage.We had a birds eye view from the roof-top of a temple.

Rajasthani dancers - the birds eye view

Elephants Everywhere

Festive Bulls

Parvati in procession

Parvati up close, although not so close that you can really see her

In the evening we zipped around the city on the scooter to catch the Julan Yatra celebrations at three temples whose original deities were transferred to Jaipur from Vrindavan for safe-keeping from Aurangazeb in the 17^th century . He’s the Mughal Emperor most famous among Hindus for smashing temples and desecrating deities.

Scooting in Jaipur

These temples are those established by the celebrated Goswamis of Vrindvan, the Govindaji Temple, Radha Damodar Temple and the Radha Gopinatha Temple. We also visited another small temple, Radha Vinod temple with beautiful flower mandala decorations on the floor.

Flower Mandala

Jaipur is beautiful. It seemed yesterday too to be filled with festivities….the festival of Teej on the streets and Jhulan Yatra in all the Krishna Temples. It was a tsunami of colourful celebration and I couldn’t have wished for a better introduction to the city.

Below is a youtube clip of evening worship at the Govindaji temple.  The enthusiasm of the crowds, the simplicity and sweetness of their chanting, and the welcoming informality of it all made for perfect endings to humid, bustling days in Jaipur

 

Govardhana Hill

Govardhana Hill

I went on a carikrama ( that is parikrama by car and not on foot) to Govardhana last Monday. A parikrama is about 23 kilometres and takes about 5 to 6 hours to complete at a brisk pace. I preferred the travel-stop-and-linger mood the car enabled this time.

Govardhana Hill features most famously in the 10th book of the Bhagavata Purana where he (everything is personified in these stories) stars in the story of Krishna lifting him as an umbrella to protect the citizens of Vraja from torrential rain sent by an envious Indra.

The Bhagavat Purana writes:

Of all the devotees, this Govardhana Hill is the best! Of my friends, this hill supplies Krishna and Balaram, along with their calves,cows and cowherd friends, with all kinds of necessities-water for drinking,very soft grass,caves,fruits,flowers and vegetables.In this way the hill offers respects to thee Lord.Being touched by the lotus feet of Krishna and Balaram, Govardhana Hill appears very jubilant.‘ B.P 10.21.18

Theology aside, the recognition of the dependence we all have on nature with its bountiful and life sustaining offerings is appealing in todays climate of ecological catastrophe. The idea of reciprocal respect and co-existence reverberates throughout the Hindu scriptures and our Govardhan visit offered a refreshing alternative to more impersonal and exploitative considerations of the natural world.

Govardhan is about an hours drive fromVrindavan and before setting out on our walk we bathed in two beautiful lakes or kunds, Radha- Kund and Shyama -Kund considered sacred lakes to devotees of Krishna.

Radha Kund

Reverential Geese

Seems like we got some blessings since what might have been a walk in the searing sand and heat, turned out to be the coolest day so far. Dark clouds, rolling thunder and cooling breezes framed our pilgimage and we saw peacocks, Nilagais (meaning ‘blue cow’) a type of antelope, electric green parrots, monkeys galore, cows and buffalos.

Nilagai, the 'blue cows' of Govardhana

Pilgrims construct little houses all along the flank of the hill to house prayers, to have ones home blessed, or in some sense to reside here long after leaving. I built a little OCHS, very similar to the one in Oxford and impressed at least one resident with my architectural flair.

The Govardhan branch of the OCHS

Some pilgrims circumnambulate Govardhan over several weeks by daily performing prostrations all around the hill. They mark with a stone each arm extension and proceed with the next prostration from there. It is called dandavat parikrama. I thought a pilgrimage in Ireland up a mountain(Croach Patrick) in bare feet was something but so far this takes the biscuit. Sorry, the digital camera just missed the ‘down’ moment.

Dandavat Parikrama

 

The Parikrama Path

Everyday people go on Vrindavana parikrama.This means circumambulating the entire town of Vrindavan with its myriad temples, on a barefoot walk of about 6 miles.

Pilgims on parikrama

Early in the morning when people seem to imagine it is cooler, and especially on Ekadasi (the 11th day of the waxing and waning moon) the parikrama path is packed with pilgrims. During the day too groups continue to add their footprints to this devotional circuit.The reasons may be singular or multilayered for performing this feat.

It might be an act of devotion; an act of atonement or purification; desire to have some prayer or need fulfilled or a wish to gain punya or pious merit.Whatever the motivation it draws people from all traditions and all walks of life.

The route is peppered with shrines and temples, some of them as simple as this Shiva Linga under a tree:

The very Shiva linga mentioned above

Shiva is considered the protector of Vrindavan. There are five famous temples of Shiva in Vrindavan and innumerable simple Shiva linga shrines dotted around the periphery of Vrindavan and beyond.

A protective Shiva in Vrindavan

Door Darshan

Sounds of singing and chanting echo throughout the town competing with the ever-increasing volume of car-horns, rick-shaw bells, and megaphone music.

Listening to  singing behind one door, I met someone on the way out from her temple visitation.

Which leads me to one of my favourite pastimes in India……neck-scratching!

The sacred ritual of cow-tickling!

Inner wear

While Vrindavan resounds with reminders to nurture our inner spiritual life,  a more recent  trend – see body care sign –  competes for more material gain just in case it all gets too spiritual!

Ok will sign off now. A major incentive to send these posts is the air-conditioning in the Internet cafe. It’s not working today so I look and feel like melted  strawberry ice-cream. I will  find a fan and meditate under it!