Letters from India

24. Tirupati - May 1985

Tirupati

May 16, 1985

Tirupati

Well, well. Guess who’s writing to you again. :-) Yes it’s true, it’s your long-lost daughter (or sister or friend, as the case may be).

I believe I mentioned in the last letter that I went to Madras and had a day of being a tourist. Did I tell you that after that day I completely lost interest and just wanted to go back to Andhra and Sai?

Soo… I decided to cave up at Ramanashram in Tiruvannamalai until around 20 July, when I might, just might return to Puttaparthi. I was looking for a Hare Krishna Mandir in Madras so at least I could drown my sorrows in singing to Name. But no one knew of one. Then someone lent me a book on traveling in India and I found out their (Hare Krishna people) headquarters was in Mathura, the birthplace of Lord Krishna. But Mathura is way up north, in Uttara Pradesh, south of Delhi and north of Agra (where the Taj Mahal is). I thought that would be nice, Krishna’s birthplace and all, but completely and totally forget it cuz it’s too far, too expensive. And I'm alone and it’s 40 hours away! Lunacy.

So I was in a down mood and finally got up the strength to go to the bus depot to reserve a ticket to Tiruvannamalai. I asked the bus conductor to tell me where the central bus station was so I could get off to make reservations. He must’ve misunderstood me cuz I was dutifully let off at Madras Central Station – as in train!

It fell into place so neatly. I walked into the booking office and wondering what to do, there was a guy next to me with a “Delhi” form. I said, “Delhi? Delhi?” and asked where to book. Stood in line. The guy came over later, took the form I had halfway completed, filled the rest for me, then walked away. As he went I could’ve sworn it was Sai walking away. Stood 45 minutes, my ticket was booked for Mathura! Pure lunacy, I couldn’t believe it!

I thought that since I'm heading North (crazy, lunacy), I might as well visit some spots here in the south while I'm still here. Soo, I found myself booking a ticket to Tirupati, the huge pilgrimage spot with the Balaji temple, in Andhra state, 4½ hours from Madras.

I found out about bus schedules, packed up and left. What an experience this Tirupati is! Got up at 3 AM for early 5:30 AM bus. Back in Andhra! It was overwhelming, I was soo happy! Reached Tirupati around 10 AM. There’s tons of hotels (called “lodges”) and restaurants (called “hotels”) and shops, all to house the thousands of pilgrims that are constantly coming here - at least 5,000 a day.

Tirupati is a town at the base of a big hill, on which is the temple. To go up the hill by bus is like 24 km, you reach the tiny town of Tirumala, all built to house & fed all the pilgrims. Tons of memorabilia also, of course.

Anyway, got there around 10:30 AM, wondered around attempting to decide what to do. Line for accommodation was, to put it mildly, as long as the moon. Finally decided to deposit luggage and go to temple. They wouldn’t accept my luggage cuz no lock & key. Actually my luggage load has decreased somewhat. I figured if I was to be traveling I’d need a lighter load. Anyway, what could I do but take luggage to temple.

Finally around noon, was settled waiting for Darshan. Soo many people! There’s this semi-circle building. On the 2nd floor there’s like 11 room sections with bleacher-like seats. In each section (room), two sections of bleachers, 16 benches on each side seating like 8 people each bench. You wait in these rooms. When two get filled, they shut iron gates so no one can switch rooms or leave. Then, one by one the rooms get let out and you follow the others into the temple, finally to have Darshan of the Venkateswara image inside the innermost shrine (you pass through seven doors to get there).

Then there’s this thing called “special Darshan”. Get this, you buy a ticket for Rs 25 and you get to skip the ordinary people’s queue and go direct into the temple. So there I was in the semi-round building, Sai had me miss the signs telling where to buy the special Darshan ticket (though I was looking for them). So, so I couldn’t moved buuut I thought to myself, I thought, well, I sorta am an Indian now soo, I’ll stay. Had I known of what was to follow, I might’ve reconsidered…

The rooms held around 250-300 people & kids. There I was, the only white face, the only foreigner I could see, among a beehive of Indians. And kids… oooh, tons upon tons of babies, toddlers and children. Constant talk & crying of children. Total noise city. Then there were the famous Indian vendors coming to the rooms and shouting top voice, “ORANGE JUICE!! COFFFFFFEEEEEEEE! BIIIIIIIISCUITSSSSSS!” Amazing how loud. This was truly a typical Indian small-city street scene, take away the vehicles, packed in one room. And I mean packed.

So, so I arrived in this lovely room, the 3rd room, at about noon. There was a sign “Your Darshan will be after 3 PM” - imagine it. Hours passed. In the noise. And I had been non-stop since 3 AM that morning. Finally around 4:40 PM the first room started to unload. At 5:10 PM we were let out. Followed was one hour of slow-moving lines. Finally at 6:10 PM we reached the temple.

I had done pretty good at waiting. I was used to it soo, it didn’t bother me, but at 6:20 PM, moving veeery slowly, very squished, through the temple (double file lines with bars & fences on either side, kids crying, babies pulling at my hair, etc), this patience started to wear thin. I had been waiting since noon & still no Darshan, had headache, back hurt from carrying all my luggage on sunburned shoulders, with crowds pushing against me, hadn’t gone to bathroom since arriving 10:30 AM, was thirsty & dehydrated, stomach felt odd from food stuffed down it and all tensed from the outside conditions, plus this kid behind me was intent on somehow shoving his way in front of me, even though his mother kept pulling him back (this had gone on there entire way).

Weeell anyway, made it thru and exactly at 7:30 PM, finally had Darshan! The image only had a couple of decorations on, not at all like the covered-in-flowers as in pictures. Very powerful but, it was tinged by all the people shouting, “GOVINDA! GOVINDA!!” as if it was some sideshow. But it was Love and Power, very high.

When I was coming out I remembered Sai’s statement, “If I had come as Narayana with four arms you would’ve put Me in a museum and had people pay money to come and have My Darshan,” and it seemed like that here, like they were using Venkateswara. But He stood there calm and unperturbed, granting Darshan, anyway, to all.

The temple is the richest-looking I’ve seen, with huge gold-plated brass doors, gold plates stairs into the shrine, huge gold everything. It does seem like commercialization gone mad. It was nice to see Him in person (after seeing His picture in soo many places all around South India), but personally I wouldn’t recommend going to Tirupati. Don’t think it’s worth it.

Forgot to say, it’s supposed to be very auspicious to shave your head while here. So at least on or two of every five people you see, have their heads neatly shaved, all hair completely gone. That goes for men, woman and children. The women in families seem to be more chicken and generally you see more men and the children (soo many poor kids & babies with shaved heads - !!) with shiny bald heads, but there are a lot of newly bald women also.

Carrying around all my possessions I felt rather like a Sanyasi, and when I was looking for a place to stay the night I came across this huge “for donation of human hair to Venkateshwar” building, I had visions of a bald head and ochre robes. But that’s a big step, very crazy also, complete lunacy. But I have said things are complete lunacy in the past, and Sai has made them come true! Soo don’t worry, if that’s what Sai wants for me, He’ll have to make it REALLY clear. (I can just imagine going into Public Relations office with bald head, ochre robes and all my possessions over my back - !)

Foot update; well what can I say, it’s swollen and red. I have been walking a lot, not good at all but what can I do, Swami wants me to travel. But the infection/swelling right under the ankle is down. And the foot still has a weird reaction to water – turning dark purple and red, but no pain whatsoever. I can stand for long times, walk a lot with no pain at all, either during or after.

All this travel is nauseating but what can I do?

Love, from Indian Child