Tirumala Tirupati-Some perceptions.

04-01-2004, 08:00 PM

KNOW THE LIMITS - RECOGNISE GOD - NEVER CHOP THE HEAD TO FIT THE CAP.

When your stomach can accommodate half Kg of food, don't force 1 Kg of food for the want of health and more strength. So also, if public flow is more, don't stuff more people and make God restless, giving up the minimum rest he needs, in the name of public service. If a person wants to earn more, he is never giving up his sleep altogether ! Minimum sleep is a must for a person to be healthy. For one day or two days, Yes... it is a special case but Not every day..... Doesn't this apply to God who is standing still in the form of a deity for the sake of His devotees ? Sasthra ordains some time, as rest to Lord and also certain Upacharas to be performed ! These should not be given up because they don't yield any commercial value ! !, No tickets, No flow of monetary benefits ! If they are given up, does it mean that you have the sense that it is " God " standing ? Rather you are considering the deity as the Commercial Exhibition Product ?? It is the spirituality and the sense of devotion that is making people come there all the way to take His blessings. When you yourself strike a match stick it never exempts you from burning if you touch the flame of it. So also, though it is God in the still form and frame made of metal or stone or clay, accepting services from you, but, still, He never becomes just a stone because you did not recognise Him so. If it is just an exhibition product, people need not come all the way !! So, any thing wrong done to Him, will be severely dealt with, to teach them a nice lesson. No escape... However ! God promised to protect His devotees always under all circumstances ! Let all the time for regular Upacharas be implemented as-it-is irrespective of all other factors. If you can provide more facilities for more public flow, do it. But, for that, one should not give up minimum Upacharas and the procedures to be followed thereby. Think not from the commercial point of view or benefit point of view. Think from the 'Devotion' point of view, think from the 'minimum concern' point of view, think from 'Spiritual value' point of view.

http://www.chinnajeeyar.org/tptyissues.htm

Jahnava Nitai Das · 04-02-2004, 01:17 AM

It appears the complaint from this article is that the TTD is keeping the darshan open all day and not providing the tradition 2 or 3 hours of "sleeping" time for the deity between 1pm and 4pm in the afternoon.

When hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are coming each day and already waiting three hours in the queue for darshan, stoping the queue for three hours each afternoon will only increase the difficulties on the pilgrims (and perhaps lead to stampedes and other calamities due to over crowding).

I have seen many Krishna temples throughout India keep the temple open the entire day on festivals such as Janmashtami to accomodate the hundreds of thousands of devotees visiting for darshan on those days.

The principal is the same, except the Tirupati temple faces this each and every day. Their decision is to allow the bhaktas to see their Lord with less inconvenience, something which the Lord likely holds more dear than the ritual of "sleeping" in the afternoon each day.

I have seen there is always a fight between the hereditary temple priests and the TTD administration. The priests are mostly interested in profiting more from their services (through opening illegal shops around the temple, collecting personal money from pilgrims for longer darshan, etc.), whereas the TTD wants to accomodate the pilgrims and the seva of the deity (by breaking all surrounding shops, by banning the priests from collecting donations, etc.).

The priests are already getting paid a tremendous salary, higher than what software engineers make in India. But they feel they deserve to earn more from the Tirupati temple.