Travel: the closest way to reach God

On Sunday (November 14, 2010) I visited two of my favorite temples in Chennai: the Satyanarayana Temple and the Chennai branch of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, both located in T. Nagar, the marketing hub of Chennai.

The Satyanarayana temple is one of a kind in Chennai. The presiding deity is Lord Satyanarayana. The other deities are Lord Hanuman, Lord Venkateswara, Lord Narasimha (The Lion God), Goddess Mahalakshmi (Goddess of Wealth), Lord Hayagriva (the God of Learning), Andal (The devotee who later merged with God), Lord Rama with his family and Sudarshana. I visited this temple after almost 6 months to thank him for blessing me with a son (my girl).

Then I visited the Chennai Branch of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) and sought the blessings of Lord Balaji, with his consort (Goddess Padmavathi). I guess it was God’s call and I decided to pay a visit to Tirupati (the richest Hindu temple) the next day (November 15, 2010).

The day started with a rude awakening at 4:00 a.m. M. Since I had to arrive at the boarding point at 5:00 p.m. M. I bathed, refreshed myself, and reached my boarding point at T. Nagar at 15, a kind of record as you travel the fastest on foot through the area (which, incidentally, is the heart of the activity Chennai Marketing). You typically travel around this area on foot in 30 minutes and by car in an hour (four times that time during the high holiday season).

For the uninitiated, Chennai is in the southernmost state of Tamil Nadu, while Tirupati is in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

I boarded the Tempo Traveler along with 11 others (not including the driver). A group of 6 passengers, consisting of two families (husband, wife and son) were from the Indian state of Rajasthan who had come on tour in South India and the second family of 5 was from Chennai, who were going to a function family. . They were offered one of the infantile hair of their relatives, as it is their family deity.

He was sitting next to the driver. The day before (Sunday night) I had seen the EPL and went to bed at 12.30 am happy to see our main rival, Chelsea, losing 0-2 at home to Sunderland (supporting Manchester United in the EPL, Barcelona in La Liga and Brazil internationally). Therefore, he had plans to make up for lost sleep.

From the moment I boarded the bus and the journey began, I would dare say that sleeping was the last thing at the time. It was drizzling a bit. But what shook me was the way the vehicle was driven.

I remembered the priest and driver joke, where the driver goes to heaven and the priest is stranded in hell. I certainly support the Driver for his claim to Heaven, after seeing my driver. The fear of God struck and I sang all the prayers that came to mind.

There are some common factors in the culturally diverse country of India: passion for cricket, craze for sports and film personalities, reckless driving, lack of cleanliness and order.

The vehicle was traveling along the NH 205 national highways (connecting Chennai in Tamil Nadu with Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh). The posted speed limit was 40 kms. When I saw the speedometer (while sitting in front of the driver), it was showing barely 90 km. It wasn’t that our driver was hasty, others were driving faster almost 100 km on each side of the road.

There were a couple of sad things I saw during the course of my trip, one of them, a dog that was hit by a speeding vehicle and bled to death, his orphan puppy running aimlessly down the road. In another incident I saw a crushed puppy, only the body and his brother sitting next to him remain.

In several areas along the 152 km stretch, only one large vehicle and two vehicles could pass. But all the vehicles jostled and said he was right to honk the horn and drive fast. In almost 3 places my blood froze and my heart skipped a beat. The driver on both sides ran as if to crash and run or crash directly, it was the option.

There are a few things I prefer during my road train journey: the beautifully lined greenery and trees, the opportunity to interact with and learn about other passengers, and a good night’s sleep.

Sleep was deprived in the first half of the trip. However, when I turned around, I saw other passengers dozing peacefully, unaware of the risk of the trip. How I envied them! I enjoyed the greenery and saw country life at its most beautiful and colorful.

After almost 3 hours of travel, we arrive at Tirupati (the lower part) where we have breakfast. After breakfast our guide joined us for the trip and they gave me a break from being a direct witness to the dangers of driving. I moved the last seat of the vehicle.

The second half of the trip was spent interacting with other Chennai passengers and enjoying the natural scenery, which was breathtaking. Tirupati, is in the Seven Hills and the weather was wonderful to drive: cool, drizzling a bit. The mist surrounding the hills only enhanced the natural beauty. The second 25 km section ran through deep bends, blind bends and hairpin bends. But from the way the vehicle was shaking, I understood that the driver was driving at twice the prescribed speed limit.

Once we reached Tirupati, we waited for the South Indian family to complete the tonsure on the head of their relative’s son. The delay of this time delayed our program by 3-4 hours. We enter the cage, where we wait our turn to reserve the ticket and have the Seegra Darshan. The tail began to move slowly. Our cage of nearly 200 was easily the most unruly. The pilgrim cages on either side were pretty neat and well behaved. They gave us free food inside the cage, which helped, as we only ate dinner at 7.30pm. M. The funny thing was that while we on the Rs. 300 waited 4 hours and Rs 50 ticket pilgrims waited 6-7 hours, devotees who paid nothing waited only one hour.

We had Lord Balaji’s darshan at 4.30pm for a period of 10 seconds. I certainly considered myself lucky to be in the presence of the Lord for the normal duration of 2-3 seconds. As it was constantly raining, we waited our turn to collect our sample of the world famous Tirupati Laddoos. We then returned to our bus and began our return journey.

We arrived at Lower Tirupati at 8:00 PM, had dinner, and went to Tiruchanur to seek the blessings of Goddess Padmavathi, Lord Balaji’s consort. The darshan here was faster and better, finished in almost a jiffy (5-10 minutes).

We started back to Chennai, which was mostly peaceful and I got home at 12.30am the next day (Nov 16, 2010).

When I got home, I was informed that the new job that was pending was finished and I was expected to join in a day or two.

I have met my friends and relatives, who meticulously planned for months together, but still could not make the trip to Tirupati, unless the Lord Himself desired. I agree with this point of view. My wish and plan were put into practice and I was able to seek the blessings of the Divine Lord in a matter of 1-2 days. Recently, one of my friends who had successfully completed his interview was looking forward to joining the new job. After his trip to Tirupati, things moved at a feverish pace and he joined in as soon as he returned.

“The man proposed, God willing.” This is true of all religions. God is the Supreme Power, and yet as science and technology advance, we cannot match his power and will. We cannot stop death, we can postpone it only for some time.

I kept the title of this article for two reasons: One, because of the way the vehicle was being driven all over the place, I spent more time thinking about God and seeking His forgiveness and blessings. Two, the darshan itself was wonderful and we will look forward to the pain and trouble.

http://www.tirumala.org provides you with all the information about Tirupati.