21-hour wait for fraction of a second darshan of the Lord at Tirumala

TIRUPATI: It's an arduous 21-hour wait in the queue for a darshan of their favourite Lord which lasts no more than a fraction of a second. Even as the scorching sun beats down on them, pilgrims patiently await their turn for a darshan of Lord Venkateswara at the hill shrine of Tirumala. Read More................21-hour wait for fleeting darshan of the Lord at Tirumala

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Indian train travelled hundreds of miles in the wrong direction before anyone noticed

A PACKED commuter train sped hundreds of miles across India in the wrong direction before passengers finally realised it was pulling into an unfamiliar station.
The locomotive left the southern town of Tirupati Tuesday for the eastern city of Bhubaneswar, where it was due to swing north to its eventual destination of Varanasi, a city in northeastern India.Read More................Indian train travelled hundreds of miles in the wrong direction before anyone noticed

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Tirupati priest booked for mortgaging temple jewellery

Hyderabad: Police in Andhra Pradesh’s temple town of Tirupati Saturday booked a case of theft and cheating against the chief priest of a temple under the control of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) for having mortgaged its jewellery to a private lender to raise money for personal use. Read More................Tirupati priest booked for mortgaging temple jewellery

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Rs.450 million Gold Crown for Tirupati God

Hyderabad: Karnataka's minister for tourism and leading industrialist Gali Janardhan Reddy Thursday presented a diamond-studded gold crown, estimated to be worth Rs.450 million (Rs.45 crore), to the famous Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirupati.

Janardhan Reddy, who owns Brahmani steel plant and Obulapuram mines in Andhra Pradesh, made the rich offering on the occasion of his birthday. Read More................Karnataka minister donates Rs.450 million gold crown to Tirupati

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Tirupati voters get Gold darshan

TIRUPATI: Instead of the usual chant of Govinda Govinda in this temple town, candidates in the fray from Tirupati assembly constituency are chanting "goldinda goldinda" (here's gold, here's gold) to woo the over 2.3 lakh electorate — over 50% of them being women — by playing on divine sentiment to the hilt. Read More................Tirupati voters get gold darshan

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Unique Ritual to Propitiate Rain God

As the threat of drought looms large over Andhra Pradesh state of India, a unique three-day 'Maha Varuna Yagam' under the auspices of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) began here to propitiate the rain god.

The state government and TTD authorities have made elaborate arrangements for the event by erecting 108 'homagundams' or small platforms formed with bricks for holy fire.

The 'Maha Varunayagam', is attended by over 5,000 people. Over 150 priests from the famous Hindu temple of Lord Venkateshwara began the rituals amidst singing of Vedic hymns. Read more.........................Unique ritual in Hyderabad to propitiate rain god

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Richie Rich 'Lord Venkateswara' Sits on a Goldmine

Our earlier post describes in detail that "Tirupati Balaji' is the Richest God in the world". Now here is more about that Richie Rich Lord who actually sits on a Goldmine. This temple of "Lord Venkateshwara" is in the town of Chittor District of Andhra Pradesh in India & is located in the foot hills of Tirumala.

As per one report:

Currently there are nearly 11 tonnes (11,000 kgs) of Gold ornaments and vessels in Lord Venkateswara possession ( Actually with the trust which runs temple of Lord Venkateshwara in the foot hills of Tirumala). The administration maintains 19 records to register the accounts of these jewels, vessels and precious items.

Gifting precious and dazzling jewels to Lord started with the Pallavas almost 1400 years ago which was latter followed by Pandyas, Cholas, Vijayanagara rulers. Among Vijayanagara rulers, emperor Sri Krishna Devaraya alone offered a huge chunk of diamonds and gold offerings during his seven-times visit to Tirumala along with his wives, Tirumala Devi and Chinna Devi.

The most exquisite and precious among the riches of Lord is the “Vajra Kireetam” the diamond crown which was designed by TTD in 1986. This was the third on in the crown series of the Lord which was prepared at a cost of Rs 5.73 crore using 28,369 diamonds of high quality and 26 kgs of “aparanji” (pure) gold. The entire weight of the kireetam is about 13.36 kgs. As per current bullion rates, the crown might cost over Rs 50 crore.

Read more of the report at Economic Times.........................Lord Venkateswara: Richie Rich Lord sits on a goldmine

*** Dear Readers: I too once visited the "Tirupati Balaji" temple at Tirumala. In fact there was a large white colored big cotton bag which was hanging in the temple premises, in which people were putting their donations. It is said that many times visiting women just take out all their gold ornaments they are wearing & just put these gold ornaments in the cotton bag out of their devotion to the Lord. Many men just put bundles of currency notes in the bag. There were many rooms which were visible to the visitors, in which many men were just counting the currency notes put in the bag as offering to the Lord & interestingly all these men counting the notes were monitored through a Close TV Circuit Cameras in a control room which was monitored by a man so that a strict vigil can be there on persons counting the currency notes!!!!!!!!!!!! Now you can understand the devotion of people to the "Lord Venkateswara" in India & how He has become the Richie Rich God of the world.

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15 Kgs Gold offered to Hindu Deity

Earlier post 'Tirupati Balaji' - Richest God in the world, explains about the richness of this Hindu deity. Now here is one person from Chandigarh city in India who offered 15 Kgs Pure Gold to the Hindu deity at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) temple on Tuesday. Gold offered is worth Indian Rs 1.5 Crore ( US$ 3,75,000 ).

Balbir Singh Uppal, a Chandigarh-based industrialist and the CMD of Lakshmi Energy and Foods, donated the items which contained a sankanidhi, padmanidhi and eka harathi, two nakshatra harathis and a sankham — each made of gold — and a dhoopa harathi. As per Mr. Uppal, “I and my family had a wish to have grandson which has been completed. That’s why we went to Tiruputi and gave our offerings. We also conducted pooja there".      

Temple officials added that the items would be used during the daily rituals of the Lord.

This is the second Rs One Crore-plus donation that the temple has received over the past three days. On Sunday, K Surya Rao, a Bangalore-based businessman, had donated over Indian Rs 1.0 Crore ( US$ 2,50,000 ) to TTD.

Earlier this year there was another big — and high profile — donation. Bollywood super star Amitabh Bachchan, Amar Singh and Anil Ambani had donated Indian Rs 50 lakh ( US$ 1,25,000 ) each when they had visited the temple to seek blessings for Abhisek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai after their marriage.

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'Tirupati Balaji' - Richest God in the world

Just think, which temple is most visited in the world.......It is the temple of Tirupati Balaji or temple of Lord Venkateshwara & is famous for being the most-visited shrine in the world and its prime deity for being the richest God in the world. This temple is in the town of Chittor District of Andhra Pradesh in India & is located in the foot hills of Tirumala. It is around 140 km from Chennai and 740 km from Hyderabad city in India.

The ancient and sacred temple of Sri Venkateswara is located on the seventh peak, Venkatadri Hills on the southern banks of Sri Swami Pushkarini & because of this reason only Lord Balaji has been named Venkateswara. The Greatness & opulence of Lord Balaji, the Preserver of the Whole Universe, is reflected in his richly ornamented life-size idol in the Tirumala Tirupati temple.

In the temple the black idol of Lord Balaji is covered in gold, jewellery and precious ornaments and its height is 2 meters.The sacred shrine is visited by millions of devotees from far and wide and has been worshipped consistently since the past thirteen years. Every year more than 12 million people visit this temple from within India and the world. Every year the temple receives around Indian Rs 10 Billion ( More than 200 Million US$) in offerings from the devotees.

So now you can imagine the devotion & religious nature of Indian people & may sound weird to many people. Another strange thing is about the tradition of shaving off your head after visiting the temple & the human hairs collected here are even exported to other countries for making wigs for the people who are deprived of such precious possession. Does it sound weird to you........you only judge.....

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