Rajendra: April 2012

Date: 23rd April and 24th April 2012 ( Photoes by Sateesh)

TEAM MEMBERS

Ramkumar
Purushotham
Sateesh
Raghavandra
Kumarswamy
Harsha
Rajendra
Sadananda
Lakshminarayana
Prasad

TIRUMALA ON FOOT

Left Bangalore on 23rd April, the train (yeshvanthpur- Howra Fast Express) was at 7-35 pm,i left office early at 5pm and brought the eveing food ( Idli,Vade, Kharabhat and Shavigebhat ) in Malleswarm ralway station canteen and reach at 6-30pm in Yeshvanthpur.am awaiting for my offiece collegues ( Mr Puru, Sateesh and Kumarswamy) they have strucked at office for some urgent official work, they finally reached by 7-25 pm.

All we had nice evening snacks, played some games (UNO-J Kumaraswamy, three time UNO Champion-Mr. Purushotham) had some tea and slept away, Train reached Tirupathi by 2am (scheduled time 2-30) caught two Autos to Alipiri reached over there had bath freely provided by TTD Authorities, by God's grace saying "EDU KONDALAVADA VENKATARAMANA GOVINDA GOVINDA' started on journey to the Divine Holy Shrine Seven Hills God Balaji, we have proceeding an small incident occured Fellow piligrim Ramkumar got low blood, giddiness only mr. purushotham was accompanying him we all almost covered nearly 2500 footsteps, he called over phone, but it was not reaching us, finally got and he informed what happened, Mr. Harsha and Mr.Kumar returned back to help him all the way 2500 footsteps down again then strength came to Mr. Purushotham, Harsha gone till further get down 100 more steps to get a cup of a Coffee to him then we had a sigh of releif as he recovered from this, Purushotham and Ramkumar carried their journey by bus, again Mr. Harsha and Mr Kumar restarted their journey from starting from scratch once again except kumar and harsha we all reached Galigopura by 4-50 am, collected Token over there had some light tea and moved further enroute we had some nice view of the hillock all over passing and the first team reached hilltop by 7-30 am we had booked a room in Karnataka Pravasi Soudha(KPC) (0877-2277426), had once again bath, had a free breakfast (Courtesy: Mr Krishnaiah Setty, MLA, Malur Constituency, he is providing free meals to all the devotees of KPC) waited for the two men and they also reached by 09-30 am, they took some rest and they also had bath we went for having Darshan as we were entering once again Mr Kumar forget to bring the amount who was given to him to offer at Srivari Hundi, again back he went to room to bring that, finally the team dismantled

Sateesh , Raghavendra, Nani and Prasad went inside and setteled gate no 30 , my self and my cousin brother sadananda waited for kumar and harsha.As kumar's ticket was with me, we also entered and settled at gate No. 32 saw the board over there our next darshan timing was at 2-30pm they served some Bisibele bathe & milk who were present there by 1pm our gate opened and moved towards Darshan Que, Finally we had a nice Darshan of Balaji, we came back by 4-pm collected Laddus and Vada Kumar broke his fasting by eating laddu. We had snacks at Hotel woodside and Hotel Mayura, left Tirumala at 6-00pm by Jeep.

We had a Dinner at Maya Restaurant nearby Railway Station and the food over there was excellent, we boarded Mysore Passenger Train (8-55pm)

Reached Bangalore on 25th by 7-30 am

Detailed INFORMATION

Basic Rules

Before taking tour or treks, please have some little information about the place
Some basic rules to follow while climbing the Tirumala Hill

a) Absolutely No footwear while climbing (depends on individual)
b) Travel Light (Almost all supplies can be bought on the way )
c) Have a bottle of water handy
d) Some glucose for instant energy (Please check if you are diabetic), Dry Fruits etc
e) Try to carry a backpack, to keep your hands free; but don't stuff it
f) Since the hills are sacred, people suggest to climb only after taking bath.

Tirupati to Tirumala on Foot

For those of you who would like to climb the hills to Tirumala to fulfil a vow, there are two well-laid stone footpaths leading to Tirumala. These paths are called sopanamargas.

The more ancient of the two sopanamargas which starts from Alipiri at the foot of the hills, is about 11 km in length, and is the commonly-used route.

The other sopanamarga (Srivari mettu) from Chandragiri, though only about 6 km in length.

1.Token facility is provided for pedestrian who come on foot to Tirumala through Gali Gopuram or Srivari Mettu.

2.Bio-Metric counters are established on these foot paths, to facilitate free darshan, free accommodation (P.A.C.) and free food facilities at Tirumala.

TTD provides several facilities to pilgrims who walk up the hills to Tirumala.

Enterence

[Mr.Raghavendra,Mr Purushotham, Mr.Ramkumar,Mr Harsha,
Mr Kumar, Mr Lakshminarayana, Mr.Rajendra, Mr Prasad &
Mr. Sadananda]

APSRTC runs free buses from the Tirupati Railway station to Alipiri, with a frequency of 30 minutes. Pilgrims who intend to walk up the hills to Tirumala can use these buses.Tirumala Venkateswara Temple is a Hindu temple in the hill town of Tirumala, near Tirupati in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. It is around 600 km (370 mi) from Hyderabad, 138 km (86 mi) from Chennai and 291 km (181 mi) from Bangalore.The Tirumala Hill is 853m above sea level and is about 10.33 square miles (27 km) in area. It comprises seven peaks, representing the seven heads of Adisesha, thus earning the name Seshachalam. The seven peaks are called Seshadri, Neeladri, Garudadri, Anjanadri, Vrushabhadri, Narayanadri, and Venkatadri. The temple is on Venkatadri (also known as Venkatachala or Venkata Hill), the seventh peak, and is also known as the "Temple of Seven Hills". The presiding deity of the temple is Lord Venkateswara, a form of the Hindu god Vishnu. Venkateswara is known by other names: Balaji, Govinda, and Srinivasa. The temple lies on the southern banks of Sri Swami Pushkarini, a holy water tank. The temple complex comprises a traditional temple building, with a number of modern queue and pilgrim lodging sites.The temple is the richest pilgrimage center, after the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, of any faith (at more than 50,000 crore) and the most-visited place of worship in the world. The temple is visited by about 50,000 to 100,000 pilgrims daily (30 to 40 million people annually on average), while on special occasions and festivals, like the annual Brahmotsavam, the number of pilgrims shoots up to 500,000, making it the most-visited holy place in the world.There are several legends associated with the manifestation of the Lord in Tirumala. According to one legend, the temple has a murti (deity) of Lord Venkateswara, which it is believed shall remain here for the entire duration of the present Kali Yuga.