Fwd: Digest Number 1212 : About Tirumala-Tirupati

[Guest guest]

In what is otherwise a very good write-up about

Tirumala, the following paragraphs however cannot go

uncontested.

 

As a native of Tirupati, who has witnessed the

temple-town both as it used to be about 40 years ago

in my childhood and as it now stands (only too

well-described in the article), I can lay claim to

some insight into the affairs of my hometown. I say

that the TTD cannot be blamed for the "crass

commercialism and exploitation dogging" Tirumala. The

TTD has become the institution it is today because of

the general public at large. It is the general public

-- you and me --- that over the decades has demanded

and got amenity after amenity, facility after

facility, convenience after convenience atop the holy

Hill, turning the temple into a veritable bazaar...

 

My earliest childhood memories of the Tiruvenkatam

Hill is one of sylvan surroundings, clear fresh air,

sparkling ponds, relatively tranquil environs and an

atmosphere surcharged with spiritual devotion. But

those were the days too when pilgrimage to the Hill

was not without its attendent difficulties. The buses

were not too many. The foot-path was unpaved. There

were not too many lodgings or eating-houses for

pilgrims... A hot shower in the cold wintry mornings

at Tirumala in those days was simply unthinkable.

 

Go and take a look at Tirumala today! It has every bit

of razzle-dazzle razzmatazz that urban life anywhere

in the world can boast of. The hill-slopes which once

were wooded with lush thickets and trees, have now

only rows and rows of tourist-bungalows or villas of

every possible size and range. Some recently built

quarters at Tirumala are so chic and modern they seem

to me like they were a residential slice right out of

Sunset Boulevard or Beverly Hills. When I enquired

about it, I was told that these guest-houses were

meant for NRI and PIO devotees from abroad who need

"suitable accommodation" during their stay at

Tirupati.

 

Along with the scores of "guest-houses", "villas" and

"bungalows" came too hundreds of petty-shops,

tea-stalls, kiosks, bill-boards, buntings, neon-signs,

traffic-roundabouts, constables, roadside lavatories,

restaurants, parking-lots and every other imaginable

ugly trapping and accoutrement of modern urbania...

 

With increasing urbanization over the decades,

Tirumala has today come to provide gainful employment

to thousands of people. On any given day, I am sure,

if you took a census on the sacred Hill, you will find

there are far more shop-keepers, touts, taxi-drivers,

scavengers, barbers, cooks, menials, plumbers,

electricians, clerks, bankers, travel-agents, police

constables and plain hangers-on than regular pilgrims.

These are the beneficiaries of thriving trade and

business in and around the temple-town.

 

The question to ask is how did this all happen? How

did this "de-spiritualization" of an ancient

temple-town come about? What triggered it?

 

The answer is good old "consumerism". In Tirupati

today you cannot anymore hope to see genuine pilgrims

arriving to worship or commune with the Lord. Now

there are only what you may call "religious tourists"

or "spiritual consumers" whose primary purpose is to

"consume" or "experience" the fabulous spectacle

called "Lord Venkateshwara". The town of Tirumala

serves the Lord no more. It serves the "consumer".

 

In the old days, pilgrims braved the travails of

trekking through the 7 hills, taking up lodgings in

stuffy, grubby little "mutts" and "mantapams", living

off bare "prasAdam" dished out by religious services

at Tiruvenkatam, all for a minute or so in the

sanctum-sanctorum of the Deity. Today, "religious

tourists" come to Tiruvenkatam on "conducted package

tours".

 

Every nook and corner on the sacred Hill has now been

overtaken by the profane.

 

The TTD is a consumer-driven organization. It serves

its real masters -- namely you and me -- very

faithfully. How can you blame it for what has happened

to Tirumala?

 

Regards,

 

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

 

The culture of crass commercialism and exploitation

> that dogs you in Tirumala has been institutionalised

> by TTD itself.

--- wrote:

> Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala: The God Of

> Big Things

>THE GOD OF BIG THINGS BACK TO HOME

>> The God Of Big Things

> By M. Raghu Ram

> The culture of crass commercialism and exploitation

> that dogs you in Tirumala has been institutionalised

> by TTD itself. It has made minor services needlessly

> free even as it milks people who prefer to pay to

> jump the queue for darsan or sevas. With its eye on

> revenue and populist policies, TTD has been

> tinkering with the deity's sleeping time, religious

> duties and timings, rather than work around the Lord

> as every temple should.

> An exceptional stampede in the temple many years

> back was attributed by the then Paramacharya of

> Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham to the improper or

> non-observance of the rituals prescribed by the

> Agama Sastras. The violation of the proscription on

> men entering the temple wearing upper garments is

> prompted by the TTD. This is in sharp contrast to

> the custom at major temples in Kerala, India.

>

> M.V. Soundar Rajan, secretary, Dharma Rakshana

> Samiti, Hyderabad, is highly critical of the

> violation of the Agama Sastras by the TTD and its

> treating the deity as a mere stone. The famed,

> delicious laddu prasad, he says, is not even offered

> to the deity but has been turned into an industry

> despite strictures by the Justice Kondiah Committee

> report 12 years ago.

> He further points out that the deity has to suffer

> the unnecessary and heavy diamond crown besides the

> heat of focused electric lights. All sevas are

> compacted to be completed by dawn to facilitate

> darsan by pilgrims while ignoring the importance of

> Ushas Kalam (the period starting at 4.30 a.m).

>

> TTD is trying to please all, especially the state

> government of Andhra Pradesh, except the presiding

> deity it thrives on and claims to serve.

> "The devotion and pilgrimage by millions increase

> the power of the deity while violation of the Agama

> Sastras will deplete its power and wealth," Soundar

> Rajan points out. One result of rabid commercialism

> and brazen doubling of displayed rates of eatables

> and beverages is frequent scuffles between indignant

> devotees and vendors in the massive Vaikuntam Queue

> Complex.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

________

Free antispam, antivirus and 1GB to save all your messages

Only in Mail: http://in.mail.