Can you give me more info of Tirupati?

[Guest guest]

Dear Jacob,

 

1) It's very interestgin that you was actually there.

Would you please describe your experience a bit to me?

How is it done? Why do they shave?

 

I went there with my mother and my brother's family.

There was a very long queue, so we were given ticket

to enter the queue the following day. My brother

wanted to have his child's hair shaved, we went to a

hotel and paid a barber to shave the baby's hair and

then the baby had a bath. Then we enter the queue and

had to wait for about 7 hours and finally got closer

to the deity (we were only able to worship the deity

for a few seconds because thousands of people were

waiting).I really enjoyed being there, I would go back

there again.It is a wonderful holy place.

 

2)Is the hair offered to a god, an idol, the shrine,

the priests?

 

Not at all offered to the idol, only sweets are

offered to the idol and devotees get sweets which had

been offered to the lord. Shaving takes place far away

from the temple. People need to have proper bath and

smear sandle wood paste on their bold head before they

enter a long queue for darsan of the idol. I do not

believe that the priests directly benefit from the

hair, they get their salary for their job in the

temple. People also shave their hair in other temples

in india, I personally saw in Tiruchendur, where

barbers sat in a building and some people shave their

hair and take a bath in the nearby beach and enter the

temple, I don't know what the barbers do to the hair,

may be they sell it for their own profit. Hair shaving

also common in Palani Temple, which is a popular

temple for ture spiritual seekers.

 

 

3) Do they believe in a god? in one god, in more than

one?

 

It is a Hindu temple and we do believe in various

personality (personal gods) of the Impersonal Absolute

God (Brahman), it is like christains believe that they

could reach God via Jesus. The main deity of the

temple is Vishnu, the Preserver of the universe or the

preserving aspect of the Supreme God.

 

 

4) Is the shaving directly related to the service to

the god/gods, or it's just in preparation to the

service, before entering the shrine?

 

Not at all, you don't have to shave your head, infact

I only saw a few out of thousands who shaved their

hair. My undestanding is that people either shave

their hair because the lord satisfied their desire or

ture spiritual seekers do it to ask God for

libration from cycle of birth and death (i.e

surrendering their material body).

 

 

5) Are they shaving in the streets? In a special

building? Do they say while shaving that they do it

for god?

 

It takes place in either hotels or building in which

barbers employed by the temple I believe. They don't

say anything, you have to pay them to have your hair

shave, just like when you go to a barber shop.

 

 

 

6)Do they believe in the stones or metals inside the

shrines that these metals have some kind of power?

 

Hindus worship idols, there are spiritual reasons

behind this, I enclosed a book written by Sri Swami

Sivananda (a Hindu saint) for you to understand.

Please do read relavent sections.

 

7)Do they believe that shaving for the god will bring

them some luck?

 

Yes many people do it for material gain, for example

several years ago my sister wanted to have a third

child, but she had had 3 or 4 miscarriages, so she

took a vow that she would offer her baby's hair to the

Lord if she get the third one, then she did and went

to Tirupati and offered her baby's hair.

 

But there are wise people who do it for spiritual

growth, in a way, giving up all your hair means you

are surrendering your material body to the lord.

 

8) And another questions: Do the people know that the

priests make a lot of money with the hair which they

give away to the priests for free?

 

Personally I don't believe the priests make any money

out of it. The Temple Trust could be selling the hair

to convert it into cash to fund various projects,

including the temple maintenance cost.I certainly know

that they give away money to many charities.

Especially they donated billion Repees to Sri

Ramakrishna Math in Chennai (South India).

 

people do offer other things in temple, such as

gold,money, milk, fruits,etc. They know these things

go to Temple Trust and or priests. People know that it

costs a lot of money to maintain a Hindu temple

(decoration,lighting, conducting various rituals,

salary to priests, etc), the main source of income to

a temple is from devotees.

 

 

 

Selva

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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