Today, I got to go to Chilukur Balaji Temple since my friend wanted to go to get his visa without any hassles. The chilukur god is famous for fulfilling the wishes of people, but due to the dominance of corporate crowd around, he got noticed for fulfilling visa wishes. :D
People start coming to the temple from 4'O clock itself, to do 108 parikramas once their wish gets fulfilled. So, we planned to go at 4 AM, but somehow ended up going there by 6:30 AM. (You know - we are lazy arses).
We've got a feeling of being at home, rather than a temple. One of the archaks/poojaaris there was guiding us while we were doing our parikramas/pradakshinas.
He is awesome! He is crazy! He has got a vision for the temple and the religion. The way he connects to the devotees is incredible. I haven't seen such a thing at any other temple in my life.
He cracked jokes on us. (Over the air - on the mic )
He asked us questions.
He also gave punishment for a guy (5 sit ups) for having chanted "Vaddikasulavada Govinda".
"But, I haven't chanted, in my whole life, so many Govindas ever!"
I mean, he totally became close to us in no time! We were responding to him. The way he kept on motivating us was really speculative. He has touched upon a lot of current issues. He kept our brains busy and connected to the God. I was amazed by his speed and level of fluency in English, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. We didn't even notice how long it was that we we had been there. Whenever he stopped speaking, we'd got really bored and were eagerly waiting for him to start again.
His vision, as he said was: "To keep the way of Hindu worship the way it is meant to be - unbiased, equality before the God". There is no ticket to do pooja/archana in the temple. He also said: "This is a revolt. We are fighting against the government - against taxing the temples. Government takes 25% of the money from the Hundi. But it doesn't charge a thing for Mosques, Churches, etc. why? It is trying to change us - the god's servants to the government servants" Hence, the Hundi has been removed from this temple 13 years back." Instead of offering money, he asked us to buy the Vak magazine and the book with history of the place and distribute it among our friends to spread the word. The speech he gave was so motivational and I've bought 12 books myself.
They don't accept any offerings in the temple. He asked a few people to come and volunteer for a few activities happening in the temple - like distributing Tulasi leaves, etc.
And then, there were beautiful shopping items - the most I liked were key chains. And there was some sweet and sour fruit.
Finally, I came out with total satisfaction and with full contentment that I've spent the time worth something there! It was nothing like going to any other temple! You too should definitely go there sometime!
CNN made a video about the temple. Check it out.
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