On visiting God to have his image

I went to Chilkur village once, which is on the outskirts of Hyderabad. There I visited a temple of Lord Balaji (Sri Venkateshwara) that is especially renowned for worshippers wishes fulfilled. The temple is popular among those aspiring NRIs (Non resident Indians) seeking visas to the USA (not excluding the Middle and Far East). Their main wish is to secure a visa; precisely speaking-- a wish not to be rejected for one. On first visit the wishers do certain number of circumnavigations around the temple (generally less in number); and once their wishe fulfilled they return to the temple to say their thanks to the Deity and perform similar Pradakshinas, this time in increased number as customary among such devotees. [Pradashina to my limited knowledge must be a term in Sanskrit that suggests a kind of Dakshina (offering to the Lord)]. I also happened to observe a different concept of Darshan at Chikur. The Temple authorities make some announcements through loud- speakers suggesting to the devotees not to close their eyes while in front of the deity. (Normally in Hindu temples most devotees close their eyes, only to make their mental obeisance. The changed rule in Chilkur is of course interesting to note, for it is just to enable the devotees to have the maximum of viewing time of the image of the Lord in the given time at the rush hour. OK. That is fine by me.

Next, I happened to visit Tirumala Hills sometime ago; a world famous temple for Hindus. It is the richest God in the world, maybe next to the Vatican City. Here at Tiurmala the Main Deity of Balaji (Sri Venkateshwara) is worshipped by millions of people from across the world. The Darshan of the lord commences right from the small hours of the day and lasts till well past midnight. During my above visit I could have just a few seconds of viewing time of the Lord at close quarters; I would say it was my ‘lightening moment’ of a Darshan. It is established that the temple administration is very efficient beyond doubt that easily serves as one of the best examples to take up for case study on religious Tourism administration particularly catering to very large crowds (I meant a case study for any Business school a la Indian Railways under the ministry of Lalu). Now it was different matter I had hardly enough time even to open my eyes (or my ‘mano netras that is the inner eyes), to see a detailed image of god even briefly.

After the above visit of Lord I came out of the temple and I stopped by a shop nearby that sells the Lord’s pictures. I picked up one such photo frame having His picture and stared at it for a very long time closely enough in order to re-run His image I just saw in the Temple. I was fortunate that I got the experience of eternal bliss looking at his image in the picture. Alighting from the Lord’s abode on the Seven Hills I reached my hotel down hills at a place called TirupatiTown. In my hotel room I sank deep into the bed and switched on the TV. There appeared on the screen a ‘pantheon of deities’. They were none else than our Indian actors, actresses, sports personalities and politicians on different channels.

Well. Before boring the readers any further I shall come straight to my point. We the humans, stare at the visual images, be they in TV, on our computer screens, in the theatres. While watching them on the screen we use lesser number of blinking of eyelids per minute that is bad for our eyes. Also we tend to keep our eyes open for longer periods in times of some crises we happen to witness like road accidents. Any image travels to our brain to get itself registered for a reaction to ensue for due interpretation. Such process takes mere milliseconds. If our interpretation goes wrong, our reaction results into a bad effect. Chronic alcoholics and drug addicts see objects differently and describe them strangely. Some others no doubt see things clearly but when describing them to others such images, the same will not sink well to the said others. I wonder at people getting images in broken streams i.e. in fits and starts. at times we find people turning their bathroom taps open and fail to close them in time even as the bucket is full. When asked why, their stock answer would be that they did see only a while ago the water was only 3 inches deep and never knew how it was full so fast. These people get only some cut images like we see such images on YouTube when the stream is not downloading fast enough in low speed internet connections. (I guess YOU TUBE is spelt right here, mistake me not if I am wrong).Here I guess our perceptions of time and images are in series of consciousness like water flowing in a river. I happen to find people tell catastrophic accidents happened to them. When asked to describe they say they saw things in slow motion and also recount the story again in slow motion. I don’t know how it could be so. This you can observe in the news shows on TV.

Finally I pray to all the Gods of every religion that nothing bad or untoward may ever happen to any of us to make us recall such moments of shock and agony in vivid detail that too in slow motion. I pray also to Lord Venkateshwara that He shall see that our eyes and mind are filled only with the happy images of His glory and his Heavenly bliss after to His Darshan seeing Him with our own eyes either the same are wide open when our inner mind is open and physical eyes though closed shut. Let us thank Him for He gave us the opportunity at least to be in his vicinity and ‘see’ His image. Let Almighty shower his blessings in pure and simple form, oozing with His kindness and sympathy on all of His devotees.