Being a member of the International Krishna Consciousness, I always love to spend at least two days a year to have that peaceful time by doing darshan and seva for Lord Krishna, also engaging myself with the holy monks over there and exploring the new writings and additions to the temple association.
It was an annual family trip with my mother and sister to Tirumala Balaji, but I chose to stay at ISKCON so that I could explore both the city temples and hill temples of Tirupati. It is one of the centres that provide guest accommodation along with food and temple servants.
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So, the day I checked in we started our day with our Morning darshan and afternoon aarthi followed by visiting all the important Vaishnava temples.
Sri Radha Govinda with Ashta Sakhis of Vrindavan is the main attraction of this temple where a person can witness Radharani, Krishna and his eight sakhis which give people spiritual peace. All the Krishna devotees fall in love with him soon after having first sight of the completely decked-up idols of the deities. Alongside these, one can also witness Lord Narasimha and Lord Govinda on either side of the 10 idols around on the main dais of the temple. The architectural design of the temple makes any person go awry. The way the temple committee maintains the premises makes devotees feel extremely welcoming especially with the ISKCON members walking around. The architecture of the temple resembles the architecture of Tirupati Balaji Chola's design exteriors and interiors.
It's a huge premise spilling the Vaishnava tradition everywhere right from the entrance. Before entering, people must remove their footwear and put them on the counter for free. Then one can enter after washing their feet. On the right side, one can find a huge building with corridors of four floors. That building can accommodate good hundreds of devotees who feel like spending at the premises and want to participate in the series. Also, the premises accommodate the members of ISKCON Tirupati. Soon after one enters, one can see one of the famous restaurants in Tirupati, Govinda Restaurant, where a person can savour typical Sathwik food which is offered by Radha Govinda.
I have visited in the morning on my first day of the stay. My mother and sister accompanied me to the temple and I felt extremely happy to take my homies around because of the ISKCON culture I dearly related to. The grandeur vibes welcomed me, especially the staircases. The architecture of the temple makes you lead towards two staircases that blend at the entrance of the mandir. I took a moment to embrace the whole scenic view of all the decorative idols on the Dias. We went near the idols to offer fruits, flowers and sweets to Krishna. We had a nice abhishekam and sat on the floor opposite to the dias to meditate. But one thing that irked me was people only focusing on capturing photographs and selfies. People nowadays hardly put themselves into the sadhana and instead of it, they use phones to click pictures.
After spending some good quality time, we came out of the main temple premises from the left to explore the outer premises with all the stalls that provide purposeful contributions to various charities. There were many portals arranged and managed by the ISKCON members that help cows, poor and disabled people. We have contributed to the welfare of the cows and the money for their feed and food. After that, we crossed the outer premises which were artistically designed and supported by the pillars and heavily ventilated openings.
Walking down the corridors, one could find the staircases leading to the stalls that exhibit all the arts, crafts, idols, incense, garments, accessories, photo frames, stones, chains, and many items related to Lord Krishna. We picked many items and I fell in love at first sight with a large frame of Sri Radha Govinda with his Ashta Sakhis portraying exactly the way it is in the main temple. Later I explored some books, incense and clothes. I have purchased a book called Gauranga and the temple members patiently explained to me about many writings related to Srila Prabhupada and other members are into Krishna consciousness. After that, we ended the temple visit by savouring the famous Khichdi ISKCON Prasadam. It was a great start for us to explore Tirupati temples that day. After we visited ISKCON, we visited a few other Vaishnava temples including the Tirumala Tirupati temple.
As I had planned the complete trip visiting various temples, it was good to explore in and around Alipiri near Tirumala hills. On the second day of my stay, we were tired enough yet we attended the afternoon Aarti and Darshan followed by lunch at Govinda's restaurant. So, every day there's a ritual of offering Raja Bhoga Thali with various items of 54 varieties to Lord Krishna as his meal and it would be served as paid lunch at the restaurant. The menu attracts its visitors with its appealing information regarding the importance of eating, serving and distributing the prasaada. If you ever visit the restaurant, make sure you recite the Mahaprasada mantra and then order Raja Bhoga Thali to flavour your taste buds with authentic dishes and recipes from various parts of India that are famously offered to Lord Krishna at various temples. That meal gave us a great ending for our visit to ISKCON Tirupati because of the holy Krishna vibe especially while hearing the Hare Krishna mantra.
Indeed, our spiritual trip started and ended with his Darshan apart from visiting all the other famous temples in Tirupati which I'm going to draft in my next blog. Until then chant, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare.
