TIRUPATI, INDIA March 26, 2012 (India Times): It’s an arduous 21-hour wait in the queue for a darshan of God which lasts no more than a fraction of a second. Even as the scorching sun beats down on them, pilgrims patiently await their turn for a darshan of Lord Venkateswara at the hill shrine of Tirumala.
As reward for this grueling exercise, squeezed in like sardines into rows, pilgrims get a darshan of 0.80 milliseconds to 1.5 seconds. That too, amidst a lot of shoving and pushing by temple guards and Srivari volunteers. Those in the know of temple affairs say that three seconds with the Lord inside the sanctum sanctorum can be billed as a ‘satisfactory’ darshan. With an average of 65,000 pilgrims flocking the temple every day (the rush hits a high of 80,000 on Saturdays and Sundays and over 100,000 during festivals), the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is finding it increasingly difficult to arrange for a proper darshan.
Lord Venkateswara is a popular Hindu God and, over the years, the popularity of Tirumala has risen enormously. As the rush of pilgrims kept multiplying, providing a satisfactory darshan and pruning the waiting period has become an onerous task for TTD. In a time motion study done by experts, it was found that 2,000-2,200 pilgrims are barely able to `finish’ the darshan of the Moola Virat (main Deity) in one hour when they are pushed around. If temple volunteers exercise restraint, the numbers come down to 1,400-1,600 and further down to 1,000-1,200 if they only holler `move move’ inside the garbha griha.
With Arjitha sevas, naivedyam, shuddi and other rituals taking away 8 hours and VIP pilgrims allowed darshan for 3-4 hours, common pilgrims have 10-12 hours.