C-da,
If you are a real devotee you do not even have to enter the temple and have darshan -to be blessed. Many saints are there who were not even allowed inside Hindu temple (i think Tukaram or Ramanuj fits the bill ) --and they gained spiritual knowledge just by praying from outside.
I went to Thirupati on August 8, 1998 (on Rakhi day -where North Indian Hindu sistes tie sacred thread to their brother) to attend a classmate's wedding -right on temple grounds. He hailed from Vijaywada. Desirous of having darshan of the temple diety _ i took a tarin which landed me there at 6 am (morning) and so I could have darsdhan and attend the evening wedding (a great event -south Indian style -they changed 6 different costumes in the course of one hour)) .
As luck would have it it was flood season duer to monsoons in Bihar , UP -so my train coming from there was late (I was in Bhopal in center of India) by
12 hours. I lay on the platform awaiting the train -noone could tell when it would arrive.
So instead of reaching 12 hours before the wedding I reached just as the wedding ceremonies were about to start.
I could not have the darshan at all -since I had to catch the train back next morning from a remote station 30 miles away . Srinivas' brother did buy two of the big and delicious laddoos for me (it seems many people just go in to get the laddooo and sell it outside).
It was only in Dec 2000, when I was extremely harassed due to office politics and made a scapegoat - I went there which I mentioned earlier-really successfully. I had no notion that it (temple darshan reservation) had been recently computersied by then. In the next six months I did more pilgrimage than my entire life before or after (incl Pushkar near Ajmer roundtrip 100 miles- 5 hours flat on my
motorbike -on the road where the lumps of coal tar made mountains and crevices) and twice to Kumbha Mela at Allahabad in Jan 2001 (second time with my mother) -where 30 million people visited on a single day. Following that in May 2001 - to Dwarka -again with my mother .
We had no train reservations at all. Even my mother was so enthused that she slept on the train floor. We also saw the House of Nehru (in Allahabad) and Birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi (in Porbandar - near Dwarka) while on the way to Somnath --again at the behst of people we met at Dwarka.
So, there is no need to bribe to have darshan. Go when you find it convenient. And there are so many pilgrimage spots - if you miss one --try the next one!!
Umesh
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>If you are a devotee you would sift thru the hay and find the
>treasure. Truth >is not found by the roadside.
*** Thanks for clearing that up. I am relieved!
> >Even Marx had to struggle against poverty to achieve fame- you
>might relate to his experience I thought.
*** Huh? What does this have to do with bidding for 'darshan'?
At 3:39 PM +0100 5/26/06, umesh sharma wrote:
>C-da,
>
>You don't get it. If you are a devotee you would sift thru the hay
>and find the treasure. Truth is not found by the roadside. Even Marx
>had to struggle against poverty to achieve fame- you might relate to
>his experience I thought.
>
>Umesh
Umesh Sharma
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Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
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