Monday morning, we got up early, packed the various items bought, and without having breakfast, rushed to the Chennai Moffusil Bus Terminus to catch a bus to Vellore. Earlier, we had read somewhere on the internet that the Vellore Golden Temple would be open only between 8 AM - 12 PM and 4 PM - 9 PM. So in order to get back to Bangalore at proper time, we had to hurry up for the Golden Temple. Vellore was about 3 hours from Chennai and we had very less time. On arrival at the CMBT, fortunately there was a bus immediately leaving for Vellore and we got into the same.
After about 2:45 minutes of journey, we landed at Vellore bus station at around 11:30 AM and quickly got into a bus to Sripuram. We had thought that the temple would be very crowded, and to get quick entry we had contacted one of colleagues of my father-in-law who was the manager of Karnataka Bank at Vellore branch and who knew the PRO of temple office. One the way to temple, we called him and he told to talk to the PRO mentioning his name & then the PRO would let us for quick darshan.
We reached the temple premises at 11:50 PM and went straight to the PRO office. The strange thing here was, we were not supposed to carry luggage, cameras & mobiles inside so had to be deposited at luggage room, paying for each item & also for the plastic cover for keeping slippers. And also, if we had to call someone after depositing, they would give the entire set and had to be re-deposited paying again. What a way to make money!
At the PRO office, an assistant of the PRO handed over a pamphlet & discussed with us the different Sevas that were performed mentioning the cost. The starting price for each seva was Rs. 200 per person & went upto Rs. 5000. She was coaxing us to perform atleast one Seva of Rs. 500 per person so that we can have a quick darshan of God. She told that without Seva, quick entry to the temple would not be possible. We were thinking of ways to escape from this looting and called her dad again. He told no need to pay money and just to ask them to let us have darshan. We again came back and told her that we dont intend to do any seva. After some consultation with the PRO, the assistant finally agreed to let us in thru the quick gate. We kept wondering what all people can do to extract money from devotees. Only later we came to know that we had avoided only walking about 0.5 kms thru the queue lines and also there wasn't much rush that day.
The temple, was open from morning 8 to evening 9 and we cursed the guy who mentioned wrong timings on the internet. We had to walk for about 1 km in a path similar to a star shaped padma (Sri Chakra). The landscaping was too good & there were preachings of Narayani Amma here and there. We somehow didn't get the feeling of a temple as it looked more like an amusement garden. The Golden Temple of Lakshmi was at the centre of the Sri Chakra & it was glowing in the sun, making it a majesty to see it. The idol of Godess was so impressive. Its said that more than 600 kgs of gold has been used to build this temple and is the biggest structure made out of gold. Photography wasn't allowed inside the temple, but here are a few snaps taken from net.
Its said that the temple looks dazzling at the night.
After having darshan of the Godesses, we came out where people were standing in queue for lunch prasadam. We too stood there & had lunch. Later we went to the PRO office but thankfully he wasn't there. So said thanks to one of his assistants & quickly left the temple premises. We got a bus to Vellore bus station and on the way saw the Vellore fort and Jalakandeshwara temple. We had plans to visit this temple too, but it was closed till 4 PM. At the bus stand, we waited for about 10 mins & a direct bus came from Chennai to Bangalore and got into it. It took around 4.5 hours to reach Shantinagar bus stand & from there we took a rick to home.
Overall, this trip was a good one & a nice break from work schedule. Next, Hyderabad is on the cards..
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