The Tirumala temple sees lakhs of devotees every day. The free Sarva Darshan queue can take eight to twelve hours. The TTD ₹300 Special Entry Darshan, also called Seeghra Darshan, was introduced to give devotees a faster, more organized alternative. It is not a VIP darshan. It is a paid facility that allows you to … Read more
The Tirumala temple sees tens of thousands of devotees every day. The free darshan queue, called Sarva Darshan, can take eight to twelve hours. On weekends and festivals, the wait is even longer. The TTD ₹500 Special Entry Darshan, also known as Sheeghra Darshan, was introduced to solve this problem. It is not a VIP … Read more
The Guruvayur Temple sits in the town of Guruvayur, in the Thrissur district of Kerala. The temple is not ancient in the way of the stone temples of Tamil Nadu. It is not large in the way of the gopurams of Madurai. But the devotion here is different. The deity is Guruvayurappan, a form of … Read more
The Shirdi Sai Baba Temple sits in the small town of Shirdi, in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. The town is dusty. The streets are crowded. The shops sell photos, garlands, and prasad. But the temple is not dusty. The marble floors are clean. The queue moves slowly. The devotees chant. Sai Baba lived here … Read more
The Trimbakeshwar Temple sits at the foot of the Brahmagiri Hills, in the small town of Trimbak in the Nashik district of Maharashtra. This is not just another Shiva temple. This is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas. But Trimbakeshwar is different from the others. The lingam here is not a single stone. It is a … Read more