Tirumala lock broken to ensure darshan for Sri Lankan president
Posted on February 18th, 2015
Courtesy THE TIMES OF INDIA
TIRUMALA: The authorities at the richest temple in the country nearly experienced a major embarrassment when the lock of the golden door leading to the sanctum sanctorum of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala got stuck minutes before Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and his wife reached for darshan early on Wednesday.
However, keeping in mind the VVIP visit, the temple officials broke open the lock with a saw and the Lankan president managed the darshan without any hitch. The lock was subsequently replaced and the darshan of the Lord by devotees went unhindered for the rest of the day.
The drama happened around 2.15 am when the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) priests arrived to open the ‘Bangaru Vakili’ (golden door), the last door that opens to the sanctum sanctorum, to perform the Suprabhatam Seva. ‘Suprabhatam’ is the first daily pre-dawn ritual performed to ‘wake up’ the Lord.
Since the Suprabhatam Seva is performed at 3 am, the priests arrive about 45 minutes early, open the golden door and clean the premises. Three keys have to be inserted into the specially made lock at the same time to open the golden door. On Wednesday, the first key that was put into the lock got stuck and eventually broke.
Sirisena and his wife Jayanthi Pushpa Kumari were already waiting for the doors to open for the Suprabhatam Seva to be performed. “The VIP couple were at the Mahadwaram before the Vaikuntam queue complex and only the Dwajastambham and Vendi Vakili (silver door) lay between them and the golden door, a distance of about 500 ft,” said a witness.
After the priests told the TTD officials accompanying the Lankan president that the lock was stuck, orders were issued for it to be forced open. A saw was then used to cut open the lock and the golden door was opened in time for the Suprabhatam Seva to be performed at 3 am.
“The lock on the golden door worked perfectly well when the priests closed it after the Ekantha Seva at midnight on Tuesday,” TTD deputy executive officer Chinnamgari Ramana told TOI. “However, in the morning, it got stuck and we had to break it open.”
The TTD authorities claimed the locks for the temple premises were specially made and it was the first time such a problem had been reported. “We’ll make sure that such kind of mechanical malfunctioning does not recur,” Ramana said. The temple authorities said there was no need for the performance of special prayers because of the episode.
February 18th, 2015 at 6:26 pm
Namaste; Are these two a man and a woman Buddhists or are they people who believe in stupid things like going inside a closed space to see picture or a statue of some creation by cunning men in the days gone by. If this joint is the place that the are vaults of unaccounted assets like gems brought from Ceylon by the Indian colonial parasites as offerings for the wealth they acquired from the island. Shame on these leaders from the island who visit such institutions built and developed by cunning and shrewd Indians. Look at the cunning faces of the priests and the poor faces of the victims. What a shame. Jai Hind.
February 18th, 2015 at 6:30 pm
SHAME!
Doing the same DEFEATED thing MR did is SHAMEFUL.
February 19th, 2015 at 5:19 am
Gautama Buddha is mentioned as an Avatar of Vishnu in the Puranic texts of Hinduism.[5] In the Bhagavata Purana he is twenty fourth of twenty five avatars !
MS & MR did not go to Sithamparam where Lord Siva that our God Saiva Thamilar .
Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala is Vishnu Temple !!!
February 19th, 2015 at 6:02 am
Christie,
You don’t have to hold the same religious beliefs and follow the same religious practices as others do. And you may find some of those practices don’t make sense to you. But religion is a personal thing, and a matter of faith. You must respect the right of people to hold whatever beliefs they choose to hold, and desist from making comments that could cause hurt.
February 19th, 2015 at 1:07 pm
No wonder the God at Thirumala did not want to see a back stabber and his wife early in the morning!
I wonder what is next for Sirisena – Go to Vatican and visit the sanctuary of the Pedophile priests and stolen wealth from around the world!
February 20th, 2015 at 11:53 am
The Tirupathi Temple in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is a DRAVIDIAN TEMPLE.
Her History is steeped no only by the Telugu culture but also the Tamil culture and symbolism matters, not only in India or Sri Lanka but across the world, especially in holy places.