The Tirumala Tirupati Devsthanams (TTD) is allowing 6,000 devotees for darshan at the Lord Venkateswara temple a day, its Executive Officer Anil Kumar Singhal has said.
Online tokens
“Around 3,000 tokens are being issued online, apart from the Sarvadarshan toklens which are available offline. All the darshan tickets were booked till June 30 on a single day,” Mr. Singhal told the media after taking part in the ‘Dial Your EO’ programme which was resumed after a gap of four months on Sunday.
He pointed out that the devotees with valid tickets would be screened at Alipiri, hinting at the possibility of raising the number of darshan tickets in a phased manner. “Children below 10 years of age and senior citizens above 65 years will not be allowed for darshan, as per the guidelines of the Central government,” said Mr. Singhal.
He said ‘Veda Parayanam’, ‘Dhanwantari Maha Mantra Parayanam’ and other rituals were being conducted at Tirumala for the well-being of people amod the COVID-19 pandemic.
The TTD EO responded to queries of 14 people in the phone-in programme. Devotees lauded the TTD’s intiative of chanting Vedic hymns at the Nada Neerajana Mandapam and suggested that the programme should continue.
Rituals go live
Many callers wanted the TTD to perform homam to ward off the ‘evil effects of the coronavirus’. “The TTD has been organising Dhanwantari Homam, Yoga Vasishtyam, Japa Yagnam since March. We have launched Sundarakanda Pathanam. We are telecasting the rituals live on the Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel (SVBC),” said the TTD EO.
