In one of my regular visits to Hyderabad, I made it a point
to visit Chilkur Balaji temple as many speaks about it and also there exists a
belief that those who can’t make it to Tirupati – Thirumala Venkateshwara
Temple can visit to this temple and get blessings of lord Venkateshwara. The
temple is also popular as VISA Balaji temple as many devotees after visiting
this temple have got VISA to their dream destinations!
Main entrance of the temple
The temple situated at Chilkur can be reached easily through
public transport as many buses operate from Mehdipatnam to Chilkur. Temple is
at a few minutes walking distance from Chilkur bus stand. May be with the
modernization and lot of people visiting here, many shops and vendors are seen
surrounding temple luring you to keep your foot wear if you purchase coconut
and flowers from them and many even come near bus stop to make a business deal!
side entrance through which the devotees are allowed inside
Once you enter the temple from the side entrance(as the main
gate in front of shrine is closed) you will find the counters to deposit mobile
phones and camera as they are not allowed inside temple premises. Bags, mobile
phones and camera are not allowed inside the temple and can be kept at deposit
counters at a charge of Rs. 5, but the process is not well maintained as the
same counter is used for depositing and taking back the things.
inside the temple premises, Queue to wait if the visitors are more and deposit counter on left side
There is no special VIP entry or special darshan so everyone
should to go through the same way and without much wasting time one can reach
near to shrine. The sanctum is having Lord Balaji along with Sridevi and
Bhoodevi. One can’t make out the actual shape of idol as it will be covered
with many layers of flowers. Devotees will be making pradakshina or avartana or
going round around the sanctum praying lord to fulfill their wishes. There is a
belief that all wishes will come true if anyone does pradakshina at this temple
as offerings in the form of money is not allowed.
Those who have wishes to come true have to pray Lord Balaji
and do eleven pradakshinas around the shrine. Once the devotee’s wishes come
true they have to visit this temple again and do 108 pradakshinas around the
temple. Also, there is a board that one should not close their eyes while
seeing the lord idol. The cards having numbers from 1 to 108 numbers will be
available at the temple premises free of cost, one can make use of these cards
to keep count of pradakshinas made. (Even the card having numbers from 1 to 108
will be printed and distributed freely by the devotees as few think that it
will bring good luck!)
card used to keep count of 108 pradakshinas freely available in the temple premises
Once the pradakshinas are made one can go out by the side
exit, next to that there is a Shiva temple under the Banyan tree. Many devotees
suggest that one should visit Shiva after visiting Balaji temple to get their
wishes come true. I could see devotees of all age groups here.
The exit path is congested with full of shops one need to
pass through. It would have been much better if the temple management takes care about the cleanliness of temple surroundings. On the way back to Mehdipatnam one can visit Mrugavani
National Park.
