Chilkur Balaji Temple, Hyderabad

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.