Last week the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) had announced that they will be closing their doors to devotees for six days in August to perform ‘Ashta Bandhana Balalaya Maha Samprokshnam’. A first in the history of the temple , received lot of criticism from Devotees after the announcement making the TTD to reconsider its decision.
TTD officials had announced on Sunday that they will be performing the six-day ‘Ashta Bandhana Balalaya Maha Samprokshanam’ ritual from August 11 to 16 this year. The decision was announced after the officials held an emergency meeting on Saturday, they claimed that because of the ritual, the devotees will not have sufficient time for darshans.
But on Tuesday, reversing their earlier decision, TTD Executive Officer Anil Kumar Singhal, along with Chairman Putta Sudhakar Yadav told the media that CM Chandrababu Naidu has asked them to review the decision, so as to avoid hurting the sentiments of devotees. “As per that direction, TTD will take opinion from devotees. We also have a trustees meeting on July 24, where we will take a decision on how to accommodate the darshans in the little time that is available during the ritual,” Anil Kumar said.
He explained that during the days of the ritual – that is, between August 11 and 16 – the temple can allow darshans for only 30 hours; which means, that they can accommodate around 15,000 devotees per day for the six days – which is less than 1 lakh devotees during this period. The Ashta Bandhana ritual is said to have been performed in 2006 as well but without any restriction on the entry of the devotees; they were allowed for limited hours. TTD is likely to announce the revised darshan schedule for ritual-bound six days on July 24.
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