Tirupati Venkateswara Temple, Kanyakumari

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For the traveller in the post-Covid days, getting caught in the surging, suffocating crowds at Kanyakumari is a virtual certainty any day of the week. Once a peaceful holiday destination, today's Kanyakumari smothers the traveller with milling crowds on the edge of a stampede. But despair not if you yearn for a peaceful getaway. The newly opened Tirupati Venkateswara Temple at Kanyakumari offers a haven of peace and spirituality, and that too just a stone's throw from the jostling crowds of the popular tourist destination. The temple is hardly 2 km plus from the Kanyakumari Railway Station and is adjacent to the sprawling  Vivekananda Kendra campus on the beach. In fact, the temple stands on 5.5 acres of land graciously donated by the Vivekananda Kendra.

As most of us know, Tirupati Venkateswara Temple, more popularly known as the Tirupati Balaji Temple,  is a historical temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu located on the Tirumala Hills in the Chittoor District in Andhara Pradesh. The temple, known among devotees as "Bhuloka Vaikuntam", on an average day gets a footfall of nearly a lakh, which could zoom to 5 lakh or more on special occasions. Having a darshan of Lord Balaji is not an easy thing, to say the least. All that has changed now.

Sometime back, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) had embarked on an ambitious and novel plan to build replicas of the Tirupati Balaji shrine all over India in order to facilitate the pilgrims, who, for one reason or another, are unable to travel all the way to the Tirumala Hill shrine. Already Bengaluru and Chennai boast of Balaji shrines, while the newest was consecrated at Kanyakumari Triveni Sangam in January, 2019. (Two more Balaji shrines are coming up in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar.) Conceived in 2010, construction of the temple was begun in 2013; an expenditure of 22.5 crore rupees and six years' labours saw the magnificent temple rise on the seaside campus in Kanyakumari.

A unique feature here is that all the rituals, poojas and observances at the Tirumala shrine are assiduously followed in sync at every replica temple too, and this surely adds to the spiritual experience of the pilgrim. An amazing aspect of the design and alignment of the temple is such that on the day of Vishu (in April), the morning sun's rays will fall directly at the feet of Lord Venkateswara in the Sanctum.

A huge flight of steps leads to the temple on the first floor of the grand building. The main Sanctum is dedicated to Lord Balaji, while the two smaller sanctums, set back a little, are for Devi Padmavathi and Devi Andal. The Balaji idol is 7 feet tall, while those of the sub-deities are 3.5 feet tall. The temple facing the holy confluence of the three seas at Kanyakumari offers unmatched views from its courtyard of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, the imposing Thiruvalluvar statue, the land's end, and the beachside town. If you are a devotee visiting the temple for darshan of the Lord either in the morning or in the evening, the chance to watch the beautiful sunrise or sunset in peace is an added bonus.

The ground floor of the edifice houses a huge Annadana Mandapam that easily seats 1,500, the Srinivasa Kalyana Mandapam that can accommodate a thousand or more, a Dhyana Mandapam and utility areas. Right next to the temple is a large parking area for visitors' vehicles. A beautiful garden adorns the front of the temple.

Thanks to the vision and enterprise of TTD, Kanyakumari will never be the same again. Alongwith the Vivekananda Kendra (with its variety of facilities on offer to the pilgrim) and the rightly famous Vivekananda Rock Memorial, the Tirupati Venkateswara Temple entices the serious traveller to start on the road to Kanyakumari for a fulfilling holiday break. A visit to the majestic temple will certainly be a calming and spiritual experience for the traveller and the pilgrim alike, as it will be a unique opportunity to have darshan of Lord Balaji without the travails of an arduous trip all the way to the Tirupati hills--the Lord has chosen to grant the pilgrim darshan on the sands of Kanyakumari, made holy by the Triveni Sangam.
























































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