Tirumala: On Vaikunta Dwadasi, a day after the auspicious Vaikunta Ekadasi, the holy hill shrine of Tirumala continued to witness heavy influx of devotees.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims eagerly waited in serpentine queues to not only offer prayers to Lord Venkateswara but also to walk through the Vaikunta Dwaram which is opened for devotees for just two days a year, on Ekadasi and Dwadasi.
With the Vaikunta Dwaralu (doors) set to close as the clock ticked down on the auspicious hours of Dwadasi, devotees who did not want to miss out on the rare opportunity kept arriving even on Sunday.
With tens of thousands turning up at the holy hills for the second consecutive day, the darshan time stretched beyond 20 hours, causing extreme inconvenience to the pilgrims.
It appeared as though all roads leading into the hill shrine led straight to the Vaikuntam Q complex, the entry point into the Tirumala temple. Meanwhile, pressure on accommodation and other services came down considerably.
While it took 20 hours for devotees opting for darshan of the Lord through the Sarva Darshan mode, it took 10 hours for those who trekked up the hills to complete darshan through the Divya Darshan mode. According to TTD, as many as 61,467 devotees had darshan of Lord Balaji on Vaikunta Ekadasi on Saturday.
It was yet again a testing time for the authorities of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams who came under extreme criticism, with several measures taken by the temple administration going haywire despite month-long preparations.
Top brass of the TTD closely monitored the queues and the movement of devotees inside the temple to avoid any kind of inconvenience to the pilgrims that could lead to further embarrassment. The Vaikunta Dwaralu were to shut after midnight on Sunday when the temple would close for Ekanta Seva.
