A trip to Mantralayam

I don’t want to delay this anymore. A lot of people seem to be under impression that its difficult to go to places like Tirupati and Mantralaya. They will have reservations about the travel options or the accommodation. In this blog, I will discuss my experience of going to mantralaya on 31st dec of 2011. I will also write a similar blog on Tirupati also shortly.To start with – the travel options. There are a plenty of buses from Bangalore to mantralaya run by KSRTC!! Yes KSRTC and not APSRTC even though Mantralaya is in AP. The reason being, over 80% of people there are kannadigas and also more than 90% of pilgrims who visit there are from kar (yeah this may evoke the first question, y den it is attached to AP. Honestly, I don’t know the answer. For that matter, more than 60% of infrastructure in and around Mantralaya is built by kar govt only!!!! ). The journey is more or less 8 hours (approx 430km). Roads are far better now than what they used to be earlier – given that 55 to 60% of the distance is covered by NH running from Bangalore to Hyderabad ( which is being converted to 4 lane now). Though you can get tickets online easily, its better if you book it well in advance during peak seasons like New year day, aradhana, special Thursdays etc. Apart from bus, there are Trains to mantralaya. The drawback here is that the railway station is some 15 km away. But not to worry, there is shared auto – plenty of them. They charge 25 bucks per head and 150 rs if u r not willing to share with others. If you ask me, I prefer train. I booked ticket in Udyan express which left Bangalore at 8.10 pm and was supposed to reach Mantralaya at 4.30 am, but reached at 5.30 am. (beware, if u oversleep then you will reach Mumbai!!). The moment we came out of railway station, a huge number of autowallahs jumped upon us, almost pulling us to their auto. We reached mantralaya at about 6 am.Next – accommodation. This could be a challenge at peak time. Mainly because there is no reservation in the lodges managed by the Mutt. But don’t be worried. There are more than 6 to 7 lodges now which are built and managed by Mutt (including AC ones). Though there is no advance reservation (except for the donors), almost 85% chances are there to get a room in any of these lodges even on peak days. But there are a few things to be noted here - 1. Though there is one central reception office, not all the 7-8 lodges are managed by it. So if you see “rooms full” board there (in CRO), please don’t think its end of road. 2. How to locate and check in other 7 or 8 lodges whether any rooms are available there? Agreed that this could sound challenging, but not in Mantralaya. The lodge staffs are extremely helpful and polite. If you don’t get room in one lodge, ask them where else you can find. They would let you know. If you want to know the directions, ask the security guard at temple gate or any guy who is in the Mutt’s uniform and badge (Yes, Mutt has recently started giving its employees the badge and uniform, to keep the touts and other middlemen at bay)3. Is it difficult to run from one lodge to another? Before I answer this, I want to make it clear that there are very less chances that this may happen. As I said before, 85% of the times you will get room at first lodge itself. But if your luck falls in that 15% category then also, its not difficult for you to go from one lodge to another, considering the fact that the whole place is not even bigger than two Chinnaswamy stadia put together. If there are elderly people who cannot walk easily then, make them sit in waiting room of any one of the lodge while you go on search.4. This whole task of finding vacant room may sound it bit straining? Don’t worry, for those who are willing to spend generously, our country has no dearth of facilities. There are numerous pvt lodges – A/c and non A/c. You needn’t even go to them. They come to you the moment they see you carrying luggage and going into mutt’s lodge office. But during peak days, there is no limit for their attitudes and prices they demand for the rooms.So after you freshen up in room, its time for Breakfast and Darshan. For breakfast, there is MTR in mantralaya!! No, its not namma MTR of bengaluru. It’s Mantralaya tiffin room, which is as old as namma MTR itself (I guess). Though there will be huge crowd there(come on, its MTR after all ), I prefer to go to that hotel only, because of nostalgia (I’ve been going to that hotel ever since I was a kid. As per my dad(and also my faint memory), I used to nag him too much to buy me 3 vadas for bf. I was so particular about 3 vadas that if I don’t see exactly 3 vadas in my plate, I used to create huge ruckus it seems! Aanu, makka teeni vottambado, aanu makka teeni vottambado was my chant it seems.). But there is one catch here. If you love the meals/lunch at temples like me then, I suggest you to keep your bf as lite as possible – just a single idli or upma. The reason being, the lunch at temple starte as early as 10 am. And the moment you are done with the darshan, you can go for lunch. So these days, I’ve stopped having normal kinda bf before going for darshan in mantralaya.Coming to the Darshan part. This is the most simplest part of all. There may be serpentine q outside. But it doesnt take more than an hour max, on peak days. Other days, you will get darshan within 15mins. No pushing and shoving, no hurry burry, just pray your mind out. There is a temple outside the mutt called manchalamma temple. People say that its good if we pray in this temple before we go to mutt (which most of the times i am not able to do since the q in this temple is too longer on peak days and also slow moving. Owing to my super lite bf, I always look forward to have the lunch at the earliest once I get the Darshan of Guru Raghavendra.) On peak days, dont forget to book the return tickets. The same number of ksrtc buses and trains are available for return journey. If you dont manage to get a ticket in direct ksrtc bus then, there is another option available, which i myself experimented for the first time on my latest trip. 24Km from Mantralaya there is a town called Yemmiganur which is Taluq HQ. From this town, there are quite a few APSRTC buses going directly to Bangalore. From Mantralaya there are lot of apsrtc buses to yemmiganur - almost one in 15mins. So, you can book the ticket to bangalore from yemmiganur and reach there by bus from mantralaya atleast an hour before the scheduled departure of bus to bangalore. Its also worthwhile to mention here that APSRTC expresss buses (counterpart of karnataka sarige buses of ksrtc) are much much more comfortable than the karnataka sarige buses, with ample boot space, and less bumpy ride. So dont hesitate to book the ticket in APSRTC express bus. On non peak days, you need not book return tickets ( in bus) as almost all the buses would be running half empty. But I suggest you to look at the time table of the buses well in advance so that you can decide which one fits in your time-comfort. But the advantage of booking return ticket (in night bus, or train) is that, you can have a good nap in room after the morning darshan and lunch and can again go for a 2nd round of darshan in the evening. The mutt opens at 4 pm in the evening. IF you happen to be there at exactly 4pm, the q at manchalamma temple will also be too short and you can visit this temple before going to mutt, thereby adhering to the traditions. Also, no matter which bus or train you have booked return tickets, i advise you to either eat or take parcel from MTR. Because most of the buses will stop inside AP itself for dinner and if you are not from AP, you may not like the hotel/restaur (no intentions to hurt AP guys here, just wanted to share my opinion).If you have 2 days to spare and want to get away from the madening crowd and traffic, and take blessings from HH Raghavendra swamiji, dont think twice. Just take a printout of my blog and chalk out your plans accordingly. Anyone who wish to have more details can always email me. For the benefit of googlers to land in this page(while searching mantralaya details) I am trying for the first time, the “Tags”feature provided here. Wish you all a very happy new year. And happy journey for those who are planning to travel to Mantralayam.