Kalyanotsavam of Lord Venkateshwara to be held at BHU on February 23

VARANASI: Devotees from Varanasi will get a chance to offer prayers to Lord Venkateshwar of Tirupati Balaji in the city. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), Tirupati will be organising a special Kalyanotsavam of Lord Venkateshwara for the first time in eastern Uttar Pradesh at Vishwanath temple, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) on February 23.
Giving this information to reporters on Thursday, joint executive officer, TTD, Venkat Ram Reddy informed that the two hour religious event will be organised to give an opportunity to the devotees to offer prayers to the deity and spread Sanatan Dharma and spiritual values across the world.Various vedic rituals, yajnas, and prayers will be organised on the occasion. Prior to this, the event was also organised at Maha Kumbh in Allahabad recently. The Kalyanotsavam is held every day at Tirupati Balaji temple. According to him, the event can be attended by any one. Around 25 people from Tirupati, 100 vedic scholars, and 1000 scholars from different gurukuls of Varanasi will be present on the occasion. The event will also help merge and exchange the north Indian and south Indian vedic studies and scholars, he informed further.
According to public relation officer, TTD, there are no upcoming projects of the temple trust to build a temple in Varanasi, however, he informed that in similar religious ritual held in Allahabad recently, a devotee donated 10 acres of land for building a replica of Tirupati Balaji temple in Sangam city. He informed that around 80 thousand to one lakh people offer prayers at Tirupati Balaji every day. A donation of Rs one crores comes every day apart from gold and silver offerings. The amount reaches more than Rs five crores in peak seasons like on New Year and festive occasions. Free meals are provided to around 70,000 pilgrims everyday. T Ravi also informed that the temple has 150 years old vedic pathashala. The pathshala is imparting vedic education to people in the age bracket of 10 to 25 years.