| Chilkur Balaji Temple | |
| Map Type: | India Hyderabad |
| Coordinates: | 17.3583°N 78.2986°W |
| Country: | India |
| State: | Telangana |
| Location: | Chilkur Village, Gandipet, Ranga Reddy District, Telangana |
| Deity: | Lord Venkateswara |
| Year Completed: | 14th century |
| Website: | chilkurbalaji.com |
Chilkur Balaji Temple, popularly known as "Visa Balaji Temple'', is an ancient Hindu temple of Lord Balaji on the banks of Osman Sagar in Rangareddy District in Telangana. It is one of the oldest temples in the Hyderabad Dist earlier now in Rangareddy Dist, built during the time of Madanna and Akkanna, the uncles of Bhakta Ramadas.[1]
C.S. Rangarajan[2] is the current head priest of the Chilkur Balaji Devasthanam. This temple has no hundi and neither accepts any money from devotees.[3] VAK Books also known as the Voice of Temples with religious news is available here. This is one of the special Temples in India with no green channel or privileges for VIP's.[4] The only other such temples are the Jalaram temple in Virpur (Rajkot), Gujarat and "Ramanuj Kot", a temple in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. This temple fought and won the right to stay out of government control.
During a visit the devotee goes through the usual rituals of prayer, including 11 circumambulations of the inner shrine, and makes a vow. Once the wish is fulfilled devotees then walk 108 times around the sanctum sanctorum. The majority of wishes by devotees are visa related, thus Chilkur Balaji is also referred to as 'Visa' Balaji.[5] The 11 circumambulations represent the secret of creation – 11 means "1 soul and 1 body" – uniting both with devotion and full determination to fulfill wish, dedicate on the lord; there is no second, everything is god. In the 108 circumambulations, 1 represents the Existence, Almighty, God (Paramathma, Balaji in the minds of the devotee), 0 represents Creation (Illusionary World, Jagath) and 8 represents the time Human Body takes to come to this universe-8 months (Jivatma).
Temple TimingsThe temple typically opens at 4:00 am on most days and closes at 8:00 pm.
Darshan is available from 6:00 am to 1:00 pm and then from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm.
108 circumambulations(Pradakshinas) are conducted daily from 6:00 am to 12:30 pm and from 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm.