Sri K S Jawahar Reddy, EO

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam

Tirupati, Chittoor District, AP

September 8, 2021

Dear Sri Reddy Garu:

            Om Sri Venkatesaya

TTD is the most sacred place on the planet earth for all Hindus. Thousands and thousands of Hindus throng Tirumala, wait for hours and days in some cases to have few seconds of darshan. Their devotion and faith in Sri Venkateswara is extraordinary and astonishing. They follow the guidelines, keep Tirumala clean, and enjoy the ambiance. However certain observations are made by many of the devotees to Executive Officers, Trust Board Chairmen, and Chief Ministers over the years with the hope TTD will be open to suggestions to improve the ambiance, create a spiritual atmosphere, maintain sacredness, and experience the divine.

1) TTD Employees should be educated in the richness of TTD and Hindu Dharma.

Every employee should be equipped with a certain level of knowledge in the richness of the depth and width of knowledge in the history of TTD but should also be equipped the adequate knowledge about Hinduism. Certification must be required to ensure that they have enough working knowledge about Hindu Dharma. Thus, they will appreciate the Temple customs, traditions, agama Sashtras, different scripture, methods of worship, and richness of Vedic mantras. One to two weeks seminar to these employees must be made mandatory to appreciate the science and the meaning behind Hindu customs and traditions. They should be equipped with Temple rituals, temple structures, the science behind the construction of these Temples, Sthala Puranas of some of these Temples, and miracles of devotees’ experiences.

Every day before TTD employees start their regular job, they should assemble in one place to recite Govind Namalu, do a few minutes meditation, thank Balaji for giving them the opportunity to serve, declare their pride to be born a Hindu, and take oath as a reminder that they are here to serve the needs of the devotees and maintain the sacredness of TTD.

TTD should make sure that every employee is adhered to dress code, would apply tilak/kumkum on his/her forehead, take theertham, take prasadam and do Pradakshana around Balaji image/Murthy.

Let us remember one thing. Every organization has certain rules and regulations developed for employees to follow. It is the utmost responsibility of the TTD administration to ensure the sacredness of the holiest place on earth for Hindus. It is Hindu devotees that donate money, jewelry, lands, and other assets.

Government is only the custodian, not the agency to tamper with Temple customs and decisions, indiscriminately transfer donors’ money to the government treasury, and employ Christians either knowingly or unknowingly.

OUR REQUEST

We request TTD to conduct Seminars for all the employees about the richness of Hindu dharma, the sacredness of Hindu Temples, the science behind the Hindu Temples, the meaning of every custom and tradition followed in the Temples, sacredness of Lord Venkateswara, miracles experienced by the devotees, and need of the hour to keep TTD as the most sacred place on earth for Hindus. Not only the newly employed be certified about their knowledge, but the existing employees should also go through these kinds of refresher seminars to infuse them with more knowledge and make them being proud of being employees of TTD.

2) Christian Employees in TTD

We would like to bring to your attention about burning issue related to Christian employees working at TTD. On behalf of the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation, I had written many letters about various issues hoping to improve the ambiance and keep the TTD the most sacred and sere place for the devotees.

On December 24, 2019, I had written a letter to Sri Ashok Shingal, met personally for one hour explaining our concerns, and discussed possible solutions to make sure TTD would remain a Hindu place of worship with only Hindus as employees. In that letter, I mentioned that as many as 15 percent of TTD employees are Christians. He never denied the presence or percentage of Christians working at TTD.

As you know that the then Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh, Sri L V Subramanyam announced that the non-Hindus should not be working in Hindu Temples. It was even echoed by Chief Minister Sri Y Jagan Mohan Reddy. He requested the Endowment Commissioner to visit the employees' houses unannounced to find out if they are practicing Hindus. A few days later during his visit to the Tirumala temple in August 2019, he said that surprise checks would also be conducted at the houses of the employees to ensure that they are not practicing non-Hindu religions. He further stated that many employees have converted to other religions. Though the government cannot stop them from converting, they cannot continue in their jobs at TTD, he said.

Sri Shingalji said that he would investigate and identify the Christians and take appropriate action. Nothing has happened so far.

OUR REQUEST: We request you to investigate and find out how many Christians are working in TTD, other supported Temples, hospitals, educational institutions that are fully funded by TTD. If it must be, TTD officials should visit the homes of some of the suspected employees to determine their religion.

We suggest that the TTD employee should be accompanied by one of the Hindu retired High Court judge to ensure that visiting TTD official is not influenced or intimidated. This restores the credibility of the TTD administration be open-minded, serious, and unbiased; and also ensures the confidentiality of the devotees. Also, it shows to the Hindu community about your purity of intention to maintain the sacredness of the Hindu Temple and would not make it a sacrilegious place.

3) Christian Nurses in BIRRD Hospital

GHHF also mentioned at that time that some of the Hindus working in BIRRD hospital was experiencing insults, ridicules, and abuse by the Christian employees in the hospital.

Some of the comments of Christian nurses:

Why do you worship that Shila / stone without even mentioning the name of Lord Sri

Venkateswara?

Many Christian employees call the Hindus fools to worship that idol without mentioning

Lord Venkateswara name.

They refer Sri Venkateswara as Saitan.

They ridicule them for putting big Tilak on their forehead.

One of the supervising nurses insults them constantly.

Some of the Christian nurses make Hindu nurses sick mentally and physically.

When I mentioned how the Christian nurses are insulting and how to identify them to be Christians, Sri Shingalji himself mentioned that will require all the BIRRD hospital employees to attend Special Puja performed every Saturday where somebody will be assigned to put Tilak on the foreheads of all the employees, give prasadam to be eaten there itself, chant Sri Venkateshwara's name, offer Theertham to drink in front of all the attending employees, do prostrations to Lord's image, and observe doing pradakshina. This way we can observe their behavior, figure out the possible Christians and take appropriate action. No action is taken.

OUR REQUEST

Please implement what was discussed and adopt a strategy to identify the Christians and remove them from being employed.

4) Submitted the names of Christian employees at BIRRD Hospital to take action.

On January 10, 2020, GHHF submitted the names of the Christian employees working at BIRRD hospital to Sri Shingalji to see that they are removed from their positions. No action has been taken to investigate the authenticity of their faith and did not take any action to terminate their employment.

OUR REQUEST

Investigate the faith of the Christians, the names of which we provided to your office and terminate them immediately if they are practicing Christianity.

In conclusion, the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation would like to bring to your attention about the need to have all the TTD employees to be equipped with a certain level of knowledge about TTD and Hindu Dharma, enforce dress code, identify and terminate Christian employees, and require them to take an oath as being a bhakta of Lord Venkateswara and require them to take full responsibility to keep TTD the most sacred place for all Hindus across the globe.

GHHF would appreciate your response with your plan of action and the time frame to implement these suggestions.

            Om Sri Venkatesaya

Dhanyavad

Prakasarao V Velagapudi, PhD

President GHHF                                                                     Copies to: Chairman TTD                                                   

Chief Minister

Endowment Minister

Endowment Commissioner