အိန္ဒိယက ဗီဇာ ဆုတောင်းပြည့်ဘုရား (သို့မဟုတ်) အမေရိကန်ဗီဇာရလိုသော အိန္ဒိယနိုင်ငံသားများ နေ့စဉ် ထောင်ချီ လာရောက်ဆုတောင်းကြသော ဟိုက်ဒရာဘက်မြို့ဘုရား

Thousands-pilgrims-perform-rituals-daily-Visa-temple-said-grant-entry-U-S.html

Every day thousands of Indians flock to a Hindu temple seeking to get one wish granted - a U.S visa.

The Chilkur Balaji temple near Hyderabad in southern India has now become known as the 'visa temple' after many devotees have had visa success, following a pilgrimage there.

Worshipers who make it to the temple typically perform a wish-making ceremony, which includes 11 laps around the inner temple, reports CNN.

(Make a wish! Thousand of Hindus flock to the Chilkur Balaji in southern India seeking to get their visa applications approved)

(Tough on immigration? The devotees pray to Lord Balaji, popularly known as the 'Visa God' after many testimonials have shown its success at helping grant entry to overseas countries)

(An old devotee has made a note of the number of laps she has made around the temple)

(The devotees must make 11 circumambulations of the inner shrine while saying a prayer)

They sometimes proffer their passports or make offerings such as fresh coconuts.

But unlike in many places of worship there is no option for payments or donations and no cash boxes are kept on the premises.

If their wish is granted, they then must return to the temple and make a further 108 'pradakshina' (or circumambulations).

The shrine is known to grand a myriad of wishes - children, success, health, happiness but in recent years it has become most prominent for helping Indians seeking overseas visas.

There are lots of testimonials of its success.

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. The majority of wishes by devotees are visa related, thus Chilkur Balaji is also referred to as 'Visa' Balaji.

The 11 circumambulations represent the secret of creation — 11 means 'one soul and one 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, one represents 'Existence, almighty god) Balaji in the minds of the devotee), 0 represents creation and eight represents the human body.

(The temple is popularly called the "visa temple" as devotees wishing to travel abroad pray at the temple with the hopes of getting their visa applications approved)

(The temple draws some one hundred thousand visitors a week, many of them praying for visa approvals to travel to the US and other western countries)

One pilgrim, Manjunath Singh told CNN: 'It works– my own sister is in Belgium, in Brussels right now, so yes, it does work.'

While one priest confirmed: 'Our lord is answering the prayers.'

The temple gained its reputation several decades ago among students wishing to travel to the United States who claimed that it increased their chances in visa lotteries.

(Literature handed out at the temple describes how one young man had tried three times to get a visa without success, but after visiting the temple he got one without any issues)

(Chief priest C.S. Gopa Krishna, left, offers prayers as Hindu devotees cirumambulate the Chilkur Balaji temple)

Chilkur Balaji temple was built around 500 years ago as a shrine to Lord Balaji, a form of Hindu god Vishnu.

Emirates 247 reported that around 75,000 to 100,000 devotees visit the temple every week and many have traveled long distances to get there.

One regular devotee told the site: 'People believe that the 'Visa God' will help them get overseas jobs for candidates who have already applied or student visas for those seeking to study abroad.'

One success story is Srikant Padala, who posted their testimonial on the temple's website. 'I visited Chilkur Balaji several times after reading about the place in newspapers.

Then I sought a US visa and was successful and travelled to the US. Now, every time I go to India, I definitely visit 'Telangana Tirupathi'.

Ref: The Indian temple which 'grants U.S. visas': Thousands flock to shrine in the belief it brings luck when applying to the embassy - so long as you leave an offering of coconut (dailymail)