When Trump leaves their side, visa aspirants trust Chilkur Balaji with miracles

Thanks to the new H1B Visa crisis, this temple in Hyderabad is seeing a huge surplus of devotees. Already known for its supernatural powers in visa matters, Chilkur Balaji- has many more visitors this year. Dedicated to Lord Balaji, this 500-year old temple is considered the one-stop solution for all visa problems.

Located on the outskirts of the Hyderabad city, the temple has now 100,000 visitors every week. Justifying this surge in visitors are the temple authorities who say that this has been the case ever since Donald Trump had been elected. And it has doubled manifold when US President Donald Trump signed an order tightening the H1B visa system.

In this order, Trump has proposed to allow access to only the highly-skilled or highly-paid immigrants from other countries. This has got the others worried and thronging to the temple. Take the case of software engineer Shreekanth Angirekula whose visa had been rejected on multiple occassions for the last 2 years, but the formalities became a cake walk after his visit to the temple. Talking to the New Indian Express newspaper, he said, "It's a miracle. I couldn't get a visa for the last two years but after visiting the temple everything went off smoothly. I am not superstitious but there was definitely divine intervention."

The ritual

Devotees offer their passports and a flower before the deity and circumambulate the inner sanctum 11 times while chanting a mantra. Once the wish is granted, they have to come back and circumambulate the deity 108 times. Chief priest Ranga Rajan said that devotees throng from all over India. He said,"Same passport, same documents, same embassy and same applicant, but their visas were rejected before coming to the Lord. It's all Balaji's blessings."

The powers of the deity is said to have first come to light when a group of engineers visited the temple to pray for visas and their wishes were granted. 
 

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