This post tries to explain ‘Vedic Time Management’ and its role in modern time management and time administration.
In Tirumala Sanctum Sanctorum within the given twenty-four hours the noble administration and agama sastras have permitted approx. only twenty-three hours and thirty-six minutes for Sri Venkateswara Swamy’s “Kainkaryas”, “Sevas” and “Darshanas.”
It’s evident from the various displays that at 2.30 a.m. the “Suprabhatha Seva” and “Darshana” start and end with “Ekantha Seva” at 1.30 a.m. and probably end at a little before 2 a.m. Then the process of closing all the “Dwarams” (doors), that is from Pradana Dwaram (First Door) at Kula Sekhara Padi to Maha Dwaram (Front Door near Raja Gopuram) near the first gopuram will start.
This closing process is coupled with some procedures. So, this entire process will be closed at almost 2.06 a.m. Again, after extending the twenty-four (24) minutes gap, as usual at 2.30 a.m. “Suprabhatha” Seva starts.
In the temple, it’s evident that almost seventy-five thousand devotees per day (on average) take the darshan of Lord Venkateswara. With the available size of entry at gopurams and sanctum sanctorum the facilitation or arrangements to make seventy-five thousand devotees to see (darshan) Lord Venkateswara Swamy is a mammoth task for the ‘administration’ of this temple. Above all, performing many ‘Sevas’ is a major task for the TTD administrators.
These top-priority processes are to be supported with associated activities like:
- “Bali and Naivedya Sevas” (Preparation of Naivedyam, not Prasadam, in the temple kitchen (potu) available inside the temple exclusively allocated to the Lord and guarded by Paka Lakshmi)
- “Prasada seva” (Divine Food prepared for devotees)
- “Anna Prasada Seva” (regular food preparation for devotees)
- Mandatory Poojas and Aachaarams (Rituals) to be performed in the associated temples like Varaha Swamy, Bedi Anjaneya Swamy etc.,
- “Vahana Seva” and maintenance of ‘Vahanas’
- Collection of flowers, preparing these as gigantic garlands to be suitable to ‘Moola vigraha’ (main deity).
- Vastra Seva (includes securing clothes to storing and decorating), to name a few with coordinated multi-tasking within the given twenty-four hours requires high precision time management skills and techniques.
Vedic Time Management Technique
Vedic Time Management technique (the Traditional Vedic Panchangam) divides all twenty-four hours into twenty-four minute segments. These segments total to sixty which are into two major halves. Each half consists of thirty “twenty-four minutes” slots together per day which comes to sixty. The same is followed in Bhargava Panchangam.
In Bhargava Sidhantha Panchangam again every weekday, the same sub-time sectors (24 minutes Sectors) are indicated with the probable outcome of deciding what type of work to take up in every given time slot to manage time.
The Westerners follow Pomodoro Executive Time Management technique to improve work efficiency. This technique is somewhat relevant to the Vedic Time Management technique. In this technique, people work for twenty-five minutes and spend five minutes to write feedback or review the tasks or amount of work completed.
So, in this Pomodoro Time Management, the entire day will be subdivided into forty-eight mini segments to review or plan the activities to be completed. There is no hard and fast rule that we have to have five (5) minutes break after 25 25-minute work schedule. It could be more than that after 4 to 5 consecutive slots.
It’s all about Time Management in various Aspects
The regular Executive Time Management point of view, other than Vedic Time Management, this technique is used in Tirumala in various aspects like
- Ticket Allotment,
- Queue Management,
- Rooms allotment,
- Transport for devotees and employees,
- arrangement of ‘vahanas’ to the Lord,
- Drinking Water supply to pilgrims,
- water supply to Rooms and Public toilets,
- Sanitization and scavenging,
- Tollgate management,
- Luggage Management,
- Security Management,
- Vigilance Management,
- Garden Management,
- Dairy Management,
- Publications Management (even to bring this article to subscribers),
- Employees’ Salaries, and Benefits management,
- accommodation,
- Sale counters,
- Priest allotment, and
- services management
are just a few more activities depending on the Time Management techniques.
Daily Darshan
The best example always to quote is, on average seventy-five thousand (75,000) pilgrims will have the darshan of Lord Venkateswara on a day. Let us allocate only One Second of time to each devotee to have the ‘darshan’ of Swamy Moola Moorthy.
Then it’s approximately one thousand two hundred and fifty (1250) minutes or twenty-one (21) hours a day to be allocated to all the expected devotees in a day. Now it’s easy for any reader of this article to understand the importance of Time Management, Scheduling, and Alignment of time to coordinate so many aforesaid activities with these twenty-one (21) hours’ times scheduled for “Normal Darshan or Sarva Darshan.”
For example, accommodating Time to ‘Naivedyam’ (offering divine energy to the Lord) thrice a day in Ekantham (only by priests without any devotees), Special ‘sevas’ as given on the Tirumala website, unexpected Security visitors, Special Seva Donors or Devotees with Public Representation and all the list of services mentioned above are few more to be accommodated in the left out two hours and thirty-six minutes left out in a day.
No institution, no organization, and no company could handle such a big and complicated task on this earth with high levels of precision and accuracy blending the time and process by using the Vedic and Executive time management techniques except the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams.
