Today urban India dwells on malls for their needs and entertainment. They are great places to hang out and have some fun. Diwali season probably sees the maximum visitors to shopping malls in India, with Express Avenue Mall at Chennai being no exception.

Apart from the exciting festive offers, attractive gifts and crowded food courts, Express Avenue had more to offer this November. Owners of the mall in association with ISKCON Chennai delighted their guests by giving them a glimpse into the spiritual world.

In the central atrium, the very heart of the mall, a diorama of Little Damodar and Mother Yashoda seated on a altar decorated with colorful flowers and leaves came as a pleasant surprise to many.

Devotee volunteers from ISKCON invited the public to offer what they called ‘lamps of love’ to Krishna. Most of the visitors came forward to participate in the festivity with a lot of enthusiasm. “I am living away from home, and Diwali is not so grand when we are away. But offering this lamp here to, it has surely made it a wonderful Diwali for me” said Ankita Agarwal, 2nd year student at MCC.

Many visitors were attracted to the melodious kirtan, that played softly.  They were happy with ISKCON for organizing the event and felt that it reminded them of the very soul of the Diwali festival, the supreme Lord.

Amarendra Gaur Das who was in charge of the event remarked that it he was very satisfied with the way the program turned out. He was overjoyed when the entire mall was reverberating with the Holy Names. “The idea behind conducting Damodar arati in a mall is that we wanted to reach out to many, more so to find all the youngsters”, said Sukirthi Madhavi, one of the organizers.

An astounding 3500 lamps were offered just within two days. The highlight of the program was a live kirtan show by the devotees, which surely created a lasting impact on the visitors.

 “The motivation behind conducting such programs is Jayapataka Swami. He encourages us to be as innovative as possible and inspires us to be very active during the month of Karthk”, added Sukirthi Madhavi.