Mangalore: The Arya Samj, Balmatta faction of ISKCON celebrated their Diwali as Goverdhan Giridhar festival on Thursday, with great enthusiasm in city.
The monks of Krishna Society conducted Go-Puja (worship of cows), Goverdhan Pooja (mountain worship), by decorating and feeding cows and calves. They also distributed sweet offerings on the occasion.
Iskcon made a mountain of vegetarian cake (150 kgs.) as is done in Mathura (birthplace of Lord Krishna) and Vrindavan (where he played pranks with cowherd boys and women), offered it to the deity and distributed to all participants, including N. Yogish Bhat, Ganesh Karnik and Dr. Jeevaraj Sorake among others.
The Karthik month event concluded with an Aarthi (waving of lights) to Damodar (Lord Krishna).
Several temple and institutions organised their ceremonies of cow-worship in city, with Bajrang Dal and VHP members like Jagdish Shenava, Ananth Krishna Bhat, Manohar and Sharon Pumpwell present.