WE TRIED P.A.T.H.

Wednesday, April 15th 2026

Downtown Toronto

It is definitely spring and where it is winter in Toronto with snow, it is now transformed to the rainy season. Uddhav, Sarthak, and Vishesh and myself were craving to go on a walk-and-chant exercise. Where to go without getting wet?

It dawned on one of us “why don’t we hit the world’s largest underground shopping mall?” Apparently the city of Toronto has the largest one with a length of a 30km underground road network. Breadth is a series of malls stitched together across the downtown. The retail space is accommodated in approximately 4 million square feet.

It sounded like a challenge of fun. 

From our midtown location at the temple, our residence, we were driven to the popular Eaton’s Shopping Mall in the downtown. From there, we started our journey a-foot and were destined to the waterfront of Lake Ontario. We tried to stick to a straight line but that was impossible. There are a number of turns and twists as you follow what’s called the PATH which has no acronym. There are spacious areas as well as narrow ones. The place is quite active and the air down under stays rather fresh. The four of us chanted on our beads at times.

For myself, being in a monk’s attire, it calls for getting attention and giving attention. Some people greet with a pranam (folded palms). Others actually say, “Hare Krishna!”

We actually enjoyed the clean and in some places “posh” sections. We did not cover the whole PATH but an hour’s length. The pleasure we derived from it was a bit like listening to the piece “Uptown Funk!” We got a little tired at the end, but we stayed dry.

MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU

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