As many as 162 poor women will be given clothes and foodgrains and offered ‘puja’ on March 8 as part of the ‘Jeevanta Durga Puja’ to be conducted here to mark the second anniversary of Sri Mata Ashram.
President of the ashram Mata Tejomayi and convener Mata Amulyamayi told presspersons here on Friday that the ‘puja’, in which women are worshipped considering them as incarnation of Goddess Durga, was in line with what Swami Vivekananda had advocated. The ‘puja’ will be held at Gokul Garden on Gokul Road at 10 a.m. and it will mark the 162th birth anniversary of Mata Sharada Devi.
Quoting Swami Vivekananda, Mata Tejomayi said that those who were able to see Lord Shiva among poor and weak people and patients were the ones who actually worship God. Those who see God only in idols, their ‘puja’ was just a preliminary stage.
She said that to mark the second anniversary of the ashram, two-day religious and cultural programmes were being held on the ashram premises and Gokul Garden on March 7 and 8.
On the first day, the ‘Pustaka Bhandar’, ‘Arogyadhama’ and the new office building of the ashram at Dollars Colony would be inaugurated by Sri Swami Raghaveshanand Maharaj of Ooty, Swami Muktidanand of Mysuru and Swami Vijayanand Saraswati of Dharwad, she said.
Sri Basavalinga Swami of Rudrakshi Mutt, Hubballi, and the former Minister Basavaraj Horatti would participate in the ‘Durga Puja’ at Gokul Garden. Cultural programmes would be held by Dr. Gangubai Hangal Music Foundation on the ashram premises on the second day evening, she added.
