Matru Puja at Pune's Ayyappa Temple today

The management of the Khadki-based Ayyappa Temple will organise Matru Puja -worshipping of mothers by their children - at the temple on Saturday. The ceremony is being held as part of the week-long Bhagavad Gita Sapthaha Yagnam.

The president of the temple, M Satish Nair, told DNA that about 150 mothers would assemble at the temple for the ceremony. The event would start at 10am.

The Bhagavad Gita Sapthaha Yagnam, which started on March 13, will conclude on Sunday.

The discourse is being conducted by Swami Sandeepananda Giri, founder and dir ector of Salagramam Public Charitable Trust and School of Bhagavad Gita.

“The event is drawing large number of devotees, who are being served with Annadanam and Mahaprasadam,” Nair said.

Swami Sandeepananda Giri joined Chinmaya Mission in 1994.

For the past 16 years he has been conducting discourses and lectures on the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads all over the country and abroad.

The youngest spiritual leader from Kerala, Giri had held continuous discourse on Bhagavad Gita for 108 days during 2003-2004 in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi. He has also represented Hindu religion at the Parliament of the World’s Religions at Melbourne in 2009.