On Maha Navami, the ninth day of Navaratri, a special Chandika homa was perfomed by Brahamacharinis, women monastics of the Ashram. On Amma's 65th Birthday, the traditional early morning Vedic ritual for auspiciousness, Sri Ganapati Homa, was performed by both men and women pujaris.
Amma has long championed the rights of women to perform Vedic rituals, with women performing homas in Amma's ashram for decades now. Amma says, "When we put in effort to remove outdated social and religious concepts that suppress women, we will often find support. Until recently, women in India were not allowed to worship in the inner sanctum of temples; nor could they consecrate a temple or perform Vedic rituals. Women didn’t even have the freedom to chant Vedic mantras. But our ashram is encouraging and appointing women to do these things, and I myself perform the consecration ceremony in all the temples we construct. In the beginning, many protested against this. To those who questioned us, I explained that we are worshiping a God who is beyond all differences, who does not differentiate between male and female. In the end, the majority of people supported us. In fact, those prohibitions against women were never actually a part of the Hindu tradition. They were in all likelihood invented later by men in order to exploit and oppress women."