ABSTRACT
The Bharat Sevashram Sangha — literally ‘the community of service to India’ and referred to here as ‘BSS’ — was founded in 1923 in Bengal by a religious leader named Pranavananda. Early in the history of the BSS, Pranavananda was believed to be a divine manifestation. Pranavananda’s charisma revolves around the Goddess. The BSS’s laity divides itself between ‘devotees’ who often come to the ashram, take prasada and can make donations to BSS and ‘disciples’ who incarnate a higher degree of commitment: they have been initiated by one of the BSS’s renouncers and practise puja regularly to Pranavananda. During his lifetime, Pranavananda denounced the malevolent environment of pilgrimage centres as the reason why Hindus undertook few pilgrimages. Pranavananda’s most popular hagiographies – an illustrated life-sketch — explain how priests in Gaya had dragged and caught his hands and how this made him furious. He is shown punching and throwing one priest, while denouncing the priests’ violence, outrage and oppression.
