Bharat Sevashram Sangha is a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

religious and spiritual organisation focused on humanitarian work. It was founded in 1917 by the illustrious patriot saint Acharya Srimat Swami Pranavananda Maharaj. It is purely a philanthropic and charitable organization with non-sectarian, non-communal and non-political character and outlook. The headquarter of the Sangha is situated in Kolkata, West Bengal with more than three hundreds of branches in India and also in other countries including the

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and

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. It has initiated several missions to

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n countries,

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, and

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; monks from the Sangha have accompanied

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

delegations to

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

and

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

Activities

The Sangha is recognized for their community work, helping the poor, and providing healthcare to those in need. The Sangha has responded to natural calamities in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

and

Orissa Odisha (), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is a state located in Eastern India. It is the eighth-largest state by area, and the eleventh-largest by population, with over 41 million inhabitants. The state also has the thir ...

states, the

Bengal famine of 1943 The Bengal famine of 1943 was a famine in the Bengal province of British India (present-day Bangladesh, West Bengal and eastern India) during World War II. An estimated 800,000–3.8 million people died, in the Bengal region (present-day Ban ...

, the

Bhopal disaster On 3 December 1984, over 500,000 people in the vicinity of the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India were exposed to the highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate, in what is considered the world's worst ind ...

, the

2001 Gujarat earthquake The 2001 Gujarat earthquake, also known as the Bhuj earthquake, occurred on 26 January at . The epicentre was about 9 km south-southwest of the village of Chobari in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch district in Gujarat, India. The earthquake had ...

, and the

2004 Indian Ocean tsunami On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+07:00, UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicenter, epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The Submarine earthquake, undersea ...

. At times of political unrest such as the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

, the Sangha has set up refugee camps and war evacuee camps in the border areas. It has organised several projects to help impoverished Indian tribal people. One such project involved providing schooling for children of the Sabar tribe and providing them with housing and healthcare. It also hosts courses to train youths in

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

to enable them to find jobs which require IT skills. Following the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+07:00, UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicenter, epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The Submarine earthquake, undersea ...

, the Sangha's monks proposed to set up a school for

orphan An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to a child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew language, Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In some languages ...

s at a cost of

Rs. Rupee (, ) is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Afri ...

4250,000s, an orphanage at Rs.6020,000, and 200 houses at Rs.30 million on the

Andaman Andaman may refer to: * Andaman Islands, an island group in the Bay of Bengal * Andaman Island, Penang, an artificial island in George Town, Penang * Andaman Sea, a sea of the eastern Indian Ocean * ''Andaman'' (1998 film), an Indian Kannada-lang ...

and

Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are an archipelago, archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located southeast of t ...

. To spread message against violence and hatred in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

, the organization has also produced biopics based on ''

Swami Pranavananda Swami Pranavananda (; ; IAST: Svāmī Praṇavānanda) also known as Yugācāryya Śrīmat Svāmī Praṇavānanda Jī Mahārāja (Bengali: যুগাচার্য্য শ্রীমৎ স্বামী প্রণবানন্দ � ...

'' The Sangha actively provides shelter, food, medical treatment and public safety services to

pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

s at various places of worship and religious fairs in India, such as the

Kumbha Mela Kumbh Mela (, ; ) is an important Hindu pilgrimage, celebrated approximately every 6 or 12 years, correlated with the partial or full revolution of Jupiter. It is the largest peaceful gathering of people in the world. A ritual dip in the ...

. It operates free hospitals at Barajuri and

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

, mobile dispensary and medical units in sixty-four locations, a free residence for patients and their families in

Navi Mumbai Navi Mumbai (; also known as New Bombay, its official name until 1995) is a large city next to Mumbai, located in the Konkan division of the western Indian state of Maharashtra, on the mainland of India. Navi Mumbai is situated in Thane distr ...

, and four hospitals and homes for

leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a Chronic condition, long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the Peripheral nervous system, nerves, respir ...

patients. A 500-bed hospital at Joka, Kolkata was inaugurated in 2010 by the Indian Finance Minister as an example of private-public partnerships in healthcare. In May 2020, the Sangha was one of the few organizations who extended help to the people after the destruction caused by

Cyclone Amphan Super Cyclonic Storm Amphan ( ) was an extremely powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone that caused widespread damage in Eastern India, specifically in West Bengal and Odisha, and in Bangladesh, in May 2020. It was the strongest tropical c ...

. They also provided relief work including food at different parts of the country due to

COVID-19 lockdown in India On the evening of 24 March 2020, the Government of India ordered a nationwide lockdown for 21days, limiting the movement of the entire 1.38billion (138 crores) population of India as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic in India. ...

Image gallery

File:Bharat Sevashram Sangha - Delhi.jpg, Bharat Sevashram Sangha centre in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

File:Bharat Sevashram Sangha temple, Gaya.jpg, Bharat Sevashram Sangha Temple,

Gaya Gaya may refer to: Geography Czech Republic *Kyjov, a town called Gaya in German and Latin Guinea * Gaya or Gayah, a town India *Gaya, India, a city in Bihar **Gaya Airport *Bodh Gaya, a town in Bihar near Gaya *Gaya district, Bihar Niger *G ...

, Bihar, India File:The President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee addressing after the inauguration of the old-age home and school building of Bharat Sevashram Sangha, in Gurgaon, Haryana on December 07, 2014.jpg, The President, Shri

Pranab Mukherjee Pranab Kumar Mukherjee ( ; born, 11 December 1935 – 31 August 2020) was an Indian statesman who served as the president of India from 2012 until 2017. He was the first person from West Bengal to hold the post of President of India. In a pol ...

addressing after the inauguration of the old-age home and school building of Bharat Sevashram Sangha, in Gurgaon, Haryana on December 07, 2014. File:Pranab Mukherjee unveiling the plaque to inaugurate the old-age home and school building of Bharat Sevashram Sangha, in Gurgaon, Haryana. The Governor of Haryana, Prof. Kaptan Singh Solanki is also seen.jpg, The President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee unveiling the plaque to inaugurate the old-age home and school building of Bharat Sevashram Sangha, in Gurgaon, Haryana on December 07, 2014. The Governor of Haryana, Prof.

Kaptan Singh Solanki Kaptan Singh Solanki (born 1 July 1939) is an Indian politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the 17th governor of Tripura. From August 2009, he was the member of the parliament of India representing Madhya Pradesh State in the Rajya Sabha, ...

is also seen. File:The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi addressing the Centenary Celebrations of Bharat Sevashram Sangha, via video conference, in New Delhi on May 07, 2017 (1).jpg, The Prime Minister, Shri

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

addressing the Centenary Celebrations of Bharat Sevashram Sangha, via video conference, in New Delhi on May 07, 2017. File:The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi addressing the Centenary Celebrations of Bharat Sevashram Sangha, via video conference, in New Delhi on May 07, 2017.jpg, The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi addressing the Centenary Celebrations of Bharat Sevashram Sangha, via video conference, in New Delhi on May 07, 2017. File:Bharat Sevashram Sangha, Ranaghat.JPG, A temple at Bharat Sevashram Sangha centre in

Ranaghat Ranaghat is a city and a municipality in Nadia district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Ranaghat subdivision. It is known for its handloom industry, various types of flowers and floriculture. History After the ...

File:Bharat Sevashram Sangha relief in Noakhali 1946.jpg, A photograph showing Swami Abhayananda of Bharat Sevashram Sangha distributing relief items from in Dalalbazar under Lakshmipur police station in Noakhali district. Dalalbazar falls under

Lakshmipur district Lakshmipur District (; ) is a district in Bangladesh with an area of 1,440 km2. It is bordered by Chandpur to the north, Bhola and Noakhali districts to the south, Noakhali to the east, and Barisal and Bhola districts to the west. Lakshmi ...

in present day Bangladesh. File:Priest performing a traditional fire ritual on Guru Purnima.jpg, The chief priest performing a traditional public ritual in honour of the saint and founder Swami Pranavananda of Bharat Sevashram Sangha on the occasion of

Guru Purnima Guru Purnima () is a religious festival dedicated to offering respect to all the spiritual and academic gurus. It is celebrated as a festival in India, Nepal and Bhutan by Hindus, Jains and Buddhists. This festival is traditionally observed t ...

at its ashram in

Gurugram Gurgaon (), officially named Gurugram (), is a satellite city of Delhi and administrative headquarters of Gurgaon district, located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest o ...

, India.

References

External links

Bharat Sevashram Sangha

Bharat Sevashram Sangha Hospital
{{Authority control Charities based in India Organisations based in Kolkata Hindu organizations Hindu organisations based in India Hindu relief organizations Hindu new religious movements Hindu religious orders Religious organizations established in 1917 1917 establishments in British India