Uniqueness of Worship at Dev Sangha

This uniqueness consists in worship which is both individual and combined. In pujas held elsewhere the pujak and the tantradharak offer puja and chant hymns. The rest is audience, seeing and hearing, making a five minute floral offering(anjali) at the most.

Here in Dev Sangha, each participant takes active part in the puja. The earnest and ardent devotees may belong to the Devsangha order or be participants from elsewhere, it does not matter. Facing the Divine form to be worshipped, men sit in rows on one side, ladies on the other. Each devotee has flowers, kosha kushi (copper spoon and chalice), water and incense in front of him or her. The Acharya or his nominee chants the sanskrit mantras for each puja activity. Devotees of Dev Sangha who know the meaning of the mantras, follow the chant in unison, deeply meditating on each mantra in succession while uttering it (the single inner thread of every mantra heralding each activity such as invocation, welcome, ablution, each offering, etc. being the same - aspiring to integrate with the Divine in front of each and within each in loving, cognated devotion). Physically, simultaneously, each participant offers the token of flower and water symbolising each offering through his or her own spoon and chalice. Body, mind and intellect through sight and sound unite in a confluence of comprehension, spiritual consciousness, adoration and surrender to the Divine. The effect, both instantaneous and lasting, is deep and abiding. Such pujas repeated over time, metamorphose a person into a nobler one on the path to Divinity, blessed by Gurushakti. In theory and in practice.

Such has been the lineage, the parampara of Divine worship in Dev Sangha, ushered in by contemporary realized seers, Rishis of the same order as found in the Vedas and Upanishads.

Blessed by Shrimad Tailangaswami of Benares, Shrimad Bijoykrishna Goswami(better known as Howrah’ar Thakur) followed by his disciple son Brahmarshi Satyadev and his spiritual hereditor Shrimad Narendranath Brahmachariji ushered in the practice of this form of worship by devotees. The tradition is being continued under the guidance of the present Acharya of Devsangha, Shrimad Saumyendranath Brahmachariji who was chosen from among his disciples by Shrimad Narendranathji to succeed him as Acharya.

Havans are also performed in the same individual cum combined fashion at Dev Sangha.

Dev Sangha - Summum Bonum

Enlightened seers of the Upanishads, integrating life, life beyond life and life beyond death in an eternal harmony of being, cognition and bliss were for the most part householders with families, belongings, land, livestock and worldly wherewithal. Their lives were pure, simple, holistic yet not devoid of the small wholesome pleasures and pains of life. Within and through all this their lives were ever in touch, nay, immersed in the comprehension of and living out the non-dual, eternal and all permeating, all encompassing Divine, as whose manifestation they saw themselves and all else in this world. In them was no denial, but acceptance. In them was no negation, but affirmation. In practice also they knew and acted out the truth that each soul is potentially Divine, even more, that each soul and the entire creation, the universe, microscopically and holistically and their emotions and interactions are but diverse manifestations of the same unique Divinity just like different ornaments made of the same gold. They not only believed it, they conjoined with this in body, mind, intellect and realization, they acted and lived this truth in practice at every moment without being overly demonstrative about it. It was their nature. Death to them was not different from life as we understand it in the usual sense. Immanent and transcendent they treaded time and beyond.

With the blessings of Divine Gurudeva, this Reality foundation or Acting truth is sought to be practised at Dev Sangha.

It is called SATYAPRATISHTHA or Rishidharma. 

Gurudev Shrimat Narendranath Brahmachariji was a seer realized at the age of 23. What necessity did he have of establishing Dev Sangha? In his own words, he established this ashram to provide material sustenance and spiritual environment to aspiring souls aiming to achieve perennial freedom from all bondage and realize the Divine within themselves and thereafter benefit the world through their wisdom in action automatically. The tormented householder, eager to rid himself of shackles and aspiring for realization was deemed to be a special and favoured beneficiary of his gift to the world - Dev Sangha.