nanda Saraswati

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This article is about the founder of the Arya Samaj. For other uses, see Swami D
ayananda (disambiguation).
Dayananda Saraswati
Swami Dayananda Saraswati
Born
Mul Shankar Tiwari or Mulshankar Karasandas Tiwari /Shuddha Chaitanya as
Brahmachari
12 February 1824
Tankara, Gujarat
Died
30 October 1883 (aged 59)
Ajmer, Rajasthan
Nationality
Indian
Titles/honours Sindhi Marhu
Guru
Virajananda Dandi
Philosophy
Traitvad vedic philosophy based on Samhita of Five Vedas and its
theory derived on Nighantu and Nirukta with six Darshanas supported by Paniniya
Vyakaran.
Literary works Satyarth Prakash (1875)
Quotation
"Om vishwani dev savitar duritani parasuv yad bhadram tanna aasu
va."
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Dayanand Saraswati About this sound pronunciation (helpinfo) (Hindi: ?????? ?????
?? ???????, Gujarati: ????? ?????? ??????? Maharshi Dayanand Sarasvati) born (12
30 October 1883),[2] at Tankara[3] was an important Hindu religio
February 1824
us leader of his time. He is well known as the founder of the Arya Samaj, a Hind
u reform movement of the Vedic tradition. He was a profound scholar of the Vedic
lore and Sanskrit language. He was the first to give the call for Swarajya as "
India for Indians"
in 1876, later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak.[4][5] Denouncing t
he idolatry and ritualistic worship prevalent in Hinduism at the time, he worked
towards reviving Vedic ideologies. Subsequently the philosopher and President o
f India, S. Radhakrishnan, called him one of the "makers of Modern India," as di
d Sri Aurobindo.[6][7][8]
Those who were influenced by and followed Dayananda included Madam Cama, Pandit
Guru Dutt Vidyarthi,[9] Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Lala Hardayal, Madan Lal Dhing
ra, Ram Prasad Bismil, Mahadev Govind Ranade[10] Swami Shraddhanand, Mahatma Han
sraj, Lala Lajpat Rai[11][12] and others. One of his most influential works is t
he book Satyarth Prakash, which contributed to the Indian independence movement.
He was a sanyasi (ascetic) from boyhood, and a scholar, who believed in the inf
allible authority of the Vedas.
Maharshi Dayananda advocated the doctrine of Karma (Karmasiddhanta in Hinduism)
and Reincarnation (Punarjanma in Hinduism). He emphasized the Vedic ideals of br
ahmacharya (celibacy) and devotion to God. The Theosophical Society and the Arya
Samaj were united from 1878 to 1882, becoming the Theosophical Society of the A
rya Samaj.[13] Among Maharshi Dayananda's contributions are his promoting of the
equal rights for women, such as the right to education and reading of Indian sc
riptures, and his intuitive commentary on the Vedas from Vedic Sanskrit in Sansk
rit as well as Hindi so that the common man might be able to read them. Dayanand

was the first to give the word of Swadeshi and Harijan to the dalits and Pariah
s(Outcastes) long before Mahatma Gandhi.[14]
Contents
1 Early life
2 Dayanand's mission
2.1 Activities
3 Arya Samaj
4 Views and Studies
4.1 Islam
4.2 Christianity
4.3 Sikhism
4.4 Jainism
4.5 Buddhism
5 Assassination attempts
6 Death
7 Legacy
8 Works
8.1 Complete list of his works
9 References
10 Further reading
11 Footnotes
12 External links
Early life
Dayanand Saraswati was born on 12 February in 1824 in Tankara, near Morbi in the
Kathiawad region (now Rajkot district of Gujarat). His original name was Mool S
hankar because he was born in Dhanu Rashi and Mul Nakshatra. His birthday is cel
ebrated in Falguna Krishna Dashami tithi (the 10th day of waning moon in the mon
th of Purnimanta Falguna). If he belonged to Mul Nakshatra and his birth tithi w
as Purnimanta Falguna Krishna Dashami then his birth date should be Tuesday, 24
February 1824 according to astrological calculations. His father's name was Kars
hanji Lalji Tiwari and mother's name was Yashodabai. Theirs was a Brahmin family
. A tax collector, his father was a rich, prosperous and influential person. He
was the head of an eminent Brahmin family of the village. When Mool Shankar was
eight years old, Yajnopavita Sanskara, or the investiture with thread of the "tw
ice-born" were performed. His father was a follower of Shiva and taught Dayanand
Saraswati the ways to impress the Lord. Dayanand was also told the importance o
f keeping fasts. On the occasion of Shivratri, Dayanand had to sit awake the who
le night in obedience to Lord Shiva. One such night, he saw a mouse eating the o
fferings to the God and running over the idol's body. After seeing this, he ques
tioned himself, if the God could not defend himself against a little mouse then
how could he be the savior of the massive world.
Since he was born under Mul Nakshatra, he was named "Moolshankar", and led a com
fortable early life, studying Sanskrit, the Vedas and other religious texts to p
repare himself for a future as a Hindu priest.[15][16]
The deaths of his younger sister and his uncle from cholera caused Dayananda to
ponder the meaning of life and death and he started asking questions which worri
ed his parents. He was to be married in his early teens, as was common in ninete
enth-century India, but he decided marriage was not for him and in 1846 ran away
from home.[17][18]
Dayananda Sarasvati spent nearly twenty-five years, from 1845 to 1869, as a wand
ering ascetic, searching for religious truth. An ascetic is someone who gives up
material goods and lives a life of self-denial, devoted to spiritual matters. H
e lived in jungles, in retreats in the Himalayan Mountains, and at a number of p

ilgrimage sites in northern India. During these years Dayananda Sarasvati practi
ced various forms of yoga. He became a disciple, or follower, of a well-known re
ligious teacher, Virajanand Dandeesha (sometimes spelled Birajananda). Virajanan
d believed that Hinduism had strayed from its historical roots and that many of
its practices had become impure. Dayananda Sarasvati promised Virajanand that he
would devote his life to restoring the rightful place of the Vedas in the Hindu
faith.[19]
Dayanand's mission
Aum or Om is considered by the Arya Samaj to be the highest and most proper name
of God.
Dayanand's mission was not to start or set up any new religion but to ask humank
ind for Universal Brotherhood through nobility as spelt out in Vedas. For that m
ission he founded Arya Samaj enunciating the Ten Universal Principles as a code
for Universalism Krinvanto Vishwaryam meaning the whole world be an abode for No
bles (Aryas). His next step was to take up the difficult task of reforming Hindu
ism with dedication despite multiple repeated attempts on his personal life. He
traveled the country challenging religious scholars and priests to discussions a
nd won repeatedly on the strength of his arguments based on his knowledge of San
skrit and Vedas.[20] He believed that Hinduism had been corrupted by divergence
from the founding principles of the Vedas and that Hindus had been misled by the
priesthood for the priests' self-aggrandizement. Hindu priests discouraged the
laity from reading Vedic scriptures and encouraged rituals, such as bathing in t
he Ganges River and feeding of priests on anniversaries, which Dayananda pronoun
ced as superstitions or self-serving practices. By exhorting the nation to rejec
t such superstitious notions, his aim was to educate the nation to Go back to th
e Vedas. He wanted the people who followed Hinduism to go back to its roots and
to follow the Vedic life, which he pointed out. He exhorted the Hindu nation to
accept social reforms, including the importance of Cows for national prosperity
as well as the adoption of Hindi as the national language for national integrati
on. Through his daily life and practice of yoga and asanas, teachings, preaching
, sermons and writings, he inspired the Hindu nation to aspire to Swarajya (self
governance), nationalism, and spiritualism. He advocated the equal rights and r
espects to women and advocated the education of a girl child like the males.
Swami Dayanand did logical, scientific and critical analyses of faiths i.e. Chri
stianity & Islam as well as of other Indian faiths like Jainism, Buddhism and Si
khism. In addition to discouraging idolatry in Hinduism, as may be seen in his b
ook Satyarth Prakash.[21] He was against what he considered to be the corruption
of the true and pure faith in his own country. Unlike many other reform movemen
ts of his times within Hinduism, the Arya Samaj's appeal was addressed not only
to the educated few in India, but to the world as a whole as evidenced in the si
xth principle of the Arya Samaj. In fact his teachings professed universalism fo
r the all living beings and not for any particular sect, faith, community or nat
ion.
Arya Samaj allows and encourages converts to Hinduism. Dayananda s concept of dhar
ma is stated in the "Beliefs and Disbeliefs" section of Satyartha Prakash. He sa
id: