PEOPLE AND THEIR PROBLEMS

New Delhi, 28 November 2008

The Divine Religion

SWAMI DAYANAND, ARYA SAMAJ & VEDAS

By Dr. Prashanta Kumar Sahoo

A small boy of 14, Mulshankar was asked by his father, Amba Shankar to keep night vigil on Sivaratri. The heart of this little boy was filled with eagerness to see god Siva in a bodily form.  He remained awake all through the night. But to his utter astonishment a rat climbed up the idol and ate away the offerings. 

This trifling incident had a very strong influence on Mulshankar’s life.  It became a turning point.  He became skeptical of idol worship.  He was very thoughtful and religious by nature.  But he could not satisfy his spiritual thirst with the prevailing religious practices.  So he left his home in search of the real Siva and the real religion.

He wandered among the sadhus in different parts of India.  But he could not find any formula or way to realize God.  Everywhere he saw hypocrisy, not true religion.  He was deeply disappointed.   At last he met Swami Virajanand who was an ocean of Sanskrit learning. Mulshankar became his disciple. Swami Virajanand filled his heart with vast Vedic knowledge.

The skepticism was gone and Mulshankar developed a staunch faith in the Vedas and God.  Swami Virajanand convinced his disciple satisfactorily that idolatry was not allowed in the Vedas and the real Vedic religion was quite different from and much purer and sublimer than what had passed for orthodox Hinduism down the ages through the corrupting influence of time.

After the completion of his Vedic studies Mulashankar became Swami Dayanand and set out to resurrect the divine Vedic religion and preach it to the mankind. His anti-idolatry preaching evoked unprecedented opposition from orthodox Hindus. Once even his life was in danger in Varanasi.  But his incessant preaching all over India had its effect at last; people began to be convinced that Swami Dayanand’s interpretation of the Vedas and the Vedic religion was correct and that idoltry was not permissible in the ancient religion based on the Vedas, the Arya Dharma.

Swami Dayanand founded the Arya Samaj on April 7, 1875 in Bombay.  “Arya Samaj” is a Sanskrit compounded of two words ‘Arya’ and ‘Samaj’. ‘Arya’ means a righteous man, high-souled, a man possessed of noble qualities.  ‘Samaj’ means a society or organization. Thus, ‘Arya Samaj’ means a society of persons who mean to be good and to make others good. Swami Dayanand laid down the following ten principles of the Arya Samaj:

1) Of all true knowledge and whatever is known from knowledge, the primary cause is God; 2) God is an embodiment of truth; intelligence and bliss; and without form, all-powerful, just, kind, unborn, infinite, unchangeable, beginningless, incomparable, support of all, lord of all, all-pervading, omniscient, undeteriorable, immortal, fearless, eternal, holy and Creator of the Universe.  He alone is worthy of worship; 3) the Vedas are the books of all true knowledge.  It is the paramount duty of all Aryas to read them, to teach them, to hear them and to preach them; 4) we should be ever ready to accept truth and renounce untruth; 5) everything should be done according to Dharma, that is, after considering what is truth and what is untruth;

6) the chief object of the Arya Samaj is to do good to the world, that is, to make physical, spiritual and social improvement; 7) we should treat all with love and justice according to their deserts (what they deserve); 8) we should dispel ignorance and diffuse knowledge; 9) nobody should remain contended with his personal progress; one should count the progress of all as his own and; 10) everyone should consider himself as bound in obeying social and all benefiting rules, but everyone is free in matters pertaining to individual well-being. 

The four Vedas – the Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Samaveda and the Atharva Veda are the basis of the Arya Samaj and Vedic religion. The Arya Samaj believes that the Vedas are not only the oldest religious books available, but the oldest, older than humanity and revelationary in character.  They were originally revealed by God to the four rishis Agni, Vayu, Aditya and Angiras in the beginning of the world and from them they have come down to us through a chain of innumerable rishis. 

The Vedas are an independent authority on points of religion which derive sanction directly from God. But other scriptures are believable only so far as they are in consonance with the Vedas.

The following sacred books are accepted by the Arya Samaj as authoritative: the Brahmana; Aitareya Brahmana; Satapatha Brahmana; Katha Aitareya, Taittiriya, Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya Chhandogya, Brihadaranyaka, and Svetasvatra, and six Angas: Siksa or orthography, Kalpa or rituals, Vyakarna or grammar, Nirukta or word-study, Chhanda or metres and Jyotis or astronomy. Also accepted by the Arya Samaj are the six Upangas: the Nyaya or rhetoric of Gotama, the Sankhya of Kapila, the Vaisesika or Kanada, the Yoga of Patanjali, the Purva Mimansa of Jaimini and Uttar Mimansa or Vedanta of Vyasa; Manusmriti or code of Manu; Griha Sutras or codes of ceremonials like Paraskara, Gobhil, Asvalayana and Apastamba; and last of all Swami Dayanand’s commentaries on the Vedas and other books including the Satyarthaprakasa.

The Arya Samaj does not accept the authority of the eighteen Puranas and the Upa-Puranas where the spirit is anti-Vedic.  For the Arya Samaj, God is one and the plurality of governor of the Universe is an absurdity. God also does not incarnate as coming into flesh implies weakness. Arya Samaj looks upon God as the great controller of laws which govern the Universe.

The Arya Samaj branches have been established in a large number of countries all over the world since 1875.  They have been engaged in preaching the divine Vedic religion to human beings in different parts of the world. Thus, Swami Dayanand’s effort to resurrect the ancient and pure Vedic religion for the benefit of mankind has been bearing fruit.---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)