Swami Dayananda Saraswati

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This page is about the founder of the Arya Samaj. For others known by the same name, please see Swami Dayananda (disambiguation)

Swami Dayananda Saraswati (स्‍वामी दयानन्‍द सरस्‍वती) (1824 - 1883) is an important Hindu religious scholar born in Gujarat, India. As a child, Dayanand sat with his father in a temple for overnight worship. One night, he saw mice eating the offerings kept for the God. He was utterly surprised and wondered how a God, who cannot even defend his own "prasad", would defend the humanity. He argued with his father that he should not be worshipping such a helpless God. He started pondering over the meaning of life and death and started asking questions, which worried his parents. His parents decided to marry him, but he decided marriage was not for him and ran away from home. He was disillusioned with classical Hinduism and became a wandering monk. He learned Panini's Grammar to understand the Vedas. He reached Swami Vrijananda's ashram at Mathura, who told him to throw away all his books in the river. He stayed in the ashram for two and a half years. After finishing his education, he spread the concept of Vedic Hinduism.

The Arya Samaj "Society of Nobles", a great Hindu reform movement, was founded by him in 1875. He was a sanyasi (one who has renounced the world) and an original scholar, who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda advocated the doctrine of karma and rebirth, and emphasised the ideals of brahmacharya (celibacy) and sanyasa (renunciation). The Theosophical Society and the Arya Samaj were united for a certain time under the name Theosophical Society of the Arya Samaj.

Far from borrowing concepts from other religions, as Raja Ram Mohan Roy had done, Swami Dayananda was fiercely critical of Islam and Christianity as may be seen in his book Satyartha Prakasha. He was against what he considered to be the corruption of the pure faith in his own country. Unlike many other reform movements within Hinduism, the Arya Samaj's appeal was addressed not only to the educated few, but to the Indian nation as a whole.

The Arya Samaj unequivocally condemned idolatry, animal sacrifices, ancestor worship, pilgrimages, priestcraft, offerings made in temples, the caste system, untouchability and child marriages, on the grounds that all these lacked Vedic sanction. It aimed to be a universal "church" based on the authority of the Vedas.

Dayananda’s concept of Dharma is succinctly set forth in his Beliefs and Disbeliefs. He said, "I accept as Dharma whatever is in full conformity with impartial justice, truthfulness and the like; that which is not opposed to the teachings of God as embodied in the Vedas. Whatever is not free from partiality and is unjust, partaking of untruth and the like, and opposed to the teachings of God as embodied in the Vedas - that I hold as adharma." Again he says "He, who after careful thinking, is ever ready to accept truth and reject falsehood; who counts the happiness of others as he does that of his own self, him I call just."

He was the first among the great Indian stalwarts who popularised the concept of Swaraj - that is, right to self-determination vested in Indians, when India was ruled by the British.

Taking the cue from him, Sri Aurobindo decided to look for hidden psychological meanings in the Vedas [1]. Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. 1972.