Hinduism Arya Samaj & Maharishi Swami Dayanand Saraswati

This thread is dedicated towards understanding the philosophy behind
Arya Samaj and its founder Maharishi Swami Dayanand Saraswati



Swami Dayanand (1824-1883), born on 12th February 1824 (in Tankara in the state of Gujurat, India), was the founder of the Hindu reform organization Arya Samaj , which he established on April 7th 1875, in Bombay India. He also created the 10 principles of Arya Samaj. Throughout his life, Swami Dayanand preached against many Hindu traditions which he felt were dogmatic and oppressive. These included traditions such as idol worship, caste by birth, and the exclusion of females from the study of the Vedas. One of his main messages was for Hindus to go back to the roots of their religion, which are the Vedas. By doing this, he felt that Hindus would be able to improve the depressive religious, social, political, and economic conditions prevailing in India in his times.

One of Swami Dayanand's major arguments for going back to the Vedas was that, in his own words " the four Vedas, the repositories of knowledge & religious truth, are the Word of God. They are absolutely free of error, & the Supreme & independent authority ". The four Vedas are; Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, & Atharva Veda. To spread awareness of his movement and to revitalize Vedic knowledge, Swami Dayanand published many religious books. These include; Satyartha Prakash ( The light of Truth ), the Rig-Vedaadi, Bhasyya- Bhoomika, and Sanskar Vidhi.

Swami Dayanand preached many messages to Hindus during his lifetime. For instance, he preached that Hindus should worship just one, formless, God. He fought against polytheism by telling people the true meaning of the names of God, & established how all of them pointed at one & the same God- Paramathama, the Supreme Self. Further, Swami was " a voice against superstition, against unrighteousness, which reigned supreme in the garb of true religion, and against a foreign rule".

Throughout his known adult life, Swami's main message was " Back to the Vedas ". By this, Swami Dayanand meant that Hindus should stop practising beliefs such as idol worship, caste, polytheism, pantheism, untouchability, child marriages,forced widowhood, and many other practices which he felt were wrong. He challenged many of the Hindu orthodoxy if they could justify their belief in the aforementioned practices. This induced the anger and wrath of many orthodox Hindus, which subsequently led to 14 attempts at poisoning Dayanand. Miraculously, he was able to use his Yogic abilities to cure himself from the first 13 attempts. However, the 14th time proved fatal. Swami Dayanand died, and left the world with his legacy, Arya Samaj.

Arya Samaj - The 10 Principles

Principle One: God is the original source of all that is true knowledge and all that is known by physical sciences.

Principle Two: God is existent, Conscious, All Beautitude, Formless, Almighty, Just, Merciful, Unbegotten, Infinite, Unchangeable, Beginningless, Incomparable, the support of All, the Lord or all, All-pervading, Omniscient and Controller of All from within, Evermature, Imperishable, Fearless, Eternal, Pure and Creator of the universe. IT alone must be worhipped.

Principle Three: The Vedas are the books of all TRUE knowledge. It is the paramount duty of all Aryas to read them, to teach them to others, to listen to them and to recite them to others.

Principle Four: All persons should always be ready to accept the truth and renounce the untruth.

Principle Five: All acts ought to be performed in conformity with dharma (Righteousness and Duty) i.e. after due consideration of the truth and the untruth.

Principle Six: The primary object of the Arya Samaj is to do good to the whole world i.e. to promote physical, spiritual and social progress of all humans.

Principle Seven: Your dealings with all should be regulated by love and due justice in accordance with the dictates of dharma (righteousness).

Principle Eight: Avidyaa (illusion and ignorance) is to be dispelled, and Vidyaa (realisation and acquisition of knowledge) should be promoted.

Principle Nine: None should remain satisfied with one's own elevation only, but should incessantly strive for the social upliftment of all, realise one's own elevation in the elevation of others.

Principle Ten: All persons ought to dedicate themselves necessarily for the social good and the well being of all, subordinating their personal interest, while the individual is free to enjoy freedom of action for the individual well being.

With all respect these people are not really Hindus.

Then who are they ? Please !!

Gurfateh

As per them four rishis(sages) worte holy Vedas in Aryvarta(north India) on the Bank of indus.

They say that only they are true and rest Hindu,Muslims,Sikhs or Christians are fake.

So regarding Sikhism they say they try to first make it look like Hinduism and after it is done then they try to paint it black.

Why?

Well Sikhism has nothing wrong.Hinduism has only a few thing which are right(as per Arya Samajis).so by clubbing us With Hindus they can make fun of us as they make fun of Hindus in thier stupid way.

It is good that it is a dieing cult.and soon be absorbed by Hinduism.

The article details indicate that Swami ji tried to emulate sikh dharam. All these principles seem to be lifted and reframed from sikh religion and are in opposition to Hindu rituals and traditions.
Another point is that any reform, either Kabir/ Farid/ Raja Ram Mohan/ Dayananad seem to correct Hindu traditions which Gurunanak Dev Ji already did long back.
I guess their only trouble is with identifyingthemselves with sikhs and khalsa.
That is why they keep attacking.
I think they want and like our religion but want to snatch it rather than assimilate or accept it.
Just my thoughts! East west north South... we are best.

ballym said:

The article details indicate that Swami ji tried to emulate sikh dharam. All these principles seem to be lifted and reframed from sikh religion and are in opposition to Hindu rituals and traditions.
Another point is that any reform, either Kabir/ Farid/ Raja Ram Mohan/ Dayananad seem to correct Hindu traditions which Gurunanak Dev Ji already did long back.
I guess their only trouble is with identifyingthemselves with sikhs and khalsa.
That is why they keep attacking.
I think they want and like our religion but want to snatch it rather than assimilate or accept it.
Just my thoughts! East west north South... we are best.

Click to expand...

Narayanjot Ji ,
IMHO Arya Samajis do not worship ONE GOD who is invisible & omnipotent , but they worship NATURAL FORCES instead .

dalbirk ji

That is a good point. How did you know this statement would start my engines? I think they want and like our religion but want to snatch it rather than assimilate or accept it (from ballym's post). How is it that the more things change the more they stay the same (French proverb).

They have made a mess of things again and again.

:welcome::welcome::welcome:

:happysingh:Swami Dayanand was a rigid propounder of the Vedas. In the 1857 edition of of Sattarth Prakash he had advocated:
1."Flesh should be used in performing havan morning and evening"(p.45);
2.(Sanctioned) killing of animals(p.171);
3."It is lawful to kill a sterile cow and eat its flesh"(p.302);
4.In the course of the refutation of the tanents of Jainism,considered it lawful to kill animals for the sake of their flesh.
Later on,when in Punjab, Swami Dayanand reversed his views about beef eating and even established Cow Protection Society.
He also changed his Vedic belief that the Sun revolved around the Earth.

There was a google ad on our site on top, about one Jagadguru RAMPAL Ji.
He was on Aastha and other channel and had controversies with Arya samaaj due to his book against it.
Satyaarth Prakash, according to him, is full of lies, ignorant details and is blasphemous( against all religions including sikh religion).
I read some details ofthe online pdf in Hindi


The link is not working. I have scoped out the html code for the link, and have located the document. It is not attached to your comments.

It is surprisingly straight forward, though I am yet to crosscheck it online.

That ballym is some straight talk! Sadly I won't be able to read it as I do not read Hindi. The history of Suraj Partap in a similar way is very interesting as is the biography of its author. There also we can find sanatan influences, and the information is not contemporaneous with the life Guru Gobind Singh. Perhaps its contents can be compared to and contrasted with some other critical evaluations that have already been posted here. Thanks a lot!

Swami Dayanand Saraswati - Maharishi or a Disgrace?

Swami Dayanand is one of the most renowned saints of India. He is the founder of a sect called Arya Samaj. The followers of Arya Samaj or Maharishi Dayanand are called Arya Samajis. The Arya Samajis consider the Vedas (Rig Ved, Sam Ved, Yajur Ved and Atharav Ved) to be the utmost scriptures which are indeed the most sacred of the Hindu Scriptures and at the time these Scriptures were written, there was no religion. So in essence these scriptures are not really specific to any particular religion or sect but are pertinent to the whole mankind.

All the Vedas were originally written in Sanskrit language which is the oldest language in the world. Swami Dayanand in his lifetime translated one of these Vedas namely the Yajur Ved and did part translation of the Sam Ved. Swami Dayanand also wrote another book called Satyarth Prakash which is actually a compilation of all the teachings and personal views expressed by Swami Dayanand. It is a highly regarded book amongst all the Arya Samajis and also among other devotee souls.

Swami Dayanand laid a great deal of stress on the teachings mentioned in the Vedas and asked his followers to adopt the vedic teachings as the way of life. Undoubtedly Swami Dayanand can be regarded as the only saint who kept the Vedas alive and his followers continued the legacy forward by following his footsteps.

Until now Swami Dayanand has been held in very high esteem but lately truth has been coming out which has exposed the dark side of Swami Dayanand. A deeper look in to the book "Satyarth Prakash" has revealed many issues which are not in accordance with the contemporary way of life and understanding, and rather are opposite to the Vedas and moral values. The views expressed by Swami Dayanand in his book are now proving counter productive and tarnishing the image of the Swami.

The concepts mentioned by Swami Dayanand in the book Satyarth Prakash are opposite to those described in the Vedas. To name a few the most striking among these are listed below.

In Satyarth Prakash Swami Dayanand says that God cannot forgive your sins where as Vedas very clearly describe that God can forgive even the most heinous sins. Then Swami Ji says that God is formless, whereas Vedas say that God is in form. Swami Ji also says that there is habitation on the sun and people living there also read Vedas which everyone knows is untrue.

Worst of all is the chapter four (Chautha Samullas) of the book Satyarth Prakash which crosses the height of immorality. A very vivid description has been given in this chapter about the concept of marriage, re-marriage, infidelity and extra-marital sex. Swami ji also expresses his views against the re-marriage of a widow and describes in detail about the fulfilment of sexual needs for this category. To cut the long story short, "it is disgusting". It is the worst example of teachings of immorality given by a saint which is available in print. It is a disgrace to follow these teachings and any literate soul would definitely want to tread away from this path.

Moreover in one of the chapters the authority of Guru Nanak Dev Ji and Prophet Mohammed has been questioned, and unacceptable comments have been made about them by Swami Dayanand which can be a cause of social unrest.

Furthermore various biographies of Swami Dayanand reveal that he was addicted to Cannabis (Bhaang) and also used to smoke tobacco. These are considered social evils in India and going by the teachings of God (from various religious scriptures), consumption of any intoxicants be it alcohol, cannabis or tobacco etc is an obstacle in the way of worship and achievement of salvation. What sort of teachings would a Saint impart to his followers who himself practices these sorts of social evils?

It seems that the Arya Samajis who still want to carry the legacy of Swami Dayanand forward are oblivious to these references in the book Satyarth Prakash as any noble soul would definitely not want to be associated with this sort of immoral behaviour let alone follow it. In this day and age not many would like to follow the teachings mentioned in the chapter four (chautha samullas) of Satyarth Prakash.

It is about time to revisit these scriptures and make an informed decision about what should be carried forward and what should be left behind.

The following video gives a glimpse of some of those things mentioned in Satyarth Prakash and is a worthwhile watch: YouTube - Adhyatmik Gyan Charcha - 18

SAT SRI AKAL,

Arya Samaj and so called Deras are making mismatch of Sikh and Hinduism in Punjab in
this day and age we need to wake up to reality and start discussion these issues on
public platform because these self styled people are ought to destroy Sikh. Many people
have forgot the values and culture of our rich heritage and moreover parades are being
launched just as culture event showing Bhangra or things like that so we need to be all
aware of this. Khalsa ji the real Sants are no where to be found the real Sant doesn't self proclaimed themselves it's like a great a man doenst need to show his greatness the
people will recognize them. So all these Arya Samajis and Swami Saraswasti are fake
or just Pakahand nothing else.

Regards

Gurveen Singh