The Maharishi

Maharishi Dayanand Sarsvati
In the 19th century a great saint, seer and philosopher, Vedic commentator, thinker, master mind having impressive personality, an ancient ascetic and yogi, appeared on the scene, who is widely known as Swami Dayanand Saraswati. He was a great scholar of the Vedas and Sanskrit language. He tirelessly worked too expel the darkness of ignorance and spread the true knowledge of the Vedas for the benefit of humanity at large. That great soul was a Maharishi.
He was the first to give the call from freedom as “India for Indians”. He denounced the idolatry and ritualistic worship and practices prevalent in Hinduism, he worked towards reviving Vedas ideologies. In the words of philosopher and President of India, S. Radhakrishnan on Maharishi Dayanand:
“Among the makers of modern India, the chief place will be assigned to him (Dayananda). At a time when there was spiritual confusion in our country, when many of our social practices were in the melting pot, when we were overcome by superstition and obscurantism, this great soul came forward with staunch devotion to truth and a passion for social equality and enthusiasm, and worked for the emancipation of our country, religious, political, social and cultural. … Swami Dayananda Saraswati was one who was guided by the supremacy of reason and he made out that the Vedic scriptures never asked us to take anything on trust but to examine everything, and then come to any kind of conclusion. … So he (Dayananda) was a social reformer who had a crusading zeal, a powerful intellect and a fire in his heart when he looked at the social injustices. He tried to sweep them away with a drastic hand. This is also what the country requires today. … In that way he emphasized the rule of reason and pointed out that there is one Supreme God. He also gave freedom of conscience.”
One of his most influential works is the book Satyarth Prakash (Light of Truth), which also contributed to the Indian independence movement. He was a sanyasi (ascetic) from boyhood, and a scholar, who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas.
Maharshi Dayananda advocated the doctrine of Karma and Reincarnation. He emphasized the Vedic ideals of brahmacharya (celibacy) and devotion to God. Maharshi Dayananda promoted equal rights for women, as widow remarriage, the right to education and reading of Indian scriptures. He wrote an intuitive commentary on the Vedas from Vedic Sanskrit in Sanskrit as well as Hindi so that the common man might be able to read them.
Early life
Dayanand Saraswati was born on 12 February in 1824 in Tankara, near Morbi in the Kathiawad region (now Rajkot district of Gujarat India). His original name was Mool Shankar. His father’s name was Karshanji 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, thread ceremony of the “twice-born” was performed. His father was a follower of Shiva and taught Dayanand Saraswati the ways to impress God. Dayanand was also told the importance of keeping fasts. On the occasion of Shivratri (Hindu festival), Dayanand sat awake in obedience to Lord Shiva. That night, he saw a mouse eating the offerings to the God and running over the idol’s body. After seeing this, he questioned himself, if the God could not defend himself against a little mouse then how could he be the savior of the massive world.
Moolshankar, led a comfortable early life, studying Sanskrit, the Vedas and other religious texts. 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 worried his parents. He was to be married in his teens, as was common in nineteenth-century India, but he decided marriage was not for him and in 1846 ran away from home.
Dayananda Sarasvati spent nearly twenty-five years, from 1845 to 1869, as a wandering 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. He lived in jungles, in retreats in the Himalayan Mountains, and at a number of pilgrimage sites in northern India. During these years Dayananda Saraswati practiced various forms of yoga. He became a disciple of a well-known Sanskrit scholar, Virajanand. Virajanand believed that Hinduism had strayed from its historical roots and that many of its practices had become impure. Dayananda Saraswati promised Virajanand that he would devote his life to restore the rightful place of the Vedas in the world.
Dayanand’s mission
Dayanand considered Aum or Om to be the highest and most proper name of God. All other titles represent same one God’s traits and not multiple Gods.
Dayanand’s mission was not to start or set up any new religion but to ask humankind for Universal Brotherhood through nobility as spelt out in Vedas. For that mission he founded Arya Samaj enunciating the Ten Universal Principles as a code for Universalism Krinvanto Vishwaryam meaning the whole world be an abode for Nobles. His next step was to take up the difficult task of reforming Hinduism with dedication despite multiple repeated attempts on his life. He traveled the country challenging religious scholars and priests to discussions and won repeatedly on the strength of his arguments based on his knowledge of Sanskrit and Vedas. 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’ selfish motives. Hindu priests discouraged the laity from reading Vedic scriptures and encouraged rituals, such as bathing in the Ganges River and feeding and donating to priests on elders death anniversaries and other occasions, which Dayananda pronounced as superstitions or self-serving practices. By exhorting the nation to reject such superstitious notions, his aim was to educate the nation to Go back to the 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 integration. 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), patriotism, and spiritualism. He advocated the equal rights and respects for women and advocated the education of a girl child like the males.
Maharishi Dayanand did logical, scientific and critical analysis of faiths e.g. Christianity & Islam as well as of other Indian faiths like Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. In addition to discouraging idolatry in Hinduism, as may be seen in his book Satyarth Prakash (Light of Truth). He was against what he considered to be the corruption of the true and pure faith in his own country. To continue propogating the true knowledge of the Vedas, he founded the organization called Arya Samaj. Unlike many other reform movements 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 sixth principle of the Arya Samaj. In fact his teachings professed universalism for the all living beings and not for any particular sect, faith, community or nation.
Dayananda’s concept of dharma is stated in the “Beliefs and Disbeliefs” section of Satyartha Prakash. He said:
“I accept as Dharma (righteous) 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 (wrong).”
“He, who after careful thinking, is ever ready to accept truth and reject falsehood; who counts the happiness of others as his own self, him I call just.”— Satyarth Prakash
Dayananda’s Vedic message was to emphasize respect and reverence for other human beings, supported by the Vedic notion of the divine nature of the individual–divine because the body was the temple where the human essence soul/atma had the possibility to interface with the creator (God). In the ten principles of the Arya Samaj, he enshrined the idea that “All actions should be performed with the prime objective of benefiting mankind”, as opposed to following dogmatic rituals or revering idols and symbols. The first five principles speak of Truth and the other five of a society with nobility, civics, harmony and disciplined life. In his own life, he interpreted moksha (liberation) to be a lower calling due to its benefit to one individual than the calling to emancipate others.
Dayananda’s “back to the Vedas” message influenced many thinkers and philosophers of the world.
Activities
Dayanand is noted to have been active since he was 14, by this time he was able to recite religious verses and teach about them. He is highly applauded for taking parts in religious debates. His debates were attended by relatively large number of people.
One of the remarkable debate occurred on 22 October 1869 in Varanasi, where he had won a debate against 27 scholars and about 12 expert pandits. The debate was attended by over 50,000 people. The main topic was “Do the Vedas uphold deity worship?”
Maharishi Dayananda’s, unequivocally condemns practices, such as idol worship, animal sacrifice, pilgrimages, priest craft, offerings made in temples, the castes, child marriages, meat eating and discrimination against women on the grounds that all these lacked original Hinduism.
Views and Studies
Dayanand Saraswati is noted to have thoroughly studied about religions other than Hinduism, such as Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Sikhism, and others. He has described these religions in the chapters of his book Satyarth Prakash (Light of Truth).
Assassination attempts
Dayananda was subjected to many unsuccessful attempts on his life. He was poisoned on few occasions, but due to his regular practice of Yoga he would succeed to throw out the poison. One story tells that he was once attacked by some proponents of different religion, who tried to drown him in to the river. But Maharishi was so strong and powerful, Instead he dragged these attackers into the river and released them when they were about to be fully drowned. Maharishi gave credit for his strength to his lifelong celibacy (brahcharya). There are several instances in his life, where his extra ordinary strength was revealed.
Death
In 1883 Dayananda was invited by the Maharaja of Jodhpur to stay at his palace. The Maharaja was eager to become his disciple and learn his teachings. One day Dayananda went to the Maharaja’s resting area and saw him with a dance-girl named Nanhi Jaan. Dayananda boldly asked the Maharaja to forsake the girl and all unethical acts and follow dharma. Dayananda’s suggestion offended the dance-girl and she decided to take revenge. She bribed Dayananda’s cook and asked him to poison Dayanand. On 29 September 1883 while he still was the royal guest of Maharaja Jaswant Singh, the cook brought him a glass of milk containing powdered poison at bedtime. Dayananda drank the milk and went to sleep only to wake up later with a burning sensation. He immediately realized that he had been poisoned and attempted to purge his digestive system of the poisonous substance, but it was too late. The poison had already entered his bloodstream. Dayananda was bedridden and suffered excruciating pain. Maharaja quickly arranged doctor’s services for him. However, by the time doctors arrived, his condition got worse and had bleeding sores. Later Maharaja arranged for Swami to be sent to Mount Abu upon advice of Residency, however, after staying some time in Abu, Swamji was sent to Ajmer for better medical care on 26 October 1883. There was no improvement in his health and he left his body on the morning of 30 October 1883 at 6:00 am, after chanting Vedas mantras. His last words before he took a long inbreath and left this world were, “you did great, let thy will prevail” (तूने अच्छी लीला की, तेरी इच्छा पूर्ण हो). The day coincided with Hindu festival of Diwali.
Legacy
Notable for influencing the freedom movement of India, his views and writings have been used by different writers. Contrary to the popular thought, Swadeshi (self rule) word was given by him, not Mahatma Gandhi. Most of the Indian freedom fighters were influenced by Maharishi Dayanand Sarsvati.
It has been noted, that he had branches of his organization (Arya Samaj) across the country within his life time. The places Dayanand had visited in his life were remarked to have been culturally changed. Jodhpur had adopted Hindi as main language, and later the present day Rajasthan adopted the same. Other admirers included Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Bipin Chandra Pal, Vallabhbhai Patel, Syama Prasad Mookerjee.
Romain Rolland, regarded him as one of the remarkable and unique figure.
American Spiritualist Andrew Jackson Davis described Dayanand’s influence on him, he called Dayanand a “Son of God”, and applauded him for restoring the status of the Nation. Sten Konow, a Swedish scholar noted that Dayanand Saraswati revived the historicity of India, and discovered the very less known about the Indian society.
Others who were notably influenced by him, includes Ninian Smart, Benjamin Walker among others.
Works
Dayananda Saraswati wrote more than 60 works in all, including a 16 volume explanation of the six Vedangas, an incomplete commentary on the Ashtadhyayi (Panini’s grammar), several small tracts on ethics and morality, Vedic sacraments and on analysis of rival doctrines (such as Advaita Vedanta, Islam and Christianity). Some of his major works are Satyarth Prakash, Sanskarvidhi, RigvedadiBhashyaBhumika, Rigved Bhashyam (up to 7/61/2) and Yajurved Bhashyam. The Paropakarini Sabha located in the Indian city of Ajmer was founded by the Maharishi himself to publish and preach his works and Vedic texts.
10 Principles by Maharishi Dayanand Sarsvati:
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 Blissful, Formless, Omnipotent, Just, Kind, Unborn, Infinite, Unchangeable, Flawless, Beginningless, Supreme, the support of All, the Master of all, Omnipresent, Omniscient and Controller of All from within, Unaging, Immortal, Fearless, Eternal, Pure and the Creator of the universe. Worship is due only to Him.
Principle Three: Vedas are the books of all TRUE knowledge. It is the paramount duty of all nobles (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 organization (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 (realization and acquisition of knowledge) should be promoted.
Principle Nine: None should remain satisfied with one’s own advancement only, but should realize self advancement by continusly striving for the social upliftment of all.
Principle 10: All persons ought to dedicate themselves and give in for the social good and the well being of all, while for the individual well being one has freedom of action.