PAGES FROM HISTORY: REMEMBERING DAYANANDA SARASWATHI By Prof. A.V. Narasimha Murthy

PAGES FROM HISTORY: REMEMBERING DAYANANDA SARASWATHI

By Prof. A.V. Narasimha Murthy, former Head, Department of Ancient History & Archaeology, University of Mysore .

The beginning of the 19th Century was a chaotic period of India . The moghuls had distanced themselves from their anti-Hindu policies and had made a dishonorable exit from the scene. The East India Company had made it a point to loot this country and was trying to destroy the real fabric of India in social and religious fields.

The people were at cross-roads and did not know how to live honorably like Indians. Many Hindu reformers thought that Hindu renaissance can be achieved by educating the masses by drawing their attention towards the priceless heritage which they had forgotten.

At that time was born Arya Samaj, a great organisation to transform the Indian society on the basis of their heritage and culture. Dayananada Saraswathi was the founder of this organisation which heralded a new reformist movement. His original name was Moola Shankara and was born in the village Tankara in 1824 in Saurashtra.

As a young boy he found everybody fast asleep on a Shivaratri night including the priests and the rats were happily eating the prasada kept near the Linga. The boy felt that the idol of the god is not even capable of warding off the rats and this was deeply imprinted on the mind of the boy. Later he opposed the worship of the images for a different reason.

Dissatisfied by the social and religious life around him, he left his home in 1846 and wandered from place to place in search of an ideal guru and finally met Swami Virajananda and became a monk under the new name Dayananda Saraswathi. As per the order of his teacher, he founded an institution called 'Arya Samaj' in 1875 at Bombay . Arya here does not mean a caste or community but good people who had faith in the Vedas.

He gave the call 'go back to the Vedas' meaning that the ancient wisdom of our country is enshrined in the Vedas, the greatest heritage of the Hindus. He was against the puranas which were sectarian in character. He stated that they were written by selfish, ignorant and uninformed priests.

Thus he attributed the puranas to the priestly class or pandas which wanted to make a living out of it. The powerful priestly class gave a lot of trouble to Dayananda Saraswathi. They stoned him; burnt his huts and even poisoned him many times. Finally, he was poisoned by his own cook Dauda Mishra. He mixed poison with milk and gave it to Dayananda. The Swamiji pardoned him, gave him money to escape to Nepal , so that the king of Jodhpur will not take revenge against Mishra for this heinous crime. Dayananda Saraswathi died in 1883, October 30 in Ajmer . Thus ended a brilliant career of a great reformer.

Dayananda's most famous literary work is Satyartha Prakash written in 1875. This book has been translated to many Indian and foreign languages. It contains his ethical and philosophical teachings admired by people all over the world.

He preached that there is only one god and he has no forms and no names and no families. He is a principle of divinity; he is not born like men and animals. He does not take avataras also. Rama, Krishna and others are not gods but human beings who rose to the highest level by their deeds. Hence they should not be worshipped in temples. This will send wrong signals to ordinary people about the multiplicity of gods which is not true. If a Muslim can convert a Hindu to Islam; If a Christian can convert a Hindu to Christianity against his will out of compulsion, should the Hindu suffer it for ever, questioned Dayananda.

He himself said 'no'. He has every right to get back to Hinduism. Hence he introduced 'Suddhi movement' meaning a ritual of purification. This helped to realise the ideal of unifying India nationally, socially and religiously.

Thousands of people who were converted to Islam and Christianity at the point of sword were happy to come back to Hinduism. Arya Samaj thus provided the required platform for Suddhi movement.

Arya Samaj believed in the ritual of yajna or homa as part of the Suddhi Marga. Yajna is of different kinds; Brahmayajna (brahma); Bhutayajna (compassion to animals); Pitriyajna (showing respect to the parents when they are alive and not to perform Sraddha after their death); Atithiyajna (serving the members of the society). Arya Samaj believed in 16 Sanskaras or rituals commencing from birth to death.

Another important contribution of the Arya Samaj was its generous attitude towards women. It fixed 25 and 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for men and women respectively. It also encouraged re-marriage of widows.

As orthodox people refused to perform widow marriages, Arya Samaj provided the required platform. Arya Samaj also encouraged inter-caste marriages.

Mysore city has a branch of Arya Samaj which is 75- years-old and has been doing useful social work, under the guidance of C. Srikan-taiah Arya and is moving to a new and more spacious building on 10th January 2010. That will be a good new year gift to the cultural life of Mysore .