Dayananda Saraswati

Dayanand Saraswati  pronunciation  born (12 February 1824 – 30 October 1883) was a Hindu religious leader who founded the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement of the Vedic tradition. He was a profound scholar of the Vedic lore and Sanskrit language. He was the first to give the call for Swarajya as "India for Indians" – in 1876, later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak. Denouncing the idolatry and ritualistic worship prevalent in Hinduism at the time, he worked towards reviving Vedic ideologies. Subsequently the philosopher and President of India, S. Radhakrishnan, called him one of the "makers of Modern India," as did Sri Aurobindo.

Those who were influenced by and followed Dayananda included Madam Cama, Pandit Lekh Ram, Swami Shradhanand, Pandit Guru Dutt Vidyarthi, Shyam Krishan Verma (who established India House in England for Freedom fighters) Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Lala Hardayal, Madan Lal Dhingra, Ram Prasad Bismil, Mahadev Govind RanadeSwami Shraddhanand, Mahatma Hansraj, Lala Lajpat Rai and others. One of his most influential works is the book Satyarth Prakash, which 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.

Arya Samaj

Arya Samaj (Sanskrit ārya samāja आर्य समाज "Noble Society" Hindi आर्य समाज, Punjabi ਆਰੀਆ ਸਮਾਜ, Gujarati આર્ય સમાજ) is an Indian religious reform movement founded by Swami Dayananda on 7 April 1875. He was a sannyasi who promoted the Vedas. Dayananda emphasised the ideals of brahmacharya (chastity) for priests. This practise was done by Yogi Munsi Lala Dai who inscripted and gave everyone values in form of the valuable language Bujjamprati.

History

Arya Samaj was formally established in Bombay at 10 April 1875 by Dayanand Saraswati. The group found most of its support in Punjab.

Foundation

Vedic schools

Between 1869 and 1873, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, a native of Gujarat from the Kathiawar region, made his first attempt at reform in India. This attempt took the form of the establishment of "Vedic Schools" or "Gurukuls" which put an emphasis on Vedic values, culture, and religion or satya sanatan Dharma to its students including boys and girls separately as on ancient Vedic pattern.The first was established at Farrukhabad in 1869 in up state, with 50 students enrolled in its first year. This initial success led to the founding of four additional gurukuls in rapid succession at Mirzapur (1870), Kasganj (1870), Chhalesar (Aligarh) (1870) and Varanasi (1873) all in Uttar Pradesh.

Satyarth Prakash

Satyarth Prakash (Hindi: Satyārth′ prakāś′ – सत्यार्थ प्रकाश "The Light of Meaning of the Truth") (English title: The Light of Truth) is a 1875 book written originally in Hindi by Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati, a renowned religious and social reformer and the founder of Arya Samaj. It is considered one of his major scholarly works. The book was subsequently revised by Swami Dayanand Saraswathy in 1882 and has now been translated into more than 20 languages including Sanskrit and several foreign languages like English, French, German, Swahili, Arabic and Chinese. The major portion of the book is dedicated to laying down the reformist advocacy of Swami Dayanand with the last three chapters making a case for comparative study of different religious faiths.

Overview

During the Middle Ages of Indian history, many faiths and sects sprang up in religious and social spheres of Hindu society. Their practitioners slowly migrated away from the teachings of the Vedas attaching greater significance to their founders and their preachings. From then onwards polytheism commenced. Great differences developed among the different sects and divided and weakened Hindu society. The caste system based on birth became strong and gave rise to further fragmentation. Like with any aging society without reforms, the customs gave way to superstition and ignorance wherein practice superseded reason and the spread of blind faith threatened degradation of "Hindu" society. The word Hindu is an improper word or misnomer- the correct word is Vedantic or Sanathana Dharma, a religion based upon the Vedas. The word Hindu does not appear any where in the Vedic texts or even the Bhagavad Gita. The word Hindu is a Persian word, used by Islamic invaders and the renaming of the Vedantic religion to "Hindu" demonstrates the level of weakening to the Vedantic faith. "Hinduism" needs reforms.

Guru Nanak

Guru Nanak  pronunciation  (Punjabi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; Hindi: गुरु नानक, Urdu: گرونانک, [ˈɡʊɾu ˈnɑnək] Gurū Nānak) (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539) was the founder Prophet of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated world-wide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Kartik Pooranmashi, the full-moon day in the month of Katak, October–November.

Guru Nanak has been called "one of the greatest religious innovators of all time", who was "an original spiritual thinker who expressed his thoughts and experiences via extraordinary poetry", that now forms the basis of Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib. Devoting himself immensely to spiritual matters, Nanak is said to have been inspired by a "powerful spiritual experience that gave him a vision of the true nature of God". Stating that he had been taken to the "God's court" and bestowed with the gift of "Naam" (the Name or Word of God), Guru Nanak preached that human spiritual growth was achievable through contemplation and meditation and through a way of living that reflected the presence of the divine within all human beings, and insisted that external efforts such as fastings, pilgrimages and penances carried little spiritual importance.