Arya Samaj : a social-reform body founded by Swami Dayānanda Saraswati in 1875 to re-establish the Vedas as a living religious scripture. He rejected all later accretions to the Vedas as degenerate. It has done a great deal of social & educational work, especially in Punjab & Uttar Pradesh. The Arya Samāj greatly stemmed the tide of conversion of Hindus to other religions, & reclaimed converted people to the fold of Hinduism & contributed to the eventual growth of Indian nationalism by teaching the Hindus that, irrespective of the divisions into castes & existence of different social practises, they were an integrated people. His ideals are practised at the Gurukūla founded at Hardwar which was raised in 1907 to the status of a University teaching through Sanskrit as the medium of instruction.
... the destruction of the Arya Samaj, the men arrested being merely pawns in the game. The speech of the Counsel for the prosecution, Mr. Grey, in no way sets out an ordinary case against individuals, nor is there any passage in it which gives any light as to particular evidence against the persons on their trial, but from beginning to end it is an arraignment of the Arya Samaj as a body whose whole object... the Amrita Bazar Patrika and the Punjabee , Page 402 —to say nothing of the long defunct Bande Mataram ,—and that some of the prominent members of the Arya Samaj are politicians and yet remain members of the Arya Samaj. The perfectly general interpretations by Swami Dayananda of the Vedic view of politics, are the basis of his attack, and even the vehement character of the great reformer's... political opinions of its individual members. The religious teaching of Swami Dayananda was inspired by national motives, not political; and the aims of the Arya Samaj are national, not political. The Arya Disclaimer The leaders of the Arya Samaj have issued a manifesto disclaiming the political motives attributed to them by the Counsel for Page 404 the Prosecution in his extraordinary ...
... The London Times has developed a new Newmaniac all to itself. The original Newmaniac of Calcutta had the National Volunteers for his special monomania: the Times specimen seems to have got the Arya Samaj on his brain. In a long and elaborate article he has traced the genesis of this dangerous group, its control over the bourgeoisie, its deadly seditious attempts to make use of the masses, and the... that the middle class are trying to make their will the will of the nation and the object of the bureaucracy must be to prevent that consummation. But when the writer begins to trace all evil to the Arya Samaj, he at once passes into the regions of romance. No doubt the lion's share of the political spirit and Page 649 genius in the Punjab belongs to the Aryas, but that is the result of the ...
... his interpretation of the Gita is seriously questioned by a Shastri. I am rather wonder-struck at his claim to an infallible interpretation of the Gita. Disciple : He has criticised the Arya Samaj also. Sri Aurobindo : Yes, he has criticised Dayananda Saraswati who has, according to him, abolished image-worship and set up the idolatory of the Vedas. He forgets, I am afraid, that he... economics by his Charkha and Khaddar, and, if one may add, by his idolatry of non-violence in religion and philosophy. In that way every one has established idol-worship. He has criticised the Arya Samaj but why not criticise Madanism ? His statement is adulatory of the Koran and of Christianity which is idolatry of the Bible, Christ and the Gross. Man is hardly able to do without externals and only ...
... purely national lines, and an aggressive, militant nationalism were some of the outstanding contributions of the Arya Samaj to renaissant India. It struck out an original plan of converting even non-Hindus to Hinduism. The growing spirit of nationalism derived a great impetus from the Arya Samaj movement. The Theosophical Movement, founded by Madame Blavatsky, 87 proclaimed the greatness of Indian... of the Indian religious mind, Jnana, Bhakti and Karma, the contemplative and philosophical, the emotional and fervently devotional and the actively and practically dynamic spiritual mentality. The Arya Samaj in the Punjab founded itself on a fresh interpretation of the truth of the Veda and an attempt to apply old Vedic principles of life to modern conditions. The movement associated with the great names... Page 76 weaning many a soul from the influence of Christian missionaries. At this time, in another part of India, arose another man, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj, who, according to Mrs. Besant, first proclaimed "India for Indians". He discovered in the Vedas the perennial source and support of Hindu society, and sought to draw upon its spiritual and cultural ...
... g of literary texts to emanate from Brahmoism. If the Brahmos held sway in East India, the Arya-Samaj dominated the North and part of the West. Swami Dayanand Saraswati is another example of a person whose inner life reflected nation-building activity. In 1875 he established the Arya Samaj in Bombay and the Samaj spread to other parts of the country. His Satyarth Prakash is a defence... our spiritual traditions. I am, of course, referring to the movement from Derozio to Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the establishment of the Brahmo Samaj in Bengal, the Prarthana Samaj in Western India, the Arya Samaj in the North and the political, cultural and educational offshoots of these events. The Indian Renaissance, as it is called, is rooted in our spiritual traditions. II Ram Mohan ...
... Karmayogin Facts and Opinions Lajpat Rai's Letters The case of Parmanand, the Arya Samaj teacher, whom with a singular pusillanimity the D.A.V. College authorities have dismissed before anything was proved against him, has been of more than usual interest because of the parade with which Lajpat Rai's letters to him were brought forward. The letters... wholly established. A Nervous Samaj It is with great regret that we find ourselves compelled to enlarge on the hint we gave in our last issue and comment adversely on the methods by which the Arya Samaj is attempting to save itself from the displeasure of the Government. It is well that it should have disclaimed sedition and repudiated the charge of being not a religious but a political body. But ...
... interpretation of the Gita is seriously questioned by a Shastri. I am rather wonder-struck at his claim to an infallible interpretation of the Gita. (A disciple:) He has criticized the Arya Samaj also. Yes, he has criticized Dayananda Saraswati who has, according to him, abolished image-worship and set up the idolatry of the Vedas. He forgets, I am afraid, that he is doing the same... economics by his Charkha and Khaddar, and, if one may add, by his idolatry of non-violence in religion and philosophy. In that way every one has established idol-worship. He has criticized the Arya Samaj but why not criticize Mahomedan-ism ? His statement is adulatory of the Koran and of Christianity which is idolatry of the Bible, Christ and the Cross. Man is hardly able to do without externals ...
... Abhinava Bharat Society (Young India Society). It advocated armed struggle to throw off the shackles of foreign rule. But the most famous of these organizations was the Arya Samaj formed by Dayanand Saraswati in 1875. The Arya Samaj, a movement that was popular in Northern India, especially in Punjab, tried to go back to the Vedic roots of Indian culture. At the same time, it tried to correct some of ...
... the image of Shiva on a Shivratri night, he ran away from his house in Saurashtra in search of the truth of Indian religion. Becoming a Sannyasi, he studied the Vedas and courageously founded the Arya Samaj on the basis of the Veda, the first book of humanity, and the fountainhead of Indian Culture. He gave a new interpretation of the Veda, discarded untouchability, encouraged widow re-marriage and... The life of this bold genius was cut short at forty-eight as he was poisoned by his enemies while serving the cause of Vedic Religion. Sri Aurobindo has paid a glowing tribute to Swami Dayanand. Arya Samaj is the reformist religious organisation spread out not only in India but in many foreign countries. The Guru-Kula system of education is an attempt to mould the future generations into Vedic Aryans ...
... Puranic, I believe to be an inevitable movement of the near future. There has already been, indeed, a local movement towards the rehabilitation of the Veda. Swami Dayananda, the founder of the Arya Samaj, preached a monotheistic religion founded on a new interpretation of the sacred hymns. But this important attempt, successful & vigorous in the Panjab, is not likely to command acceptance among the ...
... religious mind, Jnana, Bhakti and Karma, the contemplative and philosophical, the emotional and fervently devotional and the actively and practically dynamic Page 24 spiritual mentality. The Arya Samaj in the Punjab founded itself on a fresh interpretation of the truth of the Veda and an attempt to apply old Vedic principles of life to modern conditions. The movement associated with the great names ...
... Anushilan Samiti, 13 Arabians, 190 archaeology , 98(fn), l001(fn) Arjuna, 51 , 125,206,240 art, 65-68, 103, 127, 182,220 Indian a r t, 59 .60, 67, 68 , 168 Arya (English monthly), 83, III Arya Samaj , 170 Aryan, 49 , 106 character and life, 52, 60 fig h te r, 126 invasion (theory of). 96 , 98, l00,101 (fn), 107,108, 114 , IIS, 116 language, 97 ,98 , 108 ,109 people, 106,107, 108 , 153 ...
... obliged to rely on foreign funds and to court Government patronage. Even the Dayananda Anglo-Vedic College is a more robust growth, for it has been built up by the munificent self-sacrifice of the Arya Samaj. No institution which cannot rely on the people of India for its support and build itself up without official support or patronage, can be considered to have established its capacity of developing ...
... physical environment of the old Aryan world. The third Indian contribution is older in date, but nearer to my present purpose. It is the remarkable attempt by Swami Dayananda, the founder of the Arya Samaj, to re-establish the Veda as a living religious Scripture. Dayananda took as his basis a free use of the old Indian philology which he found in the Nirukta. Himself a great Sanskrit scholar, he handled ...
... the conscience of the best Hindus has always rebelled against it. As far back as the days of Ram Mohan Roy the progressive movement started and reform organisations like the Brahmo-Samaj and the Arya-Samaj fought untouchability for decades on end. The biggest uproar against it came from a Hindu - Gandhi. And the Indian Constitution which expresses a good deal of the contemporary Hindu mind has abolished ...
... Keshub Chander Sen, Debendranath Tagore and Rajnarain Bose were connected with the Brahmo Samaj and its various branches. In 1875 Dayanand Saraswati founded in Gujarat the much more nationalistic Arya Samaj. Dissatisfied with the watered-down Christianism of much of the mainly Bengali Brahmo Samaj and its offspring, he returned to the Vedas and the chief tenets of Hinduism, but kept the social reforms ...
... this before me. All this may seem banal to many, but to me writing about it is itself an offering. I did not approve the worship of anyone's photograph. In childhood I was attracted by the Arya Samaj. Seeing the Arya Samajists worship Dayanand I used to wonder what was the difference between the worship of idols, which they opposed, and their worshipping a photograph! The same question used to ...
... thoughts about life, action, God, etc. He has lost his old standard of values of life and action and finds himself an advocate of the theory of illusionism against which he, a prominent leader of the Arya Samaj and a monotheist, had preached all his life. His relatives and friends have all become unreal, impermanent, and he asks in "What are these worldly relations based on? How can an all powerful and ...
... Rock of Ages and had the daring conception to build on it a whole education of youth, a whole manhood and Page 34 a whole nationhood." Sri Aurobindo is referring to the Arya Samaj founded by Dayananda. The West coast, lapped by the Arabian Sea, is the home of the Parsees. Hounded out by the Muslim conquerors from their age-old homeland in Persia, these followers of ...
... the new party. He is one of those men who act, more than they talk, a man with a splendid record of solid patriotic work behind him and to him above all other belongs the credit of building up the Arya Samaj into the most powerful and practically effective organisation in the country. Were both Mr. Tilak and Mr. Naoroji to decline the Presidentship, Lala Lajpat Rai's would be the only other possible ...
... Indian spiritual tradition persisted but that it had entered into the conscious life-forms, religious, social and even the sub-conscious of the whole race. The Brahmo Samaj, the Prarthana Samaj, the Arya Samaj are some of its well-known expressions. The national awakening and the struggle for political freedom gave inspiration to many writers and poets who boldly experimented with new forms of literary ...
... Madhwacharya and even quoting an ancient Puranic text which declares the Vedas to have three meanings - trayorthāh ̣ sarvavedas ̣u. 20 In our own times Swami Dayananda, founder of the Arya Samaj, made a remarkable attempt to re-establish the Veda as a living religious scripture. So Sri Aurobindo's vision of the Veda cannot be looked askance at as quite unnatural or quite n ...
... according to the Rishis addressed. SRI AUROBINDO: That was my idea too. I wanted to translate and arrange the Suktas in that way. EVENING PURANI: Abhay was telling me that in his presence an Arya Samaj leader had a talk with Gandhi about the Hindu-Muslim problem. Gandhi and other Congress leaders seem to have realised that these Muslims are becoming more and more threatening and it would be good ...
... has any reference to him. (Sri Aurobindo read the introduction.) Abhay has come; he had to go to Hyderabad and through the intercession of Sir Akbar managed to obtain the release of two local Arya Samaj prisoners. The Nizam by his reserve power refused to release them as he feared that they, being local people, might start trouble again. Sir Akbar told him through his secretary that if he didn't ...
... SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. PURANI: Sir Akbar says that Hyderabad had no Hindu-Muslim trouble before. It has been brought in from outside. SRI AUROBINDO: That is true. Muslims from the North and the Arya Samaj brought it there. The British Government can't allow the Khaksars to become powerful, for they want to drive out the British. SATYENDRA: It is said that the Government is behind the present H ...
... agitation that the British promised to advance towards self-rule. Secondly, it was for the first time that there was an all-India movement with the exception of Punjab and Bengal. In Punjab, the Arya Samaj rejected the theosophical movement of Besant and in Bengal the leadership of C. R. Das was too powerful to make a dent. Probably what led to the failure of the movement was the ambivalence in its ...
... imprisonment of Surendra Nath Banerjee. It was actually practiced a little in 1891 during protest against the Consent Bill. Perhaps the real originator of the idea of boycott of British goods was an Arya Samaj activist from North West India, Tahal Ram Ganga Ram who visited Calcutta during February-March1905 and inflamed the youth to boycott British goods. This was followed by successive calls for boycott ...
... official source we learn that the real originator of the idea of boycotting foreign goods, particularly British,... was Tahal Ram Ganga Ram (an inhabitant of North Western India and belonging to the Arya Samaj) who visited Calcutta during February-March, 1905, delivering in- flammatory speeches every evening before the students in the College Square, and asking them to go in for Boycott of British goods ...
... simply because I can't help doing actions. Lajpat Rai now seems to accept the "illusion" theory as the explanation while he combated it for the whole of his life. He was a prominent leader of the Arya-Samaj, and a monotheist. Disciple : What is the explanation of Lajpat Rai's attitude? Sri Aurobindo : Generally it is Tamasik Vairagya, if it is due to a sense of failure in life. ...
... which outrage his sense of social justice. Page 364 He conveniently forgets, first, that the Smritis are not being followed today in practice, secondly, that Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, and the Congress and many other all-India organisations have been trying to carry into practice many social reforms, and thirdly, that Mahatma Gandhi has done more as a single leader than many ...
... superstitious. 13 The Vedic researches of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and T. Paramasiva Aiyar and the attempt of Swami Dayananda to re-establish the Veda as the living religious scripture of the Arya Samaj were new developments that at least testified to the continued fascination exercised by the Veda on the modem mind. It was in this context that Sri Aurobindo's fresh studies, guided by his own inner ...
... Dayanand Saraswati, in the seasoned evangelism of Ranade and Telang, the 'new' forged syntheses with the yet living, the perennially enduring past of India. Brahmo Samaj (with its later variations), Arya Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, Ramakrishna Mission, Theosophical Society are among these syntheses, each with its own secret of power and its own circle of influence. The greatest of these was undoubtedly ...
... over the whole world." Bankim Chandra, greatly appreciative, wrote: "Let there be a shower of flowers and sandal on the pen of Rajnarain Babu." Dayananda Saraswati (1824-83), the founder of the Arya Samaj, was a great reformer in the theological and social fields. A visit to Calcutta at the end of 1872 made a deep impression on him; for Calcutta was then a cauldron of new ideas. There he Page ...
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