Arya Samaj: It's Contributions

[Guest]

Some very famous Arya Samaji -
Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Swami Shardanand, Shaeed Bhagat Singh, freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai, Mahatma Hans Raj, Lala Sain Das, Lala Hardayal, Bhai Parmanand,
Lala Jagat Narain was the founder of the Hind Samachar group shot dead by Khalistani, his son Ramesh Chander.
Current, very known personality is Arun Shourie.

Schools and colleges - DAV, Dayanad Schools, AryaDham, Gurukuls, Kanya MahaVidaylas, Arya Vidyapeeth, Lala Sain Das Schools.

[Guest]

Parts of a very famous Hindi Kavita - titled "Arya" - by Rashtra Kavi Sri Maithili Sharan Gupt. Claerly shows the influence of Arya Samaj, and also kind of lays down the dream behind the mission statement of Arya Samaj - "KriNvanto vishwam Aryam" (Let us make the whole world noble)

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>"आर्य"</span>

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>हम कौन थे, क्या हो गये हैं, और क्या होंगे अभी
आओ विचारें आज मिल कर, यह समस्याएं सभी

भू लोक का गौरव, प्रकृति का पुण्य लीला स्थल कहां
फैला मनोहर गिरि हिमालय, और गंगाजल कहां
संपूर्ण देशों से अधिक, किस देश का उत्कर्ष है
उसका कि जो ऋषि भूमि है, वह कौन, भारतवर्ष है

यह पुण्य भूमि प्रसिद्घ है, इसके निवासी आर्य हैं
विद्या कला कौशल्य सबके, जो प्रथम आचार्य हैं
संतान उनकी आज यद्यपि, हम अधोगति में पड़े
पर चिन्ह उनकी उच्चता के, आज भी कुछ हैं खड़े

वे आर्य ही थे जो कभी, अपने लिये जीते न थे
वे स्वार्थ रत हो मोह की, मदिरा कभी पीते न थे
वे मंदिनी तल में, सुकृति के बीज बोते थे सदा
परदुःख देख दयालुता से, द्रवित होते थे सदा

संसार के उपकार हित, जब जन्म लेते थे सभी
निश्चेष्ट हो कर किस तरह से, बैठ सकते थे कभी
फैला यहीं से ज्ञान का, आलोक सब संसार में
जागी यहीं थी, जग रही जो ज्योति अब संसार में

वे मोह बंधन मुक्त थे, स्वच्छंद थे स्वाधीन थे
सम्पूर्ण सुख संयुक्त थे, वे शांति शिखरासीन थे
मन से, वचन से, कर्म से, वे प्रभु भजन में लीन थे
विख्यात ब्रह्मानंद नद के, वे मनोहर मीन थे</span>

[Guest]

<b>Arya Samaj of India</b>

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Shuddhi movement needed Hindus should promote religious conversion
By Ravi Shanker Kapoor

It is a measure of Hindu insecurity that today Hindu organisations and leaders are against religious conversion. However, there was a time when prominent Hindu groups were zealously promoting religious conversion; thousands of Muslims were brought back to the Hindu fold; and Muslims vehemently opposed conversion.

The conversion movement gained momentum in 1923 by Swami Shraddhananda, the great Arya Samaj leader who did pioneering work in the field of social reform, particularly uplift of the so-called untouchables and women education. In Swami Shraddhananda: His Life and Causes (Oxford University Press), J.T.F. Jordens writes: “The case of the Malkana Rajputs propelled the Swami into a new kind of leadership and brought his name back into headlines. The Malkana Rajputs, scattered among many villages between Mathura and Farrukhabad, were nominally Muslims, but their actual cultural and ritual customs were a strange mixture of Muslim and Hindu practices. Moreover, the mixture was itself varied: although many were practically completely Hindu, here were groups in which the Muslim aspect predominated.”

Attempts had been made earlier to reconvert them to Hinduism. “Under the Swami’s lead things started moving right away,” writes Jordens. “A Bharatiya Hindu Shuddhi Sabha was established, of which the Swami became President… The committee was inclined to proceed cautiously but the Swami argued for urgency… Ten days later the famous appeal appeared in the papers under the heading ‘Save the dying race’.”

The Swami had lamented earlier too that the Hindus were a “dying race,” though he worked ceaselessly for its survival and well-being. Not surprisingly, according to Jordens, “the Swami threw himself wholeheartedly into the work. On Sunday 25 February he was present at the ceremony of reclamation of Malkanas to Hinduism at the village of Raibna, near Agra, and he spent next two months in the field, going from village to village. In those two months, about a hundred villages were converted. Within the first month five thousand Malkanas were reclaimed, and by the end of the year the total had risen to about thirty thousand. Shraddhananda and his Arya [Samaj] collaborators were the acknowledged leaders of this initial push, and they naturally became the main target of Muslim agitation against shuddhi.”

The Muslim ulemas were enraged, and they spread all sorts of calumny and canards against the Swami. On March 18, 1923, the Jamiat-ul-Ulema condemned him in no uncertain terms. The brave Swami paid dearly for challenging the sword of Islam: three years later, he was assassinated by a Muslim fanatic.

What is interesting to note is the Congress, which had already gone into the Muslim appeasement mode, too did not take a very charitable view of the Swami Shraddhananda’s great work. On April 8, Motilal Nehru said, “I would have been glad if the movement had not been started at this juncture when feelings are strained between Hindus and Mussulmans in Punjab.” His son, Jawaharlal, also opposed the movement at that point of time, though he was not against the principle of shuddhi. There was a Congress delegation to study the issue. It comprised Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das, Devi Sarojini, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. The delegation alleged that the shuddhi workers had harassed some people, a charge firmly denied by the Swami.

One wonders what would be the response of modern-day Muslim appeasers if some Hindu groups were to fervently start a campaign to bring back Muslims to the Hindu fold. Immediately, there would be a role reversal: the liberals, secularists, and Leftists who wax eloquent about religious freedom would start talking religious harmony; they would argue that peace and communal amity should precede religious freedom. In the same fashion, in which they supported a practical ban on anti-Muslim Danish cartoons, though earlier they had passionately argued for the freedom of expression when the Hindus had protested against M.F. Husain’s nude Saraswati.

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.p...pid=148&page=38<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Funnily enough there was no Congress delegation when Muslims converted Hindus at Meenakshipuram in TN enmasse.

[Guest]

Does Arya Samaj perform shuddhi in America or Britain, for people who were never Hindu before?

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->THE MARTYR MAHATMA
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM

The Convocation Ceremony was the crowning achievement of the first ever experiment done in imparting education through an ancient system in modern times.. Only a man of patience and perseverance, grit and determination of a high caliber could have done it. And he did it. He was Mahatma Munshi Ram. Later in life, on entering the Sanyas Ashram or the fourth stage of life in the Varnashram dharma, he renamed himself in the ascetic tradition as Swami Shraddhanand Saraswati.. Indeed that name motivated millions of men and women to join the struggle for independence of India from the British yoke. His towering image, both moral and physical, moved the masses. The masses comprised all classes and votaries of all castes and creeds, regions and religions. This mahatma was the magic man, although he himself believed in no magic like his main mentor and spiritual Guru, Maharshi Swami Dayanand Saraswati – the Renaissance Rishi..

Born on February 22, 1856 ( As per the traditional Hindu calendar the date of birth was : Phalgun krishna trayodashi,Samvat 1913 Vikrami) at village Talwan in Jalandhar district of the Punjab province, he was named as Brihaspati and Munshiram. The latter was easier to pronounce and became popular. His father, Lala Nanak Chand, was a police officer in the East India Company administered United Provinces. The young boy, a pampered child, moved from place to place on his dad’s transfers and was bereft of formal education in the formative years of life. Nonetheless, he learnt a lot in the school of life and, therefore, developed a pragmatic approach to life’s problems and their solutions. It indeed held him in good stead in later life when the going was tough. A little lack of attention from a busy father and excessive indulgence in affection of a doting mother resulted in the young Munshiram leading a wayward life. If there was a fall guy around, it was indeed he. What a miracle that such a man reformed himself to his finger tips and rose in stature in the public esteem to become a Mahatma.

Munshiram gave the credit to Swami Dayanand Saraswati for putting him back on the rails. Munshiram was a young boy when Swami Dayanand Saraswati had visited Benares,now Varanasi, for the historic Shastrarth or learned disputation with the traditional pundits. A rumour floated on the waves of the sacred Ganges and its ghats that a magician sadhu was out in the streets at night, holding a mashal or an oil torch in one hand and a book in the other, to carry away youngsters. It was an anti-publicity done by the enemies of the great Swami who had won the intellectual and religious bouts against traditionalists mired in mirages of superstitions. The mashal in his hand was the torch of knowledge and the book was the Vedas, the divine revelation of mantras at the beginning of the Creation. Munshiram missed meeting the great reformer because his father did not want such a meeting to take place. Many years later, the same father encouraged his wayward son in Bareilley to meet the same sanyasi for a mental and spiritual cleansing. That was indeed a turning point in the life of Munshiram. After a long intellectual discourse with Swami Dayanand Saraswati there was a gradual change of heart in Munshiram. The seed sown in the United Provinces germinated and flowered in the Punjab. Munshiram, the fall guy, was transformed into a man with a mission who ascended the pedestal of a Mahatma. It was also a turning point in the religious and political history of India which was struggling for freedom from the British Empire.

Lahore, the then capital of the undivided Punjab, and Jalandhar were the main places of action in initial years of a reformed Munshiram. He became a successful lawyer and earned name and fame. He was quite active in the Arya Samaj circles and took the Reformation movement seriously. He promoted movement of education of girls in the right earnest. As a matter of fact, when he saw his own daughter, Ved Kumari, coming under the influence of Christianity while studying in a Christian Mission run school, he made up his mind to wean away children of his compatriots from the external influence by providing them good education in schools run by the Arya Samaj. Like-minded Indians came forward to support him and the educational mission was a roaring success .He had, however, miles to go on this road of education. He had a vision. Educate young Indians in the Indian educational institutions run on the ancient Vedic system. The Gurukul system of education was the new mission of Munshiram.

History too had a major role to play therein. Swami Dayanand Saraswati, who had founded the Arya Samaj in 1875 in Bombay, breathed his last in 1883 in Ajmer,Rajputana. The Aryas of Punjab decided to commemorate his singular contribution to the new Awakening in India by opening a chain of schools and colleges which would make our young men and women proud of their Vedic Dharm, their culture and traditions and their country. The Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School was founded in 1886 in Lahore. A young Arya Samajist graduate, Lala Hansraj, volunteered to work as its Headmaster without charging a single Rupee as a salary. All Aryas worked for the new venture whole heartedly. However, some of them like Lala Munshiram and Pundit Gurudatt felt that in the DAV School, the Anglo element was dominating the Vedic element. The new educational venture was far away from realizing the dreams of Swami Dayanand Saraswati. The Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab went with them. It was decided in Lahore to launch a scheme for the Gurukul system of education. Munshiram spearheaded the movement.

Money, money, money. That was both the problem and the solution. A sum of Rs 30,000 was required to launch the project. Who would collect this princely sum ? In the closing years of the 19th century, it was a major amount for men and women of limited means. The new Aryas were mostly middle class men and women in service of the government or other bodies and could not afford to donate a large sum, notwithstanding their wish to do so. Munshiram Ji took it upon himself to go round and achieve the seemingly unachievable. On return from Lahore, he stayed put in the waiting room of the Jalandhar railway station and made up his mind not to cross the threshold of his house until the mission of collecting the amount was completed. Indeed, a man of firm determination he was. A fine example he was for young men and women of today to emulate. Munshiram’s mission was a success. He succeeded in collecting a sum of Rupees 40,000.00 in eight months.

The dream came true. The Gurukul was officially inaugurated on 16 May 1900 at Gujaranwala in the West Punjab, now in Pakistan. Twenty young boys formed the first batch of Brahmacharis (that is how students of the Gurukul are addressed). Among the pioneers were the two sons of Munshiram Ji – Harishchandra and Indra. In the initial years it was the personal care and attention of Mahatma Munshiram that overcame the teething troubles. He had around him a devoted group of teachers and the taught. Their missionary zeal to make the novel project a success was of immense help when the infant Gurukul moved from Gujranwala in the Punjab to Kangri- Haridwar in the United Provinces. In the midst of dense jungles, on the banks of the Ganga river it was indeed an idyllic surrounding that any Rishi-Muni running an Ashram would fall for. Of course, it had its hazards too like the wild animals, rigours of terrain and a near absence of hospital facility. However, the devoted and dedicated students and teachers under the inspiring leadership of their Acharya, Mahatma Munshiram weathered it all beautifully well. Hunger, sickness and privations of sorts were rendered into meaningless words and phrases that existed in the dictionary of doubting Thomases sitting in the cosy comfort of their homes in Lahore. The jungles of Kangri and the Ganga of Haridwar gave the Brahmacharis a soothing comfort that the Devtas dream of.

Over a period of time the Gurukul became the proud alma mater of many men who made a mark on the national scene as patriots, journalists, teachers and writers. Each one of them had nothing but admiration for the mahatma who steered the ship for more than 17 years at a stretch. His was leadership of the highest caliber that a general of the army would wish for both in peace and war. In running the show there were problems galore. The Mahatma knew it well where the solutions lay and he lost no time in finding them. The financial help in cash and kind came flowing in. The annual function of the Gurukul held on 13 April, that is the Baisakhi day, drew in men and women from all walks of life and from all regions where the word Gurukul was heard and understood. Besides the parents and guardians who came to have a reunion with their sons and wards, there were writers, pressmen and booksellers too, not forgetting the detractors of the Mahatma who excelled in finding faults where none existed. Those who came to scoff remained to pray with the Mahatma.

Mahatma Munshiram made a debut in the world of journalism with his writings in Urdu and Hindi on both religious and social subjects. He wrote a large number of tracts too. Propagation of the Vedic Dharm was his mission and he never deviated from this path. Following in the footsteps of his mentor, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the Mahatma gave precedence to Hindi in Devnagari script in his writings. His paper, Sadharm Pracharak, was initially published in the Urdu language and became very popular. Later on, notwithstanding a financial loss, he chose to change over to Hindi in the Devnagari script which in the then Punjab was considered to be a language of women folk alone. The Mahatma’s editorial comments on burning topics of the day carried weight and influenced the public opinion. It would be relevant to mention that the mahatma never followed a populist policy and always chose to call a spade a spade. He stuck to Truth, come rain come shine.

Mahatma Munshiram entered the Sanyas ashram of his own volition. It was the call of his conscience. In his life span of three scores and ten, half of which he lived as a widower after the untimely demise of his devoted wife, Shrimati Shiv Devi, he wore ochre clothes of an ascetic and lived like one for nine years or so. He owned no property and coveted not for loaves and fishes of any office, high or low. However, the cause of upliftment of the downtrodden and the Shuddhi movement, that is , bringing back to the Vedic Dharm those men and women who had strayed into other religious folds, was very dear to his heart. He worked for both relentlessly and laid down his life at the altar of the Shuddhi. More of that a little later. He founded many institutions and established Arya Samajes for the upliftment of the have-nots and the downtrodden. He was pragmatic in his approach and lamented that many political persons paid lip service to upliftment of the so-called Untouchables.

Mahatma Munshiram dabbled with the politics of the country and the Indian National Congress for a brief while. It was for the noble cause of India’s independence. He surmised that it was the duty of every Indian to free the motherland from the British rule. It was this mission that saw him leading processions in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk area against the oppressive Rowlatt Act. In 1919 the Mahatma emerged as an intrepid leader of the masses. His undaunting behaviour and reaction to the menacing soldiers of the Raj when he bared his chest inviting the soldiers to fire on him first made him a darling of the masses, both Hindus and Muslims. He went around addressing groups of people and preached peace in that surcharged atmosphere. His son, Indra, was by his side and has recorded those memorable events in his short biography of the mahatma entitled “Mere Pita”(My Father). The scenes were breath-taking.

4 April 1919. Jama Masjid, Delhi. A huge congregation of Muslims had gathered to mourn the dead and provide succor to the living patriots who were protesting against oppressive policies of the British rulers. On the pulpit of the mosque stood an Arya sanyasi in ochre clothes. He had been invited by the Muslim leaders to encourage them in their mission of freedom. The Sanyasi recited a Ved mantra invoking blessings of the Almighty and praying for success of the just struggle. The Rigved mantra ran thus : AUM tvam hi nah pita vaso tvam mata shatkrato babhuvith.
Aghate sumnimahe.
The address to the congregation ended with the words, AUM SHANTIH SHANTIH SHANTIH. The congregation responded with the word AAMEEN. It was a perfect scene of unity of purpose and amity among major sections of the Indian society. How sad that it was so short lived. Who knew that the Mahatma leading the Muslims would become a martyr at their hands.

The scene changes. The dramatis personae are the Malkana Rajputs in the mathura-Agra belt of the United Provinces. Long ago they had been forced by the Moghuls to convert to Islam. Yet they had retained their cultural distinctiveness. Swami Shraddhanand Saraswati saw a golden opportunity to encourage them to return to the religious fiold of their forefathers.The mission of Shuddhi of the Malkana Rajputs was a roaring success, notwithstanding strong opposition of no less a person than Mahatma Gandhi himself. Maharana of Mewar and Pundit madan Mohan Malviya rallied to the support of Swami Shraddhanand Saraswati. The movement gained momentum. Muslims could not bear it. They turned intolerant. One Asghari Begum of Sind, along with her children and relatives, requested Swami Ji to convert them to the Vedic Dharm.Swami ji accepted her request and admitted her along with others to the Vedic fold in March 1926. She was renamed Shanti Devi. The Muslim ex-husband of Shanti Devi fought a legal battle to take her away to reconvert to their fold but lost. The great Swami, his son, Indra and son-in-law, Sukh Deo were all acquitted of charges of abduction and conspiracy. It added fuel to the fire. The social situation was volatile. The Urdu newspapers of Muslims fanned the fire by their biased writings. Gandhiji did little to bring in peace. His anti-shuddhi statements only aggravated the animosity. Even the Muslim leaders of the top echelon of the Congress party like Mohammed Ali and Shaukat Ali made statements which were more of a hindrance than a help in bringing the two communities together. It was rather strange that the Muslims wanted to have unfettered rights to convert others to their creed but denied the same right to others to convert Muslims to the Vedic Dharm or any other faith. In their myopic policy of appeasement of Muslims the leadership of the Congress party failed to appreciate its adverse effect on the freedom movement. Swami Shraddhanand realized the gravity of this fallacious policy and distanced himself from it. The Vedic Dharm was as dear to the swami as appeasement of the minorities was to Gandhi and Nehru family.

Swami Shraddhanand was at his Naya Bazar (now Shraddhanand Bazar) residence in Delhi on 23 December 1926. He was convalescing after an attack of bronchial pneumonia. Moreover after an exhaustive and successful election tour in support of G D Birla, he felt a little drained out. At 4 PM came a man of Islamic background to discuss some religious matters with the Swami. The attendant, Dharmsingh, admitted him with great reluctance. The man, blinded by Islamic fanaticism, whipped out a revolver, when the attendant was away to fetch a glass of water for him, and fired two rounds at the swami pointblank. As the attendant came in, the murderer fired the third round at him. Swami’s secretary, Dharmpal, came running and overpowered the assassin and held him. until the police arrived. The assassin was tried and hanged till death. The Swami had attained martyrdom.

Indra, Swami ji’s son , recalled the words that Swami ji had uttered not long ago :
“Yes, it is a source of contentment to me that I am singled out as the one worthy of wearing the crown of martyrdom “.

Address : UPVAN, Sector 29, NOIDA-201303 . INDIA

Telefax : 0091-120-2454511 Telephone : 0091-120-2454622.

E-mail : vedicupvan@hotmail.com or upvanom@yahoo.com

Mobile : 9811173590 <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Tha Pakis have renamed a Lahore park named in honor of the Swami in the name of his murderer.

Muslims in India at that time hailed the man who killed the Swamiji as a "shaheed" after the British hanged him.

[Guest]

My grand father became Arya Samajist after hearing Swami Shraddhanand speech in college campus. Swamiji was good orator, articulate and passion for Vedic religion and way of life. He was a great freedom fighter. His efforts were main reason, for spread of Arya Samaj all over Punjab, Sindh and NWFP in a very short time.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IER20070509041452&Page=R&Title=Kerala&Top
ic=0&
<b>Aged and young queue up before Arya  Samaj</b>
Wednesday May 9  2007 14:36 IST

KOZHIKODE:  Sabeera, a 23-year-old Muslim woman hailing from Meenchanda, will now figure  alongside film actresses Lissy and Annie for a crucial decision she took before  entering into wedlock with a Hindu man in the neighbourhood. Following  the footsteps of those charming wives of film directors Priyadarsan and Shaji  Kailas, Sabeera is in fact the latest applicant at the Kozhikode Arya Samaj, for  a conversion to Hinduism.

<b>With an authorisation from the government for  issuing certificates of conversion to Hinduism, the Arya Samaj here has  converted 4,102 persons to Hinduism since 1986. </b>

Though being watched  closely by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials for reasons better known to  them, about 13 to 15 persons are getting converted to Hinduism at the Samaj in a  month over the recent years.

"They are from all age groups, from almost  all other religions, and sometimes an entire family would turn up to embrace the  ancient dharma," says B Ranaveer Singh, the secretary of the Kozhikode Arya  Samaj.

<b>"It's rather a reconversion. A chance for a comeback for those who  had left Hinduism to embrace other religions," he asserts. </b>

Conversion to  Hinduism had been taking place here ever since the Arya Samaj branch was set up  in 1922 by Pandit Rishiram who came here from Punjab .

"Somewhere between 16,000 and 18,000 conversions have been  recorded in the early years when my father was the secretary after  Rishiram."

Ranaveer Singh has taken charge after his late father Buddha  Singh, a native of Bijinore near Ayodhya in UP.

The conversion ceremony,  he says, is not a time consuming affair. "It's a sudhi karma (purifying  ceremony) which may take one to one-and-a-half hour for completion. The  applicant will have to render hymns from the four Vedas during the  homam."

One among the four places in the state for conversion to  Hinduism (the other three include Dayananda Salvation Mission, Ramadasa Mission  and Ayyappa Seva Sangham - all in Thiruvananthapuram ) , Arya Samaj was included in the list through a government circular  dated December 15, 1987 based on a government order dated March 19,  1985.

"However, we are authorised only to issue certificates of  conversion to Hinduism and nothing on the caste," Singh points out. After  getting converted to Hinduism, one may approach organisations like SNDP or NSS,  citing family origin with substantial evidence.

"They will have to fetch  a community certificate from the village office before getting it published in  the government gazette."

The most attractive feature of certificate  issued by Arya Samaj: It will provide an entry into Hindu temples anywhere in  the country.

May be Devaswom Minister G Sudhakaran and his retinue, who  are taking devotion beyond the confines of religions, are  listening.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Satyarth Prakash not for banning </b>
Pioneer.com
Sandhya Jain
As Delhi courts grapple with a petition seeking a ban on the publication and distribution of Arya Samaj founder Swami Dayanand Saraswati's magnum opus, Satyarth Prakash, it may be pertinent to recall Sri Aurobindo's tribute: "In the matter of Vedic interpretation I am convinced that whatever may be the final complete interpretation, Dayananda will be honoured as the first discoverer of the right clues. Amidst the chaos and obscurity of old ignorance and age long misunderstanding, his was the eye of direct vision that pierced to the truth and fastened on that which was essential. He had found the keys for the doors that time had closed and rent asunder the seals of the imprisoned fountains."

While acknowledging that there is much that even Hindus and Jains, not to mention Muslims and Christians, could legitimately dispute in Satyarth Prakash, Aurobindo's homage hits the eye of the fish. The lasting legacy of Swami Dayanand Saraswati (1825-1883), for which he deserves the undying gratitude of succeeding generations, is that he told an enslaved and demoralised Hindu society to seek inspiration and rejuvenation in its Vedic civilisational roots. Whatever the merits of his own rather literal style of interpreting religious texts, the call to return to the Vedic Gangotri was sheer genius.

It is a timely warning for our age, when westward-looking sanyasis are conniving to erode the Vedic roots of Hindu civilisation by forcing a peculiar monotheism upon society, with the Bhagwad Gita serving as a sort of 'Hindu Bible' This undermines the primacy of the Vedas and destroys the pre-eminence of Sri Ram.

Gujarat-born Dayanand Saraswati had crystal clarity in this regard: "I hold that the four Vedas-the repository of knowledge and religious truths -- are the word of god. They comprise what is known as the Samhita-Mantra portion only. They are absolutely free from error, and are an authority unto themselves... they do not stand in need of any other book to uphold their authority. Just as the sun (or a lamp) by its light, reveals its own nature as well as that of other objects of the universe, such as the earth, even so are the Vedas. The commentaries on the four Vedas, viz., the Brahmanas, the six Angas, the six Upangas, the four Up-Vedas, and the eleven hundred and twenty-seven Shakhas, which are expositions of the Vedic texts by Brahma and other great rishis -- I look upon as works of a dependent character... they are held to be authoritative in so far as they conform to the teachings of the Vedas. Whatever passages in these works are opposed to the Vedic injunctions I reject them entirely."

This is a precise summation of the Hindu quest in the colonial period for the true meaning of its tradition, depressed under centuries of Muslim rule. President S Radhakrishnan said Swami Dayanand would occupy pride of place among makers of modern India: "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 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."

<b>Currently, Mr Usman Ghani and Mr Mohammad Khalil Khan of Sadar Bazar, Delhi, are seeking a perpetual injunction against Satyarth Prakash on grounds that it hurts their religious feelings</b>. Their specific objections pertain to paragraph 143 and 159 (English edition). To expound upon the merits of their pleas would be to unilaterally engage in comparative religion, which may polarise communities without resolving the issue scripturally or academically. This is not the first attempt to ban this 135-year-old text; hitherto courts have given short shrift to attempts to communalise established texts.

Instead of misusing contemporary constitutional provisions to ban a text that has played a major role in India's historical and political awakening, inspiring freedom fighters like Lala Lajpat Rai to lay down their lives for the country; it may be rewarding to understand the context in which Satyarth Prakash was written. Religious scholars generally agree that Swami Dayanand did not have a complete understanding of the religious traditions he critiqued, though there was some merit in the faults he found therein, including Hindu dharma. Arya Samajis have not sought a ban on religious texts containing passages abhorred by Swami Dayanand (and many lay citizens); nor have other Hindu groups sought a ban on Satyarth Prakash for finding flaws in their religious practices.

One may specifically mention Swami Dayanand's critique of image worship, once zealously embraced by a generation of Hindus in north India, as renunciation of image worship negated the colonial-missionary attack on 'idolators' and revived collective self-esteem during the freedom struggle. However, as the need for such dissimulation is now over, Arya Samaji women coyly admit that moorti-pooja is no longer frowned upon so vigorously, and practices like nazar (warding off the evil eye on children) are making a quiet comeback. I mention this because many Hindu spiritual leaders with foreign disciples are defensive about 'idolatory' in the Hindu tradition and even today seek to interpret dharma in terms consistent with monotheistic traditions.

The petition against Satyarth Prakash is not a technical issue of freedom of speech (Article 19) of either side. Indeed, there are no sides here, because the intention of the author was to critique with a view to energise a half-dead people to national consciousness, and not to wound religious sentiments. It is in this context that the petitioners should understand the book and withdraw their petition. 
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[G.Subramaniam]

The satyarth prakash is the only book that damns islam
thats why the muslims want to ban it

The koran needs to be banned since it damns xtians, jews and hindus

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-G.Subramaniam+Jul 22 2008, 10:09 AM-->QUOTE(G.Subramaniam @ Jul 22 2008, 10:09 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->The satyarth prakash is the only book that damns islam
thats why the muslims want to ban it

The koran needs to be banned since it damns xtians, jews and hindus
[right][snapback]84804[/snapback][/right]
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Koran is insult on woman, half of world population.

[Husky]

Victory 1:
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/36087
via http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2008/11/cou...gious-book.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->New Delhi, Nov 10 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Monday lifted the ban on the publication of the Hindu religious book "Satyarth Prakash" written by leading social reformer Swamy Dayanand Saraswati 135 years ago.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->