LIFE OF MAHARSHI DAYANANDA SARASWATI

At that time, Bharat Mata was under British rule

Country was under economic backwardness, social evils like Sati tradition, un-touchability, child marriage, blind beliefs, illiteracy, belief in miracles etc.

Birth on Phalgun Krishna Dasmi 1881 Vikram Samwat i.e. 12th Feb, 1824

Village Tankara, Gujarat. Name – Mool Shankar Mother – Amrithbai Father – Karsan Ji Tiwari,

Tax collector & rich person

Father was religious person & staunch devotee of Lord Shiva & wanted his son also be a religious person

At age 8, Mool Shankar’s Upnayan (Sacred Thread) ceremony was performed

On Father’s inspiration, Mool Shankar decided to keep fast & keep awake whole night on Shivaratri

But when he observed a rat running on the idol and eating the offerings, he was surprised as to how come the idol is Shiva, if he can’t remove a rat.

He understood the futility of idol worship & decided to seek darshan of true Shiva.

Turning point came in his life with death of younger sister & uncle, which made him think about agony of death and purpose of life.

He started thinking of renouncing worldly life.

So, later when his family planned his marriage, he left his home in 1846, with an intent of never to return back.

Having started his journey in search of true Shiva, Moolshankar met some thugs.

They persuaded him to renounce the costly items which he did and proceeded on his journey on high mission.

He started in search of true yogi but most of them had aim only to misguide ignorant masses.

Stayed at Kot Kangra for 3 months & got name as Brahmchari Shudh Chaitanya.

Went to Sidhpur fair for search of true Guru but his father reached there & took him back to home in Tankara.

On third night, when guards were in deep sleep, he ran away from home.

Swami Purnanand Ji initiated him as ‘sanyasi’ & gave him name as ‘Swami Dayanand Saraswati’.

He got yog vidya from Yogi Shivanand Giri and Yogi Jwala Nand Giri at Chanod.

He was offered priesthood of Uhki-Muth, which had big income & large property but he refused as his aim of life was to attain Salvation.

In search of true Guru, he travelled extensively on foot. From Gujarat to Rajasthan to Haridwar, he started his journey to Himalayas.

In forest of Narmada valley, a big black bear rushed to attack him but instead, he attacked the bear with his thick stick & bear returned back to forest. He was fearless sanyasi.

Heard about Swami Virjanand Ji, he reached Mathura.

But Guru told him to forget all he had learned till now & start afresh with the books written by great rishis.

As a student in ashram, he got duties to fetch water from river Yamuna and clean the ashram with broom.

Swamiji was able to defeat other students in religious discourses, as Guru saw him as the only student who could do ‘Ved Prachar’.

He offered cloves in Guru Dakshina. But Guru said that the whole country is suffering from ignorance, blind belief and other social and religious evils. Take the light of truth of Vedas and enlighten the humanity. This will be your Guru Dakshina.

Swamiji started working on social issues & discussed cow-slaughter with British officers & got a petition sent to Queen Victoria to ban cow-slaughter.

In Khumbh in Haridwar, he hoisted a flag with ‘Pakhand Khandini Patakha’ & started his discourses.

People started to listen & understand his logic.

A brahmin, angered by Swamiji gave poisonous betal but he recovered through yoga practices.

He let the culprit go free as he said, I have come to free people from bondage.

He wanted to create unity in Hindu Society and to eliminate restrictions on sharing meals as he accepted food from a lower caste person.

He defeated a lot of pundits in discourses (shasatrathas). They were influenced by his logic and drowned their idols in rive Ganga. This brought great name and fame to Maharishi.

In Kashi as well, the pundits could not produce any evidence of Idol worship from Vedas.

He devoted his life for the revival of the Vedas, for the removal of the social evils, bad customs and blind belief.

On 7th April 1875, Arya Samaj was established in Bombay with 10 principles.

Motto – Krinvanto Vishwam Aryam – i.e. Make the world noble.

He was the first person to ask about Swaraj. He said “However nice a foreign govt. may be, it can never compete with Swaraj.”

He stressed on people to use articles prepared by their own country men.

He also stressed Hindi to be main language of India.

Works of Swami Dayanand Sandhya Satyarth Prakash Yajurveda and Rgveda

Bhashya Sanskrit Vakya Prabhodha Bhranti Niwarana Gokaruna Nidthi Vedanti Dhvant Niwarana Panch Maha Yajna Vidthi Advaita Mat Khandanam

Arya Samaj movement paved the way for upliftment of women through educational opportunities, removal of social evils like smoking, drinking, sati tradition, purdah system, animal sacrifice, ancestor worship, pilgrimages etc.

The United States, Canada, Trinidad, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Kenya, South Africa, Malawi, Mauritius, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia are some of the countries where the Samaj has its branches.

Pictures & story inspired from http://tinyurl.com/c5oj2dk & various other online sources