MAHARSHI DAYANAND

Maharshi Swami Dayanand Saraswati
[1825 – 1883]
 
Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati, before he became a sanyasin, bore the name of Mulshankar. He was borne in 1824 in state of Morvi in Kathiyawar, Gujrat. His father Karshan ji Lal ji Tiwari, was an orthodox Brahmin and a devout worshiper of Lord Shiva. Mulshankar’s Sanskrit education began at the age of five and he was invested with the sacred thread in his eighth year. By the time he was fourteen he had committed to memory the whole of the of Yajurveda and several portion of other Vedas. In his fourteenth year, on the Shivaratri day, he was commanded by his father to participate in the night long vigil in the temple of Shiva. His father and the other devotees soon fall asleep. Young Mulshankar now and then bathed his eyes with cold water and heroically withstood the temptation to go to sleep. Then came a hideous doubt in his mind whether the stone image of Shiva before him bestriding a bull and holding a trident in his hand and beating a drum, and allowing live rats to crawl over its body- whether this idol, could indeed be the Lord of Kailash, the Supreme being. He roused his father from his sleep and asked him to clear his doubts. His father in the usual way explained that Shiva could not be perceived directly in this Kali Age, and hence people had to the idol representing God and consecrated by Vedic mantras for the purposes of worship. The boy was not satisfied with such an explanation and went home. He broke his fast and put an end to his vigil, as he had made up his mind to break away once and for all from idol worship.
 
There are other incidents in his life that left indelible marks on his mind-the death of his sister and of his uncle whom he had loved so passionately. These painful experiences only helped him to intensify the inner enquiry about the higher question of life. He began to have serious misgivings about capacity of prevailing religious systems to provide satisfying answers to these serious queries regarding life, death and sufferings. He however went on with his studies with redoubled energy, resolving to attain liberation through the practice of yoga and thus triumph over death. His parents came to know of his resolve and were determined to get him married so that he might not renounce the world in preference for a life of renunciation. When his protests were of no avail and day was fixed for his wedding, he fled from his home and became a Sadhu and changed his name to Brahmachari Shuddha Chaitanya. Shuddha Chaitanya wondered here and there in search of truth and knowledge and met a Sanyasi Swami Purnanand Saraswati. This Sanyasi initiated him in to the Saraswati order and gave a new name Dayanand Saraswati.

Dyanand Saraswati took an exhaustive tour of India. It was during this time that he practiced yoga and learnt Vedanta Philosophy. In search of a teacher who could give him the right clues to knowledge he wondered from place to palace. All this time, he met only with those who could make good show with the outer paraphernalia of so-called religious life. After fifteen years restless wondering from place to place and from teacher to teacher, in 1860 Dayanand reached Mathuara and found a Guru after his own heart. This was a blind Sanyasi called Virajanand Dandi, a great authority on Sanskrit grammar and man of heroic mould. His hatred of image worship, and of the traditional system of teaching was consuming fire. His soul was the full of purity and greatness of India’s glorious past.

This man’s influence on Dayanand was permanent. It was who he made clear to the young man his mission of life. Dayanand stayed with his Guru for two and of half years at Mathura. He was taught to have implicit faith in the ancient books written by Rishis.On the completion of his study, the Dakshina, the fee demanded by his guru was solemn pledge on the part of his pupil to devote his life to the dissemination of truth and to wage incessant war on the falsehood of Puranic Hinduism and restore the true teaching of the Vedas. His words were-“ Promise me that you will, as long as you live, devote everything , even give up your life, to the propagation in India of the books of the Rishis and Vedic Religion”.

The next twelve years of Dayanand’s life were years of preparation for the tremendous task set before him. He left his master in 1863 and visited Agra, Gwalior, Jaipur, Pushkar, Ajmer, Hridwar,Benaras and several other places-holding discussions with pandits and fearlessly criticizing orthodox opinions and denouncing idolatry. It was Bombay (Mumbai) that his mission took a definite shape by the publication in early 1875 of his major book, the Satyarth Prakash, and by the establishment of the Aryasamaj on 10,April 1875.

The next twelve years of Dayanand’s life were years of preparation for the tremendous task set before him. He left his master in 1863 and visited Agra, Gwalior, Jaipur, Pushkar, Ajmer, Hridwar,Benaras and several other places-holding discussions with pandits and fearlessly criticizing orthodox opinions and denouncing idolatry. It was Bombay (Mumbai) that his mission took a definite shape by the publication in early 1875 of his major book, the Satyarth Prakash, and by the establishment of the Aryasamaj on 10,April 1875. The rest of Dayanand’s life was spent in organizing the branches of the Samaj and in translating the Vedas in to Hindi, in addition to writing other texts explaining his ideas. His principal works are- The Satyarth Prakash, the Rigvedadi Bhashyabhoomika and the Sanskarvidhi. During this time he met the members of the Prathana samaj and the Theosophical Socity, but the latter could not come to terms with his revolutionary ideas and Dayanand had to part company with them. Throughout his life Dayanand had to bear abuse, calumny, violence and even attempts on his life. But his courage purity of his character and his single minded devotion to his purpose bore down all apposition. He always advocated for truth and knowledge, as he writes in the fourth and eighth principals of Aryasamaj.

“One should always be prepared to accept truth and reject falsehood”. “One should always promote knowledge and dispel ignorance”.

At Jodhapur, he was fatally poisoned and passed away on October30, 1883 at the age of fifty-nine.

Scholars compare Maharshi Dayanand with Martin Luther. At close look of Luther and Dayanand would reveal many points of contact between the two. As Luther a German monk, was child of the European renaissance, so Dayanand, the Gujrat born monk, was a child of Indian renaissance. Both alike felt the tug of ‘Zeitgeist’. Both in there different ways become exponents of the new spirit. Luther attacked indulgences, while Dayanand attacked idolatry among other things. Luther appealed from the Roman Church and the authority of the tradition to the scriptures of the old and new testaments. Dayanand appealed from the Brahmanical Church and the authority of the Shruti and Smriti texts to the earliest and most sacred of Indian scriptures. The watchword Luther was “ Back to the Bible”, while that of Dayanand was “Back to the Vedas”.