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Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1824 - 1883)
Social and religious reformer Swami Dayananda Saraswati was born on 12 February 1824 at Tankara, Gujarat.
He learnt Sanskrit and the Vedas in his childhood. He decided to lead an ascetic life and ran away from home.
He spent 25 years as a wandering ascetic and travelled to the Himalayas and other religious places in northern India.
He also started practicing Yoga during this time. His teacher in all things spiritual was Virajanand Dandeesha.
Dayananda understood that Hinduism had strayed away from its roots and had become tainted. He decided that to restore the true religion, it was needed to go back to the Vedas.
He preached against the giving of donations to priests. He was staunchly against rituals and superstitions. He also advocated against the extolled position of priests in Hinduism.
He also challenged established scholars and won debates against them through the strength of the Vedas.
He extolled spiritualism and nationalism, and appealed to the people to fight for Swarajya.
He also exhorted the importance of cows for the prosperity of the nation, and encouraged the adoption of Hindi for national integration.
He stressed on the importance of education of all children and preached respect and equal rights for women.
He also established Vedic schools for the education of girls and boys of all castes. The students of these schools were given free books, clothing, lodging and food, and were taught the Vedas and other ancient scriptures.
He founded the Arya Samaj in April, 1875. Through this reform movement, he stressed on One God and rejected idol worship.
Arya Samaj was also involved in Shuddhi ceremonies to reconvert people who had converted from Hinduism to other faiths.
He wrote many books. His major contribution is the Satyartha Prakash. Other books include the Sanskarvidhi, Rigved Bhashyam, etc.
He was admired by Swami Vivekananda, Subhash Chandra Bose, Bipin Chandra Pal, Vallabhbhai Patel, Romain Rolland, etc.
According to S Radhakrishnan, some reforms included in the Indian Constitution were influenced by Dayananda.
Dayananda was poisoned during his stay at the palace of the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Jaswant Singh II.
He succumbed to the injury suffered at Ajmer, where he was sent for better treatment on 26th October 1883. He was 59.
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