Dayanand Saraswati was an important Hindu religious leader of his time. He is well known as the founder of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement of the Vedic tradition. He was a profound scholar of the Vedic lore and Sanskrit language.
Background
Dayanand Saraswati was born in Tankara. His father's name was Karshanji Lalji Tiwari and mother's name was Yashodabai. His father was the head of an eminent Brahmin family of the village.
The deaths of his younger sister and his uncle from cholera caused Dayananda to ponder the meaning of life and death and he started asking questions which worried his parents. In 1846 ran away from home.
Dayananda Sarasvati spent nearly twenty-five years, from 1845 to 1869, as a wandering ascetic, searching for religious truth. He lived in jungles, in retreats in the Himalayan Mountains, and at a number of pilgrimage sites in northern India. During these years Dayananda Sarasvati practiced various forms of yoga.
Religion
He founded Arya Samaj enunciating the Ten Universal Principles as a code for Universalism Krinvanto Vishwaryam meaning the whole world be an abode for Nobles (Aryas). Through his daily life and practice of yoga and asanas, teachings, preachings, sermons and writings, he inspired the Hindu nation to aspire to Swarajya (self governance), nationalism, and spiritualism. Swami Dayanand did logical, scientific and critical analyses of all faiths i.e. Christianity and Islam as well as of other Indian faiths like Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. He posited that Brahman could be the only God, and denied the existence of the lower gods.
Views
Swami Dayanand's main message - "Back to the Vedas" - formed the bedrock of all his thoughts and actions. In fact, he spent a lifetime preaching against many Hindu customs and traditions that were meaningless and oppressive, according to him.
Quotations:
"He, who after careful thinking, is ever ready to accept truth and reject falsehood; who counts the happiness of others as he does that of his own self, him I call just."
