Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati

Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati   (Born:12 February 1824 – Died:30 October 1883) was an important Hindu religious scholar, reformer, and founder of the Arya Samaj, aHindu reform movement. He was the first to give the call for Swarajya – "India for Indians" – in 1876, later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak. Denouncing the idolatry and ritualistic worship prevalent in Hinduism at the time, he worked towards reviving Vedic ideologies. Subsequently the philosopher and President of India, S. Radhakrishnan, called him one of "makers of Modern India," as did Sri Aurobindo. Dayananda was born on February 12 in 1824, in the town of Tankara, near Morvi (Morbi) in the Kathiawar region (since India's independence in 1947 Rajkot district) of the princely state of Gujarat, into the affluent and devout Saryupareen Brahmins family of Karshanji Lalji Tiwari and his wife Yashodabai. Since he was born under Mul Nakshatra, he was named "Mulshankar", and led a comfortable early life, studying Sanskrit, the Vedas and other religious texts to prepare himself for a future as a Hindu priest. A number of incidents in early childhood resulted in Dayananda's questioning the traditional beliefs of Hinduism and inquiring about God. While still a young child, when his family went to a temple for overnight worship on the night of Maha Shivratri, he stayed up waiting for Lord Shiva to appear to accept the offerings made to his idol. While his family slept, Dayananda saw a mouse eating the offerings. He was utterly surprised and wondered how a God who cannot protect even his own offerings would protect humanity. He argued with his father that they should not be worshipping such a helpless God . Dayananda mission was to tell the humankind for Universal Brotherhood through nobility as spelt out in Vedas and his first step was to take up the difficult task of reforming Hinduism with dedication despite multiple repeated attempts on his life. He traveled the country challenging religious scholars and priests to... [continues]

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