Swami Dayananda Sarasvati

Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1930 - )is a distinguished Hindu teacher of Vedanta and Sanskrit in the tradition of Adi Shankara.

After receiving sannyasa (formal renunciation) in 1962, he devoted his life to the study and teaching of Vedanta, Swami Dayananda's initial exposure to the Upanisads was through Sri Swami Chinmayananda. He studied Sanskrit under Professor Veera Raghavacharya and Vedanta under Swami Pranavananda and Swami Tarananda.

Swami Dayananda has been teaching Vedanta in India for more than five decades and around the world since 1976, in both intensive resident courses and public discourse. He is a master in conveying the non-dual vision of Hinduism, and is acknowledged as such by such venerable figures as the Acaryas of Kanchi.

His deep scholarship and assimilation of Vedanta combined with a subtle appreciation of contemporary problems make him that rare teacher who can reach both traditional and modern students.

A teacher of teachers, Swami Dayananda designed and taught six resident in-depth Vedanta courses, each spanning 30 to 36 months.

Four were conducted in India, and two in the United States. Each course graduated about 60 qualified acharyas,teachers, who are now teaching around the world. More than one hundred are now renunciates (sannyasis) and are highly respected as scholars and teachers throughout India and abroad.

Under Swami Dayananda's guidance, various centers of Vedic teaching have been founded around the world - two primary centers in India at Rishikesh and Coimbatore and one in the U.S. at Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. At present there are more than one hundred centers in India and abroad that carry on the same tradition of Vedantic teaching.

In addition to teaching, Swami Dayananda has initiated and supported various philanthropic efforts. The most recent and far-reaching of these is the establishment of the AIM (All India Movement ) for Seva, with the blessings of the members of the Acharya Sabha.

Chaired by the Former President of India Sri R. Venkatraman, this organization provides care for people isolated from the main-stream society, all over India through developmental programs in the fields of education, health-care, self-help for women, micro-finance, environment protection and improvement and cultural validation.

Swami Dayananda has also participated in international forums such as the United Nations gathering of NGOs in 1980 where he spoke on "The Moral Imperatives of Ending the Arms Race", the UNESCO Seoul Global Convention where he spoke on "Tolerance, Restoration of Morality and Humanity" in September, 1995; the United Nations 50th Anniversary Celebration where he represented the Shankaracarya of Kanchi in October, 1995, the Millennium World Peace Summit where he represented the Hindu delegation in New York,

September 2000; the International Congress for the Preservation of Religious Diversity, which he initiated and co-chaired in Delhi, November 2001; the Conference on the Preservation of Sacred Sites in Taipei in June, 2002; the World Council for Preservation of Religious Diversity, which he also initiated and co-chaired in Bangkok June, 2002; the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders, which he helped organize and for which he delivered the keynote address in Geneva, October 2002; initiated a Hindu-Christian dialogue with the World Council of Churches in Geneva, October 2002, and the Foundation for the Future where he is one of 73 Participant Scholars for The Next Thousand Years television series. He also particiapted in the Youth Peace Summit in Nairobi 2003.

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(स्‍वामी दयानन्‍द सरस्‍वती) (1824 - 1883) was born in Gujarat, India. The Arya Samaj, a great Hindu reform movement, was founded by him in 1875. He was a sannyasin (renouncer) and an original scholar who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda advocated the doctrine of karma and rebirth, and emphasised the ideals of brahmacarya (chastity) and sanyasa (renunciation).

Far from borrowing concepts from other religions, as Ram Mohan Roy had done, Swami Dayananda was fiercely critical of Islam and Christianity as may be seen in his book Satyartha Prakasha. He was against what he considered to be the corruption of the pure faith in his own country. Unlike many other reform movements within Hinduism, the Arya Samaj's appeal was addressed not to the educated few but to the Indian nation as a whole.

The Arya Samaj unequivocally condemned idolatry, animal sacrifices, ancestor worship, pilgrimages, priestcraft, offerings made in temples, the caste system, untouchability and child marriages, on the grounds that all these lacked Vedic sanction. It aimed to be a universal "church" based on the authority of the Vedas.

Dayananda’s concept of Dharma is succinctly set forth in his Beliefs and Disbeliefs. He says "I accept as Dharma whatever is in full conformity with impartial justice, truthfulness and the like; that which is not opposed to the teachings of God as embodied in the Vedas. Whatever is not free from partiality and is unjust, partaking of untruth and the like, and opposed to the teachings of God as embodied in the Vedas - that I hold as adharma." Again he says "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."

He was the first among the great Indian stalwarts who popularised the concept fo Swaraj - that is, right to self-determination vested in Indians, when India was ruled by the British.

External links

• Satyarth Prakash - THE "LIGHT OF TRUTH" by Swami Dayanand http://www.aryasamajjamnagar.org/satyarth_prakash_eng.htm Online book