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DAYANAND SARASWATI: A Prophet of
Modern Hinduism
- G.B. Singh
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More
than thirty-five years ago I graduated from D.A.V. College in Amritsar. Credit
truly goes to this fine institution that I still cherish my fond memories of
the educational experience. Even though D.A.V. College is named after a man
called “Dayanand”, most students knew next to nothing about him and nor were we taught anything about him. Then
in the early 1970s a minor incident occurred that surprised many of us. The
Punjab Government decided to realign some colleges to affiliate with the newly
created Guru Nanak University located in Amritsar. A number of colleges
including those in Amritsar were included in this transfer category and
surprisingly this decision caused uproar among them. Apparently these colleges
were content with their affiliation with the Punjab University in Chandigarh,
and resented strongly being reassigned to Guru Nanak University. As a young
student I heard distressing rumors that these D.A.V. colleges didn’t think much
of the name of Guru Nanak, which to me was baffling all the more because I held
D.A.V. colleges in high esteem just as I held Guru Nanak’s name. I graduated
and moved on but the question remained in my remote memory as to why such
institutions of higher learning like the D.A.V colleges resented being linked
to the name of Guru Nanak via a university affiliation.
After
commissioning in the U.S. Army and weeks before leading to the 1984 tragedies
affecting the Sikhs in India, I read a few reports highlighting the role that
Arya Samaj played in the breakdown of Punjabi society both before and after
Punjab’s partition in 1947. Swami Dayananda about whom I did not know much at
that time founded Arya Samaj. I have always exercised caution while reading
news authored by various Indian groups including the Sikhs. Finally the
circumstances had descended for me to begin unveiling the mystery of Arya Samaj
and its founder Swami Dayanand. Little was I prepared when in 1991 I read the Satyarth Prakash, Dayananda’s master
literature, which left me stunned for days. Before I dwell further on the
Swami, let me say a few words on modern Hinduism, an understanding of which is
essential here.
What is
modern Hinduism?
With the
introduction of British colonialism in the Bengal region of India a new
ideology took birth that was to transform classical and/or popular Hinduism. In
other words, modern Hinduism (also referred to as reformatory Hinduism) is a
reinterpretation of Hindu scriptures or Hindu ideas based upon the following
six competing aggressive factors: (1) European colonialism; (2) Christian
missions; (3) Western education & technology; (4) Western means of propaganda
& disinformation; (5) Theosophy; and (6) Freemasonry. Over the years
various interpretations had appeared on the horizon starting with the Brahmo Samaj and its various
tributaries. Men who brought forth these new interpretations are the ones whom
I call “Prophets of modern Hinduism.” They range from RamMohan Roy in Bengal to
Mahatma Gandhi of Gujarat. In fact among the cadres of these prophets, all
hailed from Bengal with the exception of two from Gujarat namely Swami
Dayananda and Mahatma Gandhi. It should be noted that both Gandhi and Dayanand
exerted far-reaching negative impact on Punjab. While popular imagination is
entrenched in thinking that modern Hinduism is after all a reformatory movement
and therefore a far better alternative to its predecessor, I contend that
modern Hinduism is far more precarious ideologically with its unending
mutations at any given opportunity and it can, and has, seriously undermined
both the Hindus and their neighbors including the Sikhs. This characteristic of
modern Hinduism is absolutely essential to unfolding the mystery surrounding
Swami Dayananda and his legacy.
I have
been researching Swami Dayananda off and on for the last sixteen years.
Dayanand was a big man full of unending supply of inner energies, determinations,
zeal, resolve, and so forth. He cherished a sincere desire to seek answers to
many mysteries that grapple a thinking person, and he would travel
extraordinary distances often in unfriendly territories hoping to find answers.
Imbued with that hungry spirit, amazingly Swami would seek debates with his
opponents and open the books including the Hindu scriptures. All in all this
man, while on road, carried a significant load of reading materials plus other
items. Such was his unquenchable thirst to learn. There are more admirable
qualities about him but I think you got the idea.
Dayanand’s
story began in a small town of Tankara, Gujarat in 1824; born with a name of
DayaRam Mulshankar, the Swami was nicknamed Mulji. Expectedly his Brahman
parents were deeply religious within the Shaivite tradition and rightly so
harbored great aspirations for Mulji. By the age of 22 years (1846) Mujli’s
life was anything but stable; there was a storm brewing inside of him and he
ran away from home. Shortly thereafter he was bestowed with the coveted title
and he became Swami Dayanand Saraswati. Life away from home and barely existing
on the dusty road and back alleys for the next 15 years in faraway inhospitable
places as a sannayasi pursuing yoga and surviving by begging is no easy
lifestyle. Then, why pursue such a life? The Swami’s answer would be moksha.
I suspect Mulji was already experiencing psychological challenges, but I can’t
cast a definitive critical eye on his early years (evidence is lacking). The
Swami’s life as a yogi is a specimen for closer examination, however.
If
Dayanand’s younger years at home were healthy (suspicion is otherwise), I
believe yoga seriously undermined Swami’s critical faculties, and possibly
afflicted him with a bipolar-like personality disorder. Swami devoted
significant time and effort to master the yoga, a task fraught with dangers.
Reading his biographies one can’t escape turmoil the Swami was in. Here is an
example: While on the banks of Ganges, upon seeing a corpse floating, Swami
jumped and dragged the body out to examine it’s inside using his pocket knife.
He cut open the body to inspect the heart, head, neck, etc. trying to verify
the yoga anatomical details. Not finding them the frustrations grew. One can
imagine Swami’s mental framework! It should come as no surprise to know that he
could not find the chakras and the nadis via gross anatomy, which leads me
to believe that Swami hadn’t been reading the yoga scriptures carefully.
Nonetheless this wild experience should have convinced him to reevaluate the
field of Hindu spirituality. But I can’t find that moment; all I find is more
turmoil in him.
Further
down in time, Swami found himself poisoned and he at once resorted to applying Neoli-karm, apparently one of the yogic dhoutis.
Swami descended into the Ganges water, swallowed large quantities of this
polluted water and passed it out via his anus in an attempt to flush his entire
gastrointestinal system. By this way we are told, Swami saved his life. If this
incident is true it points to the fact that Swami was deep into the yoga
practices and no surprise to those of us who study Yoga that such yogic complex
techniques point to his psychological instabilities. If this were not enough
Dayanand acquired the habit of ingesting bhang.
As stated
earlier these roughly fifteen years of pursuing yoga devastated the Swami
especially his mental health if not the physical health. Swami needed a quick
rescue and in 1860, Swami Virjanand Saraswati (1779-1868) of Mathura is
credited for saving Dayanand. For the next three years, Mulji received
instructions and then was commissioned to restore glory to Aryavarta and reestablish pristine Vedic knowledge at the expense
of all other false religions. To put it mildly, as Arthur Koestler would sum
it, Swami was tasked to become a Yogi and the Commissar – a perfect blend of
both politics and religion. The image of Swami Dayananda that we have inherited
as a reformer had its roots at this stage of his life. At this time, I will
stop the biography and concentrate on Swami’s important teachings.
VEDAS & the Vedic Literature
Dayanand
considered Vedas to be eternal, meaning they existed before the universe came
into being and authored by God himself. Using his brand of hermeneutics, Swami
radically altered the teachings of Vedas thereby bringing them in conformity
with the Semitic religions of Islam and Christianity. This of course didn’t go
well at many places, especially where scholars and prominent people knew
Sanskrit. In Punjab, however, the situation was different due to the
susceptibility of educated Hindu Punjabi Khatri and his receptiveness to the
new Vedic interpretation. Neither knowing Sanskrit and nor being versed in the
Hindu scriptures these Punjabi Hindus swallowed the whole of Swami’s Vedas. Sensing his incredible successes in Punjab,
Swami contacted the Punjab government to lay validity to his Vedic commentary.
Hardly a surprise, the Punjab government along with its cadre of Vedic scholars
rejected the Swami. Even Max Muller commented,
“By the most incredible interpretations Swami Dayanand succeeded in persuading himself and others that everything worth knowing, even the most recent inventions of modern science, were alluded to in the Vedas.”
One
man named Shiv Narayan Agnihotri (later, Satyananda Agnihotri) emerges as an
intellectual giant of Punjab. Based upon his intense dealings with the Swami,
Agnihotri accused him of (1) embezzlement, (2) hypocrisy, (3) the teachings of
immorality (4) arrogance, and (5) misrepresentations of the Vedas.
Unfortunately, the Punjabi Hindu, brainwashed in Arya Samaj, was in no mood to
listen to Agnihotri. Incidentally, this is the same Agnihotri who almost forty
years later warned Punjabis and other Indians to beware of Mahatma Gandhi.
Agnihotri was the first Indian to recognize that race hatred is the modus
operandi by which Gandhi worked his politics. The tragedy is that in both cases
he failed to convince his fellow Punjabis of these two Gujaratis in their
midst.
Bhai
Ditt Singh (1853-1901) had a singular honor of joining the ranks of Swami
during his Punjab journey. Ditt Singh experienced another rare fortunate
incident when he renounced the Swami upon learning uncomfortable version of his
sermons. During this up close sessions, Singh literally witnessed how intricate
and methodical the Vedic interpretations were made:
Swami Dayanand reflected a considerable amount
of flexibility in changing his interpretation of Vedas according to the need of
the hour. For instance, in one of his discourses at Lahore, he said that the
sun revolved around the earth. Back home, his admirers told him that people
will think poor of Vedas as the latest scientific knowledgeable reveals that
earth revolves around the sun. The following day, Swami Dayanand revised his interpretation
of Vedas accordingly.
The
Caste System and Racism
Although
on the surface Dayanand looked reformed, however, on closer inspection he
appears casteist and downright racist. In other words, the caste system stays intact,
perhaps more solidified, if Swami’s prescription of Hindu totalitarianism were
to be implemented. On page 266 [Bharadwaja’s translation] of Satyarth Prakash, we read him by citing
the Atharva Veda:
“The
Dwijas (the twice-born)—Brahmanas, Ksyatriyas, Vaishyas—are
called Aryas, while the Shudras are called Anaryas, or Non-Aryas.”
Swami continues his racial rhetoric:
In the face of these Vedic authorities how can
sensible people believe in the imaginary tales of the foreigners. In the Devasura wars, Prince Arjuna and King Dashratha and others of Aryavarta
used to go to the assistance of the Aryas
in order to crush the Asuras…. But
the war which Ram Chandra waged in the south against Ravana—the king of
Ceylon—is called … war between the Aryas
and Rakshasas. Besides, Manu also corroborates our position. He
says, “The countries other than Aryavarta
are called Dasyu and Maleschha
countries.” The people living in the north-east, north, north-west and west of Aryavarta were called Dasyus, Asuras and Malechhas,
while those living in the south, south-east and south-west were called Rakshasas. You can still see that the
description of Rakshasas given
therein tallies with the ugly appearance of the Negroes of today….
Hindu
reformers like Dayananda would play with words and the concepts giving out
different images of caste reforms without ever acknowledging that deceptive
rhetoric is meant to throw off others by creating confusion. Careful reading of
Swami’s political ideas throws some light insofar as his idea of a Hindu totalitarian state. One can only
imagine the creation of state’s bureaucracy handling the caste matters! Dr.
Rudolf Hoernle (Principal, Banaras Sanskrit College) made the following
remarks:
The [caste] the reformer [Dayananda] considers
only as a political institution made by the rulers for the common good of
society and not a natural or religious distinction…. The castes are simply
different professions or guilds (adhikaras), established by the state to
guard against confusion and mutual interference, and for the better
establishment of the different works. Each class was made into a guild and
furnished with its rights and privileges and made hereditary. But, as the whole
classification is a creation of the state, any Sudra, who is deserving of the
promotion, can be made by the state a Vaisya or Kshattriya or Brahmana, if he
qualifies for the work of the respective class. Likewise any Brahmana, who
deserves the degradation can be made by the state a Sudra. In fact, any
Brahmana who is disqualified for the work, becomes at once a Sudra de jure, and a Sudra, who qualifies for
it, becomes at once a Brahmana de jure;
though neither can become so de facto
also either by his own will or the will of others, as long as the state does
not make him so.
On the surface Swami has made a reform here because seemingly the idea of hereditary castes is no longer Vedic and, the non-hereditary caste system is to be run and maintained by the State. In other words, what sounded as reform turned out to be no reform: If the caste system cannot be protected by claiming the religious doctrines for whatever reasons then come up with the political design to accomplish the same. The end result is still the same. There is no evidence in place where Swami as an authority ever crossed the caste lines to intermingle or eat with the lower castes. At one time he refused to dine with Sayed Ahmed Khan, and on another occasion he refused to eat a Brahmo’s food because it had been prepared by a low-caste female. Once in Banaras, Swami left a room where a Muslim was present to have a drink of water.
Immoralities
Swami
remained single throughout his life. Whether he experienced any sexual
encounters of any variety is hard to tell since the literature is silent on
this fact. For sake of understanding, let’s say you are married and you find
out your wife is pregnant. Given your beliefs, consider that you must refrain
from any sexual activity until your wife delivers a baby. In the meantime how
do you handle your sexual urges? Swami has an answer: Go ahead with sexual
intercourse with someone else provided you do it according to the Vedic
instructions -- read page 140 of Satyarth
Prakash. In no way this recommendation is different from Islam’s
sanctioning of “temporary marriage” called Mutah.
Swami spelled out a wild doctrine of niyoga. I ask the reader to browse
through pages 130 to 140 of Satyarth
Prakash to grasp what niyoga is. Many fair-minded Hindus and others were
incensed at the Swami for uttering such immoral nonsense. Manusmriti sanctions sex outside the norm in a narrowly prescribed
manner. But the Swami, being never a careful reader, overextended Manu’s
sanctions and created a scandal against him. His brainwashed followers brought
suit against those ridiculing the niyoga. I am thankful to John Campbell Oman
for bringing to my attention the following: “Courts pronounced the tenets of
the Arya Samaj in regard to Niyoga to be undoubtedly immoral.”
Sex
You
will never conceive of Swami being a sex therapist. The details are interesting
and I will ask the prospective student to procure Swami’s Sanskara Vidhi along with Satyarth
Prakash to dig deeper and extract the juice. Here my aim is different. On page 106 of Satyarth Prakash, Swami takes you on a sweet road:
Let the husband follow the proper method of
discharging semen and the wife that of drawing it up. As far as possible, they
should never waste their reproductive elements perfected and preserved by the
practice of Brahmacharya, because the
children born of the union of such reproductive elements (male and female) are
of a very superior order. When during the act of sexual intercourse the semen
is about to be discharged, let them be quite still, let the nose of one be
quite opposite to that of the other, and the eyes of one to those of the other
and so on; in other words, their bodies should be quite straight, and their
minds perfectly happy. Their bodies should not bend one way or the other. Let
the husband relax his body, and the wife, as soon as the semen enters her
vagina, draw up her breath, pull together her genitals and draw up the semen,
so that it finally rests in the uterus. An enlightened woman will know at that
very moment if she has conceived.
I
could not stop thinking as to where in Vedic literature Dayanand picked up
these ideas? As it turned my suspicion was correct and indeed it is Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad. This
Upanishad is the largest and probably the most important of all Upanishads.
Swami’s quote is eerily similar to what is prescribed in Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad.
If
there is an example of a Vedic sex specialist, Swami would fit the picture
well. Prof. Jordens wrote this paragraph, “For instance, he [Dayananda]
specified the particular nights of a woman’s menstrual cycle when intercourse
would lead to the conception of a male or of a female child; he also prescribed
a special diet that would ensure impregnation if it did not occur promptly
enough.”
Jordens
referenced this paragraph from “Rishi
Dayananda Saraswati ke Patra aur Vijnapan,” 2nd edition (1955)
pages 451-52. Obviously Swami believed in more Vedic-derived ideas recorded
beyond the confines of his Satyarth
Prakash. Again I felt that Jordens’ above paragraph also jarringly
resembled those teachings sprouting from Brihad-Aranyaka
Upanishad. I have been contemplating about Swami Dayananda and wondering
what more did he truly believe out of this famous Upanishad. For reasons that
will become clearer and I prefer not to comment on it any further, but I will
suggest you read the following entire twenty-eight verses dealing with “incantations and ceremonies for
procreation,” of
the fourth Brahmana—section of SIXTH ADHYÂYA of Brihad-Aranyaka
Upanishad: (Specific to the red colored section, I forewarn this may not be
suitable for some readers)
1. Verily, of created
things here earth is the essence; of earth, water; of water, plants; of plants,
flowers; of flowers, fruits; of fruits, man (purusa); of man,
semen.
2. Prajâpati ('Lord of creatures') bethought
himself: 'Come, let me provide him a firm basis!' So he created woman. When he
had created her, he revered her below.--Therefore one should revere woman
below.--He stretched out for himself that stone which projects. With that he
impregnated her.
3. Her
lap is a sacrificial altar; her hairs, the sacrificial grass; her skin, the
soma-press. The two labia of the vulva are the fire in the middle. Verily,
indeed, as great as is the world of him who sacrifices with the Vâjapeya
('Strength-libation') sacrifice, so great is the world of him who practises
sexual intercourse, knowing this; he turns the good deeds of women to himself.
But he who practises sexual intercourse without knowing this-women turn his
good deeds unto themselves.
4.
This, verily, indeed, it was
that Uddâlaka Âruni knew when he said:--
This,
verily, indeed, it was that Nâka Maudgalya knew when he said:--
This, verily,
indeed, it was that Kumârahârita knew when he said: 'Many mortal men, Brahmans
by descent, go forth from this world, impotent and devoid of merit, namely those
who practise sexual intercourse without knowing this.'
[If] even this
much semen is spilled, whether of one asleep or of one awake, [5] then he should touch it, or [without
touching] repeat:--
'What semen has of
mine to earth been spilt now,
Whate'er to herb has flowed, whate'er to water--
This very semen I
reclaim!
Again to me let vigor come!
Again, my strength; again, my glow!
Again the altars and the fire
Be found in their accustomed place!'
Having spoken
thus, he should take it with ring-finger and thumb, and rub it on between his
breasts or his eye-brows.
6. Now, if one should see
himself in water, he should recite over it the formula: 'In me be vigor, power,
beauty, wealth, merit!' This,
verily, indeed, is loveliness among women: when she has removed the clothes of
her impurity. Therefore when she has removed the clothes of her impurity and is
beautiful, one should approach and invite her.
7. If she should not grant him his desire,
he should bribe her. If she still does not grant him his desire, he should hit
her with a stick or with his hand, and overcome her, saying: 'With power, with
glory I take away your glory!' Thus she becomes inglorious.
8. If she should yield to
him, he says: 'With power, with glory I give you glory!' Thus they two become
glorious.
9. The
woman whom one may desire with the thought, 'May she enjoy love with
me!'--after inserting the member in her, joining mouth with mouth, and stroking
her lap, he should mutter:--
'Thou that from
every limb art come,
That from the heart art generate,
Thou art the essence of the limbs!
Distract this woman here in me,
As if by poisoned arrow pierced!'
10. Now, the woman whom one
may desire with the thought, 'May she not conceive offspring!'--after inserting
the member in her and joining mouth with mouth, he should first inhale, then
exhale, and say: 'With power, with semen, I reclaim the semen from you!' Thus
she comes to be without seed.
11. Now,
the woman whom one may desire with the thought, 'May she conceive!'--after
inserting the member in her and joining mouth with mouth, he should first
exhale, then inhale, and say: 'With power, with semen, I deposit semen in you!'
Thus she becomes pregnant.
12. Now, if one's wife have a paramour, and he
hate him, let him put fire in an unannealed vessel, spread out a row of reed
arrows in inverse order, and therein sacrifice in inverse order those reed arrows,
their heads smeared with ghee, saying:--
'You have made a
libation in my fire! I take away your in-breath and out-breath (prânâpânau)--you,
so-and-so!
You have made a
libation in my fire! I take away your sons and cattle--you, so-and-so!
You have made a
libation in my fire! I take away your sacrifices and meritorious
deeds --you, so-and-so!
You have made a
libation in my fire! I take away your hope and expectation--you, so-and-so!'
Verily, he whom a
Brahman who knows this curses--he departs from this world impotent and devoid
of merit. Therefore one should not desire dalliance with the spouse of a person
learned in sacred lore (s'rotriya) who knows this, for indeed he who
knows this becomes superior.
13. Now, when the monthly
sickness comes upon anyone's wife, for three days she should not drink from a
metal cup, nor put on fresh clothes. Neither a low-caste man nor a low-caste
woman should touch her. At the end of the three nights she should bathe and
should have rice threshed.
14. In
case one wishes, 'That a white son be born to me! that he be able to repeat a
Veda! that he attain the full length of life!'--they two should have rice
cooked with milk and should eat it prepared with ghee. They two are likely to
beget [him].
15. Now,
in case one wishes, 'That a tawny son with reddish-brown eyes be born to me!
that he be able to recite two Vedas! that he attain the full length of
life!'--they two should have rice cooked with sour milk and should eat it
prepared with ghee. They two are likely to beget [him].
16. Now,
in case one wishes, 'That a swarthy son with red eyes be born to me! that he be
able to repeat three Vedas! that he attain the full length of life!'--they two
should have rice boiled with water and should eat it prepared with ghee. They
two are likely to beget [him].
17. Now,
in case one wishes, 'That a learned (pandita) daughter be born to
me! that she attain the full length of life!'--they two should have rice boiled
with sesame and should eat it prepared with ghee. They two are likely to beget
[her].
18. Now,
in case one wishes, 'That a son, learned, famed, a frequenter of
council-assemblies, a speaker of discourse desired to be heard, be born to me! that
he be able to repeat all the Vedas! that he attain the full length of
life!'--they two should have rice boiled with meat and should eat it prepared
with ghee. They two are likely to beget [him], with meat, either veal or beef.
19. Now,
toward morning, having prepared melted butter in the manner of the
Sthâlîpâka, he takes of the Sthâlîpâka and makes a libation, saying: 'To
Agni, hail! To Anumati, hail! To the god Savitri ('Enlivener,' the
Sun), whose is true procreation 3 (satya-prasava), hail!'
Having made the libation, he takes and eats, Having eaten, he offers to the
other [i.e. to her]. Having washed his hands, he fills a vessel with water and
therewith sprinkles her thrice, saying:--
'Arise from hence,
Vis'vavasu!
Some other choicer maiden seek!
This wife together with her lord ----'
20.
Then he comes to her and
says:--
'This man (ama)
am I; that woman (sâ), thou!
That woman, thou; this man am I!
I am the Sâman; thou, the Rig!
I am the heaven; thou, the earth!
Come, let us two
together clasp!
Together let us semen mix,
A male, a son for to procure!'
21. Then he spreads apart her thighs, saying:
'Spread yourselves apart, heaven and earth!' Inserting the member in her and
joining mouth with mouth, he strokes her three times as the hair lies,
saying:--
'Let Vishnu
make the womb prepared!
Let Tyashtri shape the various forms!
Prajâpati--let him pour in!
Let Dhâtri place the germ for thee!
O Sinîvâlî, give
the germ;
O give the germ, thou broad-tressed dame!
Let the Twin Gods implace thy germ--
The Asvins, crowned with lotus-wreaths!
22.
With twain attrition-sticks of
gold
The As'vin Twins twirl forth a flame;
'Tis such a germ we beg for thee,
In the tenth month to be
brought forth.
As earth contains
the germ of Fire (agni),
As heaven is pregnant with the Storm (indra),
As of the points the Wind (vâyu) is germ,
E'en so a germ I place in thee,
So-and-so!'
23.
When she is about to bring
forth, he sprinkles her with water, saying.--
Like as the wind
doth agitate
A lotus-pond on every side,
So also let thy fetus stir.
Let it come with its chorion.
This fold of
Indra's has been made
With barricade enclosed around.
O Indra, cause him to come forth--
The after-birth along with babe!'
24. When
[the son] is born, he [i. e. the father] builds up a fire, places him on his
lap, mingles ghee and coagulated milk in a metal dish, and makes an oblation,
ladling out of the mingled ghee and coagulated milk, and saying-
'In this son may I
be increased,
And have a thousand in mine house!
May nothing rob his retinue
Of offspring or of animals!
Hail!
The
vital powers (prâna) which are in me, my mind, I offer in you.
Hail!
What in this rite I overdid,
Or what I have here scanty made--
Let Agni, wise, the Prosperer,
Make fit and good our sacrifice!
Hail!'
25. Then
he draws down to the child's right ear and says 'Speech! Speech!' three times. Then
he mingles coagulated milk, honey, and ghee and feeds [his son] out of a gold
[spoon] which is not placed within [the mouth], saying: 'I place in you Bhűr!
I place in you Bhuvas! I place in you Svar! Bhűr, Bhuvas,
Svar---everything I place in you!'
26. Then
he gives him a name, saying: 'You are Veda.' So this becomes his secret name.
27.
Then he presents him to the
mother and offers the breast, saying:--
'Thy breast which
is unfailing and refreshing,
Wealth-bearer, treasure-finder, rich bestower,
With which thou nourishest all things esteeméd--
Give it here, O Sarasvatî, to suck from.'
28. Then he addresses the child's mother:--
'You are Ilâ,
of the lineage of Mitra and Varuna!
O heroine! She has borne a hero!'
Continue to be such a woman abounding in heroes--
She who has made us abound in a hero!'
Of such a son,
verily, they say: 'Ah, you have gone beyond your father! Ah, you have gone
beyond your grandfather!'
Ah, he reaches the
highest pinnacle of splendor, glory, and sacred knowledge who is born as the
son of a Brahman who knows this!
Homa (Havan)
Of
late the world is witnessing increasing pollution; in India this problem is
even more severe. For reasons already discussed it shouldn’t be difficult and
surprising to learn that Swami’s prescription of sacred sacrifice of burning
the woods in a religious ceremony, if carried through true to the spirit, would
have doomed humanity a lot quicker. Bhai Kahan Singh (1861-1938) after reading
chapter 3 of Satyarth Prakash
explored the Homa quandary in his “Sikhs:
We are not Hindus”:
In the jungle, on the bank of a river, morning
and evening, take a pot that is sixteen fingers (12 inches) deep and of the
same width, perform Havan by burning wood. Read Mantras and make offerings by
pouring butter, etc. in the fire. The Havan purifies air. By not performing
Homa there is sin, because bad smell originates from humans and that makes the
air unclean, and becomes the cause of disease. If Homa were to be performed
like old days all the maladies of India will disappear. There should be more
ghee (melted butter) used in Homa than for eating. Every person should make, at
least, 16 offerings of Ghee, each of six Mashas (about 5 grams) he have to
consider this, if we need to purify air, why not perform Haven in the House?
Air in the jungle is already fresh and pure. What is the significance of the
special size of the pot for Havan? … If every one of the family, morning and
evening, burns only 8 measures then a family of ten will need 160 tolas (about
2,240 grams) ghee everyday. What is required for food will be greater. The
benefit that Dayanand foresees through Homa for the country is beyond our
comprehension.
Swami
also believed that performing Homa sacrifice will increase the rainfall!
Political
Activism
Performing
his role as a political agent and as agitator was probably the most effective
methodology that Swami had swung into motion. And it had enduring side-effects
much of it, if not all, turned negative. Three case reports should illustrate
the point.
a. Munshi Indramani, an
Arya, and a known writer especially against Islam, lost a court case against
him brought by Muslims. The issue got out of hands thanks in part because the
Swami personally got involved inciting Hindus and sought funds to help Indramani.
This was the first time Swami succeeded in getting the Aryas deeply involved in
an agitation where Arya Samaj’s activism was promoted as defender of Hinduism
vis-ŕ-vis Islam. This was the beginning of a new brand of low politics that was
to reshape Hindu-Muslim relations.
b. The idea of “Cow
Protection” steadily grew in Swami’s mind and eventually turned into a fury
full of rage and momentum. Again this confrontational agitation turned and
pitted against Muslims covering from local level to nationwide implications.
Dayananda rationalized many reasons to safeguard the cows including the ideas
that it promotes “better rainfall and a purer atmosphere.” It is mind boggling
to read the extent to which Swami would travel against cow slaughter. Besides
the merits or the demerits of Swami leading off this aggressive movement,
clearly as an outcome, it cemented chilling relations with the Muslims.
c. Swami left no stone
unturned to promote the Hindi language while turning against Urdu. By 1870s,
the movement for Hindi had already adopted an intriguing argument connecting
language, religion, and nation. Hinduism as a religion and Hindi as a language
couldn’t have been fortuitous in the sense that it was merely in roughly 1850s
that the European colonials had coined both terms: Hindi and Hinduism. While
the Bengali elite somehow entangled themselves first to promote the idea of
Hindi as a national language, it was Swami himself whose agitations
encompassing his entire spread out Arya organizations and publishing vehicles
transformed the Hindi campaign to a higher pitch nationwide. Upon his death,
thanks largely to the Swami, he left behind a politically inspired active
functioning team.
All
of Swami’s “active measures” promoting himself and his Arya Samaj to the forefront
of artificially labeled national causes embittered the Muslim population. In
fact a case can be made that Swami Dayananda is really the father of modern
Hinduism who had planted anti-Muslim politics in India. In a recently published
(2004) book, “Identity and Religion:
Foundations of anti-Islamism in India,” Professor Amalendu Misra, though
missing Dayananda altogether, marshaled a compelling research on some of the
other prophets of modern Hinduism and their devastated consequences. Following
the tragic 1947 partitions, the Arya political machine dominated by the Punjabi
elements turned more self-destructive: they went after their own Punjabi mother
tongue while promoting Hindi with a religious zeal. Arya’s politicization of
language causes had delivered a mortal blow to Punjab’s already vulnerable
psyche.
The
last two chapters of Satyarth Prakash
solely deal with Swami’s critical analysis on both Islam & Christianity. Written
in the early 1880s, his reading and analysis of both the Koran and the Bible
shows Dayananda’s deep interest in these topics for number of years before he
penned his comments. These commentaries imparted some utility values at the
time of writing and shortly thereafter. But today with the advent and rapid
advances of modern Biblical and Islamic scholarships, Swami’s write ups are
crude, unsophisticated, and outdated. They serve hardly any useful purpose.
Swami’s
untimely death in 1883 at which time he was barely 59 years old shocked
everyone. Some believe he was poisoned by a prostitute; I am not sure what
killed him. But the evidence is convincing that with so many doctors attending
to him, literally left the medical case grossly mismanaged.
Conclusion
What do we make of Swami Dayananda? What to do
with Arya Samaj? With the benefit of hindsight, today there are no easy
answers. Just the other day, a friend asked me if Swami always uttered
nonsense. My answer was no. For him to be recognized as a credible founder and
interpreter of ancient Vedas, he had enough intelligence to sway and guide a
portion of relatively educated Hindus, especially in Punjab. Very few of these
Punjabis had the sense of healthy skepticism and tenacity to go and double
check the Swami. To be blunt, Swami had much more difficult task to con those
non-Punjabi Indians (for example Bengali educated class) who were familiar with
the Hindu texts and knew of Sanskrit. Like his sole Gujarati successor in the
field of modern Hinduism, Mahatma Gandhi, Swami was an unstable man who learned
to thrive on chaos.
His damage done to Punjab is beyond repair. I
understand why many Sikhs, Muslims, and some Hindus express an aversion for the
Swami and his followers.
I look at Arya Samajists (or Aryas) with a
degree of hope. I recognize serious troubles with Dayananda. What he had
unleashed was really troublesome that we all must face. I have known and
befriended many Aryas. These men and women are hard working and honest people.
Like other politically inspired ideologies, Arya Samaj has given birth to its
own fair share of fanatics. But again I must stress many Aryas are law-abiding
and will never hurt anybody irrespective of what Swami’s legacy has been. In my
own education at D.A.V. College, I have seen Aryas behave at their best. What
is lodged inside the pages of Satyarth
Prakash is really a huge problem for the Aryas and that burden is theirs
and should stay that way. How they handle the substantive errors and many other
outdated things is their internal business. Sikhs should not ask them to remove
just three or four questionable pages on Sikh Gurus and be content to leave the
rest intact. I think the problem is much bigger than those just few
questionable pages.
The problem of Dayananda is part of a bigger
mess--the issue of modern Hinduism. Modern Hinduism has not served well the
interests of Hindus. Additionally in the process, it has inflicted pains upon
Sikhs, and other Indian religious groups as well. We must face the fact that
modern Hinduism had never been a reform movement; in fact it has made Hinduism
a malignant force, and ushered far more deadly fundamentalism consistent with
those coming out of the Semitic religions. While eroding away many of
Hindusim’s classical polytheistic worldview and multiple value-systems, Arya
Samaj replaced it with new wild interpretations concocted to face the Christian
missionaries of a bygone era. Now the times have changed and with that politics
even more so. I believe traditional and popular Hinduisms have enough
reservoirs to handle the missionary and colonial threats of the future. Again
the burden to transform modern Hinduism back to traditional and popular roots
of Hinduism rests with those who call themselves Hindus. It is their burden.
This won’t be an easy going-back sort of transformation. Hindus are people with
deeper internal strengths and resourcefulness and I have full confidence they
will take appropriate measures in months and years to come. Before I close, I
think Hindus (and others) should benefit from the well-informed comments of
Rev. T. Williams on the true nature of Dayananda as recorded in a pamphlet
published in 1894, “A Farce—a religion
professedly based on a book, which, as translated for that religion, has no
existence.”
But in point of fact POLITICAL MOTIVES are at
the bottom of the whole Arya Samaj movement, whether the members be
flesh-eaters or non-flesh-eaters. A religious character was given to it by
Dayananda simply as a means to this end. Political motives are really those
that have attracted even the rank and file. The members of the Arya Samaj are
not one whit more religious—rather less so in my opinion—than their confreres of the old system. The reply
usually given by the Aryas as to why they follow Dayananda is that he sought
THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE COUNTRY (mark, not THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE RELIGION). It
is, I repeat, a political movement, and Dayananda sought to bind all his
countrymen into one compact whole by giving ONE shastra and ONE religion, even
though he had for this purpose to forge them both.
Selected
Bibliography:
1.
J.T.F. Jordens, Dayananda Sarasvati: His
Life and Ideas. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1978.
2.
H.C.E. Zacharis, Renascent India: From
Rammohan Roy to Mohandas Gandhi. London: George Allen & Unwin LTD,
1933.
3.
Hervey D. Griswold, Insights into Modern
Hinduism. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1934.
4.
George Macmunn, The Religions and Hidden
Cults of India. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. 1931.
5.
John Campbell Oman, Cults, Customs and
Superstitions of India. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co. 1909.
6.
Sangat Singh, The Sikhs in History.
New Delhi: Uncommon Books, 1996.
7.
Lala Rajpat Rai, The Arya Samaj, An
account of its Aims, Doctrine and Activities with a Biographical Sketch of the
Founder, London, New York: Longmans, Green and
co., 1915.
8.
Bawa Chhajju Singh, Life and Teachings of
Swami Dayananda, New Delhi: Jan GyŻan PrakŻashan, 1971; first edition in 1903.
9.
Kenneth W. Jones, Arya Dharm: Hindu
Consciousness in 19th Century Punjab. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1976.
10.
J.E. Llewellyn, Arya Samaj As a Fundamentalist Movement: A Study In
Comparative Fundamentalism . New Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 1993
11.
Bhai Kahan Singh, Sikhs: We Are Not
Hindus.
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Introduction | Appendix A