Brahman Samaj did remarkable work for religion and social reform. It worked to remove evils of the Hindu religion and society. But it influenced by western culture and the Christian religion so it gave equal status to Christianity. Because of this, it could not maintain the dignity of the Hindu religion. So the Hindu religion and society need a quick movement and that was done by Arya Samaj. Swami Dayanand Saraswati, who was a saint in Gujarat, was the founder of Arya Samaj. The Arya Samaj movement was different from Brahman Samaj in various ways.
Rules of Arya Samaj
Swami Dayanand Saraswati wrote a book, Satyarth Prakash. We can get all the fundamental principles of Arya Samaj in this book. Based on this book, the Arya Samaj has the following ten rules:
- God is one and it is formless. He is Almighty, Justice, Merciful, Pure, Omnipresent, Immortal, Sacred and Creator. So it should be worshiped.
- The Vedas are the sources of knowledge. Therefore reading and listening to the Vedas is the duty of all Aryans.
- Every person should be prepared to accept the truth and leave the untruth.
- All work should be done by considering the truth and the untruth.
- The main purpose of this society is, to work for the physical, spiritual and social progress of the world.
- Everyone should not be satisfied with their own progress. They should work for the progress of others too.
- God, himself is the only reason for all knowledge and the entire understanding.
- Everyone should increase their knowledge. They should be educated.
- Everyone should behave fairly according to religion.
- Every person should have freedom of conduct in personal interest, but for social welfare, all the differences should be ignored.
Arya Samaj worked for the improvement of Hindu religion and society. Swami Dayanand spent his entire life in the promotion of the idol worship and the teachings of the Vedic principles of the Hindu religion. Dayanand considered the imagination of monotheism in the Vedas as the head. He gave a new interpretation to the yagna and other rituals mentioned in the Vedas. The main purpose of the havan was to clean the atmosphere.
He said that the Hindu religion has been kind in theoretical and pragmatic terms. The Vedas themselves do not claim their superiority. Therefore, Hinduism treated tolerance towards all religions. The Islam and the Christian religion respectively refer to the Quran and the Bible as the only holy text. They follow the same religion as the path for beatification. The Hindu religion proved weakened because of its generosity. It was unable to fight against Islam and Christianity. Hence Swamiji provided fanaticism to Hindu religion. And the Arya Samaj soldier was called Hindutva.
The Arya Samaj tried to re-establish Hinduism on the basis of the Vedas. It is called the Revivalist Movement. The Arya Samaj movement was inspired by its own fundamental principles. It was not inspired by any external elements. At that time, only Brahman can study the Vedas. Swami Dayanand gave the right to all the other caste to study and interpret Vedas. Arya Samaj worked for the equality and religious fanaticism. It worked for the improvement of religious, social, educational and political fields in India. Its work cannot be compared to any religion reform movements.
Reference :https://www.indiaolddays.com/
