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28 Feb 2022 Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati

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In the year 2022, Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati is being celebrated on 26 February.
According to the traditional Hindu calendar, Dayanand Saraswati was born on the tenth day of Krishna Paksha in the month of Falgun.

Swami Dayanand Saraswati was born on February 12, 1824 in a Brahmin family in Tankara, Gujarat. His parents Yashodha Bai and Lalji Tiwari were orthodox Brahmins.
He was earlier named Mool Shankar Tiwari as he was born during Mool Nakshatra.
He wandered as an ascetic for fifteen years (1845-60) in search of truth.
Dayanand’s thoughts were published in his famous work Satyarth Prakash.

He was an Indian philosopher, social leader and founder of Arya Samaj.
Arya Samaj is a reform movement of Vedic religion and he was the first to call for Swaraj in the year 1876 as “India for the Indians”.
He was a self-enlightened person and great leader of India who left a huge impact on Indian society.
The first unit of Arya Samaj was formally established by him in 1875 in Mumbai (then Bombay) and later its headquarters was established in Lahore.
His vision of a united India included a classless and casteless society (at religious, social and national level) and an India free from foreign rule, in which Arya Dharma was the common religion of all.
He took inspiration from the Vedas and considered them as the ‘rock of the age of India’, the ‘infallible and true root seed of Hinduism’. He gave the slogan “return to the Vedas”.
He introduced the Vedic concept of Chaturvarna system in which a person was not born in any caste but was identified as Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Shudra according to the occupation followed by him.

He ushered in a complete change in the education system and is considered one of the visionaries of modern India.
The DAV (Dayanand Anglo Vedic) school came into existence in the year 1886 to realize the vision of Swami Dayanand Saraswati.
The first DAV school was established in Lahore and Mahatma Hansraj was its headmaster.

Arya Samaj aims to re-establish the Vedas (the oldest Hindu scripture) as truth. He rejected the later additions to the Vedas and included other Vedic ideas in his interpretation.
In the 1920s and early 1930s tensions on many issues increased. Muslims were angry with the “music before the mosque”, the cow protection movement and the Arya Samaj’s purification movement.
The influence of Arya Samaj has been more in western and northern India.
Arya Samaj opposes idol worship, animal sacrifice, Shradh (ancestral rituals), caste based on birth and not merit, untouchability, child marriage, pilgrimage, priesthood and worship of temple offerings is opposed.
It upholds the infallibility of the Vedas, the effectiveness of karma theory (accumulated effects of past karmas) and samsara (the process of death and rebirth), the purity of the cow, the importance of samskaras (individual rites). And confirms the effectiveness of Vedic sacrifices for Agni and programs of social reform.
Work was done by Arya Samaj in the direction of promoting women’s education as well as promoting inter-caste marriage. Missions for widows, construction of orphanages and homes, a network of schools and colleges were established, and famine relief and medical works were carried out.