2018-02-12 Mon

Maharshi Swami Dayanand Saraswati was a Hindu spiritual leader and social reformer of the 19th century who was famous as the founder of the Hindu reform organization Arya Samaj. Taking inspiration from the Vedas, he criticized evil practices like idolatry, caste system, untouchability etc. as prevailed in the then Indian society.

Dayananda Saraswati, known as Mulshankar in the childhood, was born on 12th February 1824 in a small town of Tankara belonging to Kathiawar of Gujarat in a conservative Brahmin family.

At a time when Hinduism was divided between the various schools of philosophy and theology, Swami Dayanand went straight back to the Vedas as he considered them the most authoritative repository of knowledge. Swami Dayanand wrote and published a number of religious books, primary among them being Sathyartha Prakash, Rig-Vedaadi, Bhasya-Bhoomika, and Sanskar Vidhi.

Dayanand’s mission was to ask humankind for universal brotherhood through nobility as stated in the Vedas. For this mission he founded the Arya Samaj, enunciating the Ten Universal Principles as a code for Universalism, called Krinvanto Vishwaryam. With these principles, he intended the whole world to be an abode for Nobles (Aryas).

To honour this great leader India post has issued 15 Naya Paisa postage stamp in 1962.