61 Facts About Dayananda Saraswati

Dayananda Saraswati was the first to give the call for Swaraj as "India for Indians" in 1876, a call later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak.

Dayananda Saraswati was a sanyasi from boyhood and a scholar.

Dayananda Saraswati believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas.

Dayananda Saraswati emphasized the Vedic ideals of brahmacharya, including celibacy and devotion to God.

Dayananda Saraswati was born on the 10th day of waning moon in the month of Purnimanta Phalguna on the tithi to an Indian Hindu Brahmin family in Jivapar Tankara, Kathiawad region.

Dayananda Saraswati's original name was Mool Shankar Tiwari because he was born in Dhanu Rashi and Mul Nakshatra.

Dayananda Saraswati's father was Karshanji Lalji Tiwari, and his mother was Yashodabai.

Dayananda Saraswati's father was a follower of Shiva and taught him the ways to worship Shiva.

The deaths of his younger sister and his uncle from cholera led Dayananda Saraswati to ponder the meaning of life and death.

Dayananda Saraswati was engaged in his early teens, but he decided marriage was not for him and ran away from home in 1846.

Dayanand Dayananda Saraswati spent nearly twenty-five years, from 1845 to 1869, as a wandering ascetic, searching for religious truth.

Dayananda Saraswati gave up material goods and lived a life of self-denial, devoting himself to spiritual pursuits in forests, retreats in the Himalayan Mountains, and pilgrimage sites in northern India.

Dayananda Saraswati Sarasvati promised Virajanand that he would devote his life to restoring the rightful place of the Vedas in the Hindu faith.

Dayananda Saraswati said all the Creatures are the eternal praja or citizens of the Supreme Lord.

Dayananda Saraswati said the four Vedas which are Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda and Atharvaveda are the only true uncorrupted sources of Dharma, revealed by the Supreme Lord, at the beginning of every creation, because they are the only perfectly preserved knowledge without alterations using Sanskrit prosody or Chhandas and different techniques of counting the number of verses with different Vedic chanting techniques.

Dayananda Saraswati says, confusions regarding the Vedas arose due to the misinterpretations of the Vedas, and Vedas promote Science and asks Humans to discover the Ultimate Truth, which he has emphasised throughout his Commentary on the Vedas.

Dayananda Saraswati accepted the teachings of the first ten Principal Upanishads with Shvetashvatara Upanishad, which explains the Adhyatma part of the Vedas.

Dayananda Saraswati further said, any source whatever, including Upanishads, should be considered and accepted to only that extent as they are in conformity with the teachings of the Vedas.

Dayananda Saraswati accepted all the six Darshana Shastras which includes Samkhya, Vaisheshika, Nyaya, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Purva Mimamsa Sutras, Vedanta sutras.

Dayananda Saraswati says Acharya Kapila of Sankhya Darshan was not an atheist but it is the scholars who misinterpreted his sutras.

Dayananda Saraswati said the books called Brahamana-Granthas such as Aitareya Brahmana, Shatapatha Brahmana, Sama Brahamana, Gopatha Brahmana etc.

Dayananda Saraswati said it is these books which are called by the names "Itihasa, Purana, Narashamsa, Kalpa, Gatha" since they contain information about life of Seers and incidents, they inform about the creation of the World etc.

Dayananda Saraswati said the eighteen Puranas and the eighteen Upapuranas, are not the real Puranas and these are not authored by sage Vyasa, and they violate teachings of the Vedas and therefore they should not be accepted.

Dayananda Saraswati rejected "all" of the Tantric texts including Pancharatra.

Dayananda Saraswati said that these texts are not valid as they teach different customs, rituals and practises which are against the Vedas.

Dayananda Saraswati advocated the notion of Rashtra and One Government throughout the World, known as Chakradhipatya.

Dayananda Saraswati believed that Hinduism had been corrupted by divergence from the founding principles of the Vedas and that Hindus had been misled by the priesthood for the priests' self-aggrandizement.

Dayananda Saraswati travelled the country challenging religious scholars and priests to discussions, winning repeatedly through the strength of his arguments and knowledge of Sanskrit and Vedas.

Hindu priests discouraged the laity from reading Vedic scriptures, and encouraged rituals, such as bathing in the Ganges River and feeding of priests on anniversaries, which Dayananda Saraswati pronounced as superstitions or self-serving practices.

Dayananda Saraswati exhorted Hindus to accept social reforms, including the importance of cows for national prosperity as well as the adoption of Hindi as the national language for national integration.

Dayananda Saraswati advocated the equal rights and respects to women and advocated for the education of all children, regardless of gender.

Dayanand Dayananda Saraswati is recorded to have been active since he was 14, which time he was able to recite religious verses and teach about them.

Dayananda Saraswati was respected at the time for taking part in religious debates.

Dayananda Saraswati argued that all of these practices ran contrary to good sense and the wisdom of the Vedas.

Dayananda Saraswati severely criticized practices which he considered to be superstitions, including sorcery, and astrology, which were prevalent in India at the time.

Dayananda Saraswati makes a clear distinction between Jyotisha Shaastra and astrology, calling astrology a fraud.

Dayananda Saraswati considered the prevalent religions to have either immoral stories, or badly practised, or some of them have sufficiently moved away from the Vedas.

Dayananda Saraswati viewed Islam to be waging wars and immorality.

Dayananda Saraswati doubted that Islam had anything to do with the God, and questioned why a God would hate every non-believer, allowing the slaughter of animals, and command Muhammad to slaughter innocent people.

Dayananda Saraswati further described Muhammad as "imposter", and one who held out "a bait to men and women, in the name of God, to compass his own selfish needs".

Dayananda Saraswati's analysis claimed that the Bible contains many stories and precepts that are immoral, praising cruelty, deceit and that encourage sin.

Dayananda Saraswati opposed the perpetual virginity of Mary, adding that such doctrines are simply against the nature of law, and that God would never break his own law because God is omniscient and infallible.

Dayananda Saraswati regarded Guru Nanak as "rogue", who was quite ignorant about Vedas, Sanskrit, Shashtra, and otherwise Nanak wouldn't be mistaken with words.

Dayananda Saraswati further said that followers of Sikhism are to be blamed for making up stories that Nanak possessed miraculous powers and met Gods.

Dayananda Saraswati regarded Jainism as "a most dreadful religion", writing that Jains were intolerant and hostile towards the non-Jains.

Dayananda Saraswati further criticized the Buddhist cosmology which says that earth was not created.

Dayananda Saraswati was subjected to many unsuccessful assassination attempts on his life.

One story tells that attackers once attempted to drown him in a river, but Dayananda Saraswati dragged the assailants into the river instead, though he released them before they drowned.

In 1883, the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Jaswant Singh II, invited Dayananda Saraswati to stay at his palace.

Dayananda Saraswati went to the Maharaja's restroom during his stay and saw him with a dancing girl named Nanhi Jaan.

Dayananda Saraswati asked the Maharaja to forsake the girl and all unethical acts and to follow the dharma like a true Arya.

On 29 September 1883, she bribed Dayananda Saraswati's cook, Jagannath, to mix small pieces of glass in his nightly milk.

Dayananda Saraswati was served glass-laden milk before bed, which he promptly drank, becoming bedridden for several days, and suffering excruciating pain.

On his deathbed, Dayananda Saraswati forgave him, and gave him a bag of money, telling him to flee the kingdom before he was found and executed by the Maharaja's men.

Dayananda Saraswati is most notable for influencing the freedom movement of India.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati ranked highest among the makers of modern India.

Dayananda Saraswati had worked tirelessly for the political, religious and cultural emancipation of the country.

Dayananda Saraswati was guided by reason, taking Hinduism back to the Vedic foundations.

Dayananda Saraswati had tried to reform society with a clean sweep, which was again need today.

The Paropakarini Sabha located in the Indian city of Ajmer was founded by Dayananda Saraswati to publish and preach his works and Vedic texts.

Dayananda Saraswati was a socio religious reformer who lived in the 19th century in India.