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8
Dayanada
and Arya Samaj
At Calcutta where he stayed from December
15, 1872 to April 15, 1873, Ramakrishna met him.
He was also cordially received by the Brahmo
Samaj. Keshab and his people voluntarily shut their
eyes to the differences existing between them; they
saw in him a rough ally in their crusade against
orthodox prejudices and the millions of Gods. But
Dayananda was not a man to come to an
understanding with religious philosophers imbued
with Western ideas. His national Indian theism, its
steel faith forged from the pure metal of the Vedas
alone, had nothing in common with theirs, tinged
as it was with modern doubt, which denied the
infallibility of the Vedas and the doctrine of
transmigration.' He broke with them the richer
for the encounter,2 for he owed them3 the very simple
suggestion, whose practical value had not
struck him before, that his propaganda would be of
These two, according to Lajpat Rai himself
affiliated to the Arya
Samaj, are
the two cardinal principles
which distinguish the Arya Samaj from the Brahmo Samaj.
2
To Babu Keshab Chander Sen.
3
In 1877
a
last attempt was made to find a basis
of agreement between the religious leaders and their
divergent doctrines. Keshab
and Dayananda
met again but
agreement was impossible since Dayananda would yield
to nothing.