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Dayanada
and Arya
Samaj
17
formidable energy, his certainty, his lion's blood.
His words rang with heroic power. He reminded the
secular passivity of a people, too prone to bow to
"The primary object of the Samaj is to do good to
the whole world by bettering the physical, spiritual and
social condition of humanity. " (Principles of the Arya Samaj
of Lahore, revised in 1877).
" I believe in a religion based on universal principles
and embracing all that has been accepted as truth by
humanity and that will continue to be obeyed in the
ages to come. This is what I call religion; Eternal
Primitive Religion (for it is above the hostility of human
beliefs) That alone which is worthy to be believed by
all men and in all ages, I hold as acceptable." (Satyartha
Prakash )
Like all impassioned believers, but in prefect good
faith he confounds the conception of the eternal and
universal "Truth" which he claimed to serve, with that
of the faith he decreed'. He was careful to submit the
criterion of truth of five preliminary tests, the first two in
conformity with the teachings of the Vedas and to the
definitions. He had laid down concerning the nature of God
and his attributes. How could he doubt this right to impose
the Vedas upon humanity as a whole, when he started by
decreeing that they continued, as Aurobindo Ghose says,
"A plenary revelation of religious, ethical and scientific
truth. Its religious teaching is monotheistic and the Vedic
Gods are different descriptive names of the one Deity; they
are at the same time indications of His powers as we see
them working in nature, and by a true understanding of
the sense of the Vedas we could arrive at all the scientific