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Samaj.
After the memorable event, Pandit Guru Datta gave himself
up to a deep study of Aryan literature. The more he studied Swami
Dayananda, the intenser grew his admiration for the Great Reformer
and the deeper became his faith in Vedic
dharma.
He read Satyartha
Prakasha no less than
eighteen
times and declared that every time
he read it, he found something new and fresh in the way of mental
and spiritual food. The book, he said, was full of recondite truths.
The intelligence of Swami Dayananda's death was at once
wired from Ajmer to various centres of Samajic activity. It cast a
deep gloom over the country, and, even men like Lala Sain Dass,
who possessed a calm temperament and whose mind remained
unhinged even in the severest of crisis, wept bitterly at this loss. In
the sombre moments when every thing appeared gloomy in the
Arya Samaj, a thought, however, suggested itself to a keen witted
gentleman in the Lahore Arya Samaj, and he broached it to his fellow
believers in a pensive mood. There was little hope of its meeting
with approval at that period, but the actual experience proved to
be quite the contrary. The idea of perpetuating the memory of the
illustrious reformer received a sympathetic response in every mind
that was apprised of the thought. Consequently the Lahore Arya
Samaj conceived a plan of action to give it a practical shape within
a week after the death of Swamiji. It was, however, not made public
till the return of Pandit Guru Datta from Ajmer. When it was made
known to him, he readily gave his assent and promised to work in
the interests of the proposed institution as much as his avocations
would permit. He delivered a lecture soon after his arrival in
Lahore, in which the closing scene of Maharishi Dayananda's career
which he had witnessed was depicted in such a vivid manner that
every man in the vast audience was touched to the innermost core
of his heart. The proposal of founding a College in memory of
Dayananda was formally put forward before the public on the 8th
November, 1883. It was received with favour by all classes of people.
Pandit Guru Datta's speech on the occasion was highly pathetic,
passionate and impressive. Rs. 7,000 were subscribed on the spot.15
Now the Dayananda Anglo Vedic College Movement began
to absorb his whole attention. After passing the B.A.- examination,
in 1885,16 he set himself actively to the advocacy of the cause of the
College; a number of speeches were delivered in the different Samajis