About Arya Samajam

ABOUT ARYA SAMAJ

The Arya Samaj is a society that cultivates strong ethical and moral values as well as advocates peaceful and productive human living.  The organization is a global community whose members wish to be noble and are united in their unwavering devotion to the Universal Truth.  The society promotes love, justice and righteousness towards all, irrespective of race, caste or creed, and follows the principles espoused in the Vedas, which are universally true for all of mankind. Arya Samaj was founded on April 10th, 1875 at Bombay, India, by Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati. He was a renouncer who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. The purpose was to move the Hindu Dharma away from all the fictitious beliefs, and go back to the teachings of Vedas. Arya Samaj rejects all forms of ritualistic superstition such as idolatry, ancestor worship, pilgrimage and animal sacrifice, as well as all forms of social oppression such as the caste system, untouchability and child labor. It proclaims equal entitlement under the law between men and women, strives to reduce poverty and to protect the weak and the disadvantaged, denounces the consumption of meat as well as the use of intoxicants and recreational drugs, and promotes healthy community, family and private life in tune with the cycles of nature. The Arya Samaj stresses the universal and comprehensive nature of Vedic Knowledge and it's capacity to rejuvenate and redeem a troubled and wearied humanity. This capacity rests above all else in it's emphasis upon the correct understanding and worship of the one true God, who is the Supreme personification of Existence, Intelligence and Bliss.Dayananda advocated the doctrine of karma and reincarnation, and emphasized the ideals of brahmacharya (chastity) and sanyasa (renunciation).                   There are approximately 4 million followers of Arya Samaj worldwide.                      HISTORY OF ARYA SAMAJ MOVEMENT IN KERALA  Arya Samaj had a glorious history in Kerala. The following are the major events in Kerala history involving the Arya Samaj. During the Malabar Rebellion in 1921 when the vedic ideals were tortured at Malabar province, Arya Samaj leaders like Pt. Hans Raj, Swamy Sradhanand and Pt. Rishi Ram and many unsung heroes took some bold initiatives and came here with few immortal Arya missionaries. Due to their dedicated work we could revive the vedic light again in Kerala. First Arya Samaj unit in Kerala formed at Calicut and it has shown exemplary courage and dedication for evacuating the displaced people. There was a strong Arya Samaj at Ponnani in Malappuram district also.                                         VAIKOM SATHYAGRAHA Vaikom Satyagraha (1924 - 25) was an important  social movement in  Kerala against untouchability in Hindu society. The movement was centered at the Shiva temple at Vaikom, near Kottayam.The Satyagraha aimed at securing freedom of movement for all sections of society through the public roads leading to the Sri Mahadeva Temple at Vaikom. As was the custom prevalent in those days, the Avarnas (lower caste people) were not allowed to enter the temples. But at Vaikom, they were not permitted even to use the public roads around the temple. Notice boards were put up at different spots prohibiting the entry of Avarnas reminding them of their social inferiority. All the more unbearable to them were the fact that a Christian or a Muslim was freely allowed on these roads. An Avarna had to walk through a circuitous route, two to three miles longer to avoid the road beside the temple. Due to the missionary works of Aryasamaj few depressed class members were converted to vedic dharma. Initially they were allowed to use the public roads at Vaikkom which were previously closed to them, but then the authorities, under orthodox pressure, announced that conversion to the Arya Samaj did not take the convert out of the depressed classes.  Swamy Sradhanand and Pt. Rishi Ram issued a manifesto of protest, “it means that a member of the depressed classes cannot have his social disabilities removed unless he forsakes the Hindu society and religion.” A popular movement started at Vaikom against the attitude of the so called orthodox Hindus. Great National Leaders like Arya Missionary Swamy Shradhanand, Mahatma Gandhi and social reformers like Sree Narayana Guru, EV Ramaswamy Naikker (popularly known as Periyar) were part of this struggle.  Arya Samaj contributed a leading part in this successful social movement for eradicating untouchability. SHUDHI OF RAMASIMHAN One of the very rich Moplah Muslims of Malappuram district called Uneen Sahib and his brother Alippu came under the spiritual influence of  Vedic dharma and decided to re-convert to Vedic religion.  He went to the Arya Samaj at Calicut along with his brother, sons and many other family members and got re-converted into Vedic religion under the ritualistic shuddhi sanskar conducted by Arya Missionary Sri. Buddha Singh from Punjab in 1946.   On becoming a follower of vedic religion, Uneen Sahib got the Arya name of Ramasimhan. One of his brothers got the name of Dayasimhan. Dayasimhan later became Narasimhan on his becoming a Namboothiri Brahmin. This shudhi work made great fury and consternation among the fundamentalist Moplah Muslims of this area.  Ramasimhan and many members of his family along with their relatives were brutally murdered by a pack of Islamic Moplah Marauders on the night of the  02 August 1947. LITERARY WORKS Many books on vaidika sahithyam supporting the ideological views of Maharshi Dayanand published in Malayalam. The dedicated vedic missionaries like Vedabandhu Sharma, Harshavardhanan, Acharya Narendra Bhooshan, Kizhanellur Parameswaran Namboothiri, Acharya Arya Bhaskar ji, Acharya Velayudha Arya etc. have given much contribution in this regard. There are many known and unknown persons took bold initiatives to spread the ideals of Maharshi Dayanand in Kerala. Unfortunately these details are not recorded in our history books and hence unavailable. We are trying to unfold these missing chapters in Kerala history and make their dedicated works known to future generation. ARYA SAMAJAM VELLINEZHI A few dedicated Arya missionaries have started a movement in Kerala for spreading the network of Arya Samaj organization as it is necessary for carrying forward our works to next generation. On that basis we formed an adhoc committee to spear head this movement few years back on a Rishibodhotsav day (23 Feb 2009) at Aluva in Ernakulam district.  Within last few years we could start few sadsang units in different parts of Kerala. We could establish a registered working Arya Samaj at Malabar area i.e Arya Samajam Vellinezhi. The establishment of Arya Samajam, Vellinezhi is the result of  dedication and hard work Arya Pracharak Sri.KM Rajan and his team at Vellinezhi. Sri.Suraj Prakash Kumar (Fakire-e-Dayanand)of Bangalore gave his full support and blessings for building a strong Arya Samaj base here. Arya Samajam Vellinezhi was formally established on 14 Sep 2013 at a grand function named 'ARYODAYAM 2013' held on 14 Sep 2013. Representatives from various Arya samaj units in Delhi, UP, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh etc.were present on this occasion.  Based on this Samaj, we would like to further strengthen the veda prachar activities in Kerala. As part of Veda prachar works, we have started a monthly vedic magazine named ‘Dayananda Sandesam’ and publishing it since last one and half year. We also established a Vedic library known as Pt Guruduth Vidyarthi Memorial Vedic Research and Reference Library at Vellinezhi on 10 Mar 2013. A Vedic Gurukul dedicated to immortal Arya Missionary Pandit Lekhram 'Pandit Lekhram Arsh Gurukul Mahavidyalay' was established on 08 Jun 2014  at Vellinezhi by Swamy Pranavanand Saraswathi.   ओ३म्  सत्यम वद:I धर्मं चर:I  स्वाध्ययात्मा प्रमद: I  ओ३म् कृण्वन्तो विश्वमार्यम् I (Rigved 9.63.5) Make This World Enlightened വിശ്വത്തെ ശ്രേഷ്‌ഠമാക്കുക!