Glimpses of Dayananda (Part-9)

*🌺A VISION OF WORLD-UNITY🌺*
[Glimpses of Dayananda (Part-9)]
✍🏻Author - Pandit Chamupati M.A.
*Presentation - 🌺 ‘Avatsāra’*

It was on the occasion of the Durbar, held by Lord Lytton at Delhi, that Dayananda convened at his camp a conference of the exponents of the various religions, each according to its own light working for the uplift of India in his day. The great Muslim leader, Sir Sayyad Ahmad Khan, to whose prophetic insight into the spirit of the age modern Islam owes its achievements in progressive liberalism in the India of to-day, was there to represent Mohmedanism. Babu Keshava Chandra Sen, the apostle of Brahmoism, with a few other distinguished lights of his Samaj; Munshi Kanhayya Lal Alakhdhari, whose writings had a wonderful influence in liberalising orthodox Hinduism in the Punjab; Munshi Indra Mani, who had taken upon himself the gigantic task of defending Hinduism against the attacks of non-Hindus, and such other religious propagandists who, dissatisfied with the state of religion at the time, were earnestly preaching rationalism and trying to deal a deathblow to superstition, had assembled in response to the invitation of the Seer.

Dayananda was conscious of the immense revolutionary currents that were silently sweeping over the uneasy bosom of the seemingly tranquil land. The 'mutiny' of 1857 had not yet become an event of the past. It had failed of its purpose but had left a legacy of unrest. None dared talk of political emancipation; that topic was taboo. The apparent clenrency exercised by the rulers had only emphasised the helplessness of the ruled. The spirit of freedom accordingly had, instead of dying out, only widened its range. The whole human outlook was now within the scope of that spirit. The soul of India was liberating itself, first in the field of religion.

The community of ideals that characterised the mission of almost all religious reformers of the time, each working in his community apparently and yet helping indirectly the regeneration of a national whole, forms a very interesting study for the historian of today. Dayananda perceived that Sayyad Ahmed Khan and Alakhdhari were proceeding just on parallel lines. He desired that the forces of the two should rather converge and, by a combination of their divided strength, together accelerate the progress of their one motherland. The vision was grand, the vision of a united India, purged of its religious prejudices and sectorian partialities, the Mohmedan joining hands with the Hindu for working under a common banner for the realisation of a common programme for Liberty and Unity. Religious solace, Dayananda knew, was a prime hankering of the human heart. To banish religion from the life of man was an empty dream, a futile hope. To hush up the voice of the soul crying for a sky and a nest was an attempt that must defeat its own purpose. Many a leader coming after Dayananda has to his infinite enlightenment, and perhaps edification, found that the concern which the human masses for religion is no insignificant factor in their lives. For a time curbed, the hankering has time again burst into passion and disturbed the political atmosphere with a suddenness and violence quite unforeseen and unprovided against.

Dayananda wanted to strike at the root of animosity behavers men and men. Religion, he knew, was the lever that lent to all human enthusiasm a momentum not be ignored. He had meant to unify humanity at that fundamental point, the point of religion. Of open controversies in public, he had engaged in many. The masses had literally been electrified by the successes he had won in these public debates. Of the art of religious polemics he was a past master. As a means, for proselytisation of the masses, the method had succeeded wonderfully. Such debates, however, could be own by tricks also. In public it was the art that triumphed, not necessarily the truth on the side of the disputant. Of the spiritual superiority of one faith over another the common folk were the last to be efficient judges. The masses always danced to the tune their leaders played them to. Now, therefore, Dayananda was addressing the leaders, leaders of thought.

To begin with, the appeal with which he opens his Magnum Opus, the Satyartha Prakasha, was repeated, to these men of light and leading. Always the Veda had appeared to Dayananda to be the source of all Truth. Veda that had been recognised universally as the primeval revelation of Divine Wisdom. From it being derived all true faiths and formulae of religion that sway the minds of people in all countries. The Commandments of the Veda had been adapted by Prophets and Princes of Peace to suit the necessities of their own times and climes. The sayes of India had compiled their Smritis, the apostles of Christianity their Bible, the Prophet of Arabia his Quran, and so on and so forth. Should but the followers of all religions own this their common homage due to that primeval Fount of Wisdom Divine, and consent to make an adaptation of their temporary codes so as to make them fit in with the changed conditions, some real foundation of human Unity might be laid, and all quarrels of creed hushed for all time. The religion-ridden Twentieth Century might then be spared the ghastly spectacle of a world-wide Armageddon, whose success consisted in part at least, in bringing to a successful close the Christian Crusades begun far back as the 11th Century. Dayananda wanted to found World-Peace on the basis of Religious Unity. To that end he made his proposal to the religious leaders of his country. They listened to him but were not prepared for an answer. The Rishi was talking in advance of the religious temper of his age.

A few years later, however, the same proposal was made to him from another quarter. The founders of the Theosophical Society addressed to him from America a letter full of reverence and affection. They accepted him as their Guru, and expressed their willingness to unite their Society with the Arya Samaj. He, they said, was to be the Upadeshaka or Preceptor of both the societies. Prompted by devotion, characteristic of new disciples, they made an arduous voyage to India and, without waiting for his return, went on to have his darshan in the midst of his tours. Unluckily, the connection between the associations could not be long maintained. Under the tension of difference adding between creeds it sooner snapped. Always ready to welcome into his arms all those who joined his Church, Dayananda never lost a moment in disowning to one who was not sincere in following his creed. Burning with a passionate desire to see the world once more united in bonds of oneness, he could never be party to a Unity founded on Untruth.

The very failure of Dayananda to realise his dream of World Unity seems to us to be an evidence of the loftiness of his vision.

The Seer was looking beyond his times. The arms he stretched out-to far-off America to hug to his bosom his once blood relations, the Aryans of old times, now alas held from him by borders of creed and colour, borders more impregnable than borders of configurations of land and water-are yet visible to the eye of imagination akin to the brilliance of a rainbow embracing East and West in one sweep-striving to give all human a common banner, a common insignia, a common creed, a common church.

✍🏻Author - Pandit Chamupati M.A.
*Presentation - 🌺 ‘Avatsāra’*