LIGHTOF TRUTH ENLIGHTENMENT FOR ALL HUMANS

AUM
‘LIGHT OF TRUTH’ ENLIGHTENS ALL HUMANS
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM

The Naulakha Mahal in Maharana’s Udaipur was the venue of two important landmarks in the march forward of the Arya Samaj under the guidance of Swami Dayanand Saraswati. The Rishivar finalised the second and final edition of the Satyarth Prakash or Light of Truth, his magnum opus. Secondly, he rescinded his WILL that he had written in Meerut sometime back and wrote his second and final WILL about the management of the Arya Samaj and publication of the Vedic literature generated by him through the Paropkarini Sabha. Presently I propose to write on our family’s tryst with Maharishi’s Magnum Opus.
FRANCE TO FYZABAD
Battle fields in France and Flanders. The British Empire threw in all its might to fight against the Imperial Germany. More than a million Indian soldiers and supporters made their presence felt to friend and foe alike. Of them 70,000 made the supreme sacrifice. My grand uncle was lucky to return with a chest decorated with medals. The highest medal of honour that he received and was passed on from generation to generation was the Satyarth Prakash. The Munshis well versed in Urdu and Persian now went out of the way to learn Hindi and Sanskrit. The newly acquired knowledge of the Vedas transformed our way of life. The first casualty was the Taziya during Moharram or the period of mourning of Shiite Muslims that had become a part and parcel of our way of life under the Nawabs of Oudh. The joyful celebration of the Dussehra was the new arrival. It was soon preceded by the Shravani – the day to change the sacred thread and recommence study of the VEDAS. The fundamental change was very welcome to the family and friends alike.
Reading of the Satyarth Prakash or the Light of Truth enlightened us all. The reading was not a ritual but an awakening. The Munshis of yore changed their personalities, both outward and inward, into those of Mahashayas. Those who saw, they believed that the wind was no more westerly but easterly. The Rishis and Munis were our family’s Role Models to follow. Maryada Purshottam Shri Ram, Yogeshwar Shri Krishna, Maharishi Dayanand, Swami Shraddhanand and so on were the new beacon lights that guided our ship of life through the uncharted seas and darkness. The stories of Sohrab and Rustam were no more narrated at bed time to children to lead them on the path of patriotism. Veer Abhimanyu and Danvir Karna were now sources of inspiration to the toddlers and the adolescents alike.
SUPERSTITIONS AND MYTHS EXPLODED
The first chapter of the Satyarth Prakash guided the old ladies to say AUM all the time they needed to remember God. It was NOT Hariom but just AUM, so said the Swami and we accepted it and one hundred Vedic names of Param Pita Parmatma as gospel truth. Hereafter, nothing else mattered more than what was handed down in black and white and which passed muster as the views of Swami Dayanand based on the Vedic Thought. The Swami made it known time and again that his preaching were a part and parcel of the ancient Vedic Dharma and he were NOT founding a new religion or sect.
Shanivaar or a Saturday – that was a bugbear for many men and women who were yet to be initiated into the realm of the Vedas. Some women refused to buy a new pair of sandals on a Saturday as they contained iron and that would annoy Shani god. What rubbish it was. The first chapter of the Satyarth Prakash makes it amply clear that Shanaishchar is a Vedic word and one of many names of one God who teaches us to be patient. Dr Chiranjiva Bharadwaj translates the Swami’s sentence on Shanaishchara thus:
One who reaches or gains access to all with ease and possesses great fortitude”.
It is quite clear that the Vedic name of God exudes friendliness and those who arouse Fear of Shanaishchar do so just to line their pockets. In our family, thanks to Satyarth Prakash, Saturday has no special significance for fear or favour. It would be in the fitness of things to mention that in my military service of three decades plus I took charge of important posts on Saturdays (it was not a holiday then) and all was well.
Bhoot bhoot or ghosts, djinns and evil spirits frighten our children because we have put wrong, superstitious beliefs in their minds during impressionable years of life. It must be corrected forthwith.
The second and third chapters of our book guide us on education of children and dispelling doubts on the existence of evil spirits or Bhatakti Atma – the wandering souls who are not born again. My family and I lived in a house located on the ramparts of the Fort William which is notorious for ghosts of Englishmen and women. One evening my adolescent children insisted on examining feet of the maid to ensure that heels were in the rear and toes in front part of the feet as they were told that an English female ghost with heels in front was on the prowl on the ramparts. I was indeed alarmed to hear of the incident. I immediately read out the relevant part of the Swami’s writing to reassure my children that ghosts are mere figments of imagination. The Swami says: “Preta (in Sanskrit) really means a dead body, and Bhoot means who is deceased.” In my opinion a living person should never be scared of the dead and this thought should be drilled in the minds of young boys and girls.
The ignorant souls live in all parts of the world. Long ago while I was on a Ved prachar sojourn in the UK, a mother of a newlywed girl implored me to write a Ved mantra and tie it in the girl’s dupatta so that her husband forsakes the company of his lover and spends time with the lawfully wedded wife. I succeeded in convincing her that there was no such procedure prescribed in the Vedas. However, the Mahamantra for reunion is communication and togetherness. In a joint meeting with the newlyweds I read out to them from the fourth chapter of the Satyarth Prakash:
“Whenever the husband is quite contented with his wife, and the wife with her husband, in that family alone all prosperity, fortune and happiness perpetually dwell. And wherever they disagree and squabble, there poverty, ill fortune and misery are assuredly permanent.”
I am indeed glad to mention that the couple had started sleeping together after a few sessions of marital counselling. Since sexual intercourse for procreation forms the bedrock of a happy married life they were counselled to read and practise the way to have sex as prescribed in the chapter four of the Satyarth Prakash. Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati led a life of celibacy from beginning to the end yet he did not fight shy in advising the newly wedded couple how to copulate and discharge semen into the vagina to give birth to a new life. His preaching is both philosophical and pragmatic as is seen in his great treatise. There is an adequate emphasis on Vivah and Grihashram in the fourth chapter and it is of immense help to the uninitiated couple fresh from the Gurukul after the Brahmacharya Ashram.
Are you prepared to leave your home and hearth and prepare yourself for Sanyas and thence for the final departure from this world? Well, everyone should go through all four ashrams of life. Maharishi Dayanand writes all about the Vanaprastha and Sanyas ashrams in chapter five. This brings us to an end of preparation and actual living of an individual and also the family. Thereafter, the Swami deals with the Raj Dharm in chapter six and that also includes the dharm of a kshatriya. Based on this chapter, I had written an article Maharishi Dayanand and National Defence which was posted on the Internet and became a hotly debated subject in various seminars on national defence. Running of administration and keeping the State in one piece is no joke. The Raj Dharm as enunciated in chapter six draws from the Manusmriti and makes available to a student of statecraft what he or she needs to know to run the show as a state actor.
VEDIC PHILOSOPHY
Chapters seven to ten deal with pure philosophy of life and Creation of the world, how to attain MOKSHA and what is Vidya or Avidya.The world that we live in – is it the first of its kind? How does Creation take place and how the Pralaya or the great deluge takes it back to square one – these are some of the basic questions that an individual wishes to know. Maharishi Dayanand explains with patience what the Vedic concept is. Like in other chapters, these philosophical chapters also follow the Question-Answer technique that is so simple that one who has not learnt Sanskrit in school is able to understand. This is the beauty of the style and content of Maharishi’s writings in the Satyarth Prakash that a scholar and a commoner are equally at ease in going through the content.
I recall what an old venerable lady told me after my short talk on the beauty and knowledge that a reader sees and gets after reading the Satyarth Prakash. She said “Brigadier Ji, I must confess that I go to sleep the moment I open chapter one and read a few lines”. I knew what her problem was. I advised her to start reading the book from chapter eleven. There are numerous interesting stories that the Swami has mentioned in his crusade to explode myths and superstitions. The chapter XI makes a good reading and the old lady vouched for it in our next meeting.
The Jains and the Buddhists are unhappy with chapter twelve as they feel that their religions are in the firing line. The Maharishi has nothing against any particular religion. His aim was to enlighten entire Mankind through the Light of Truth. Nothing more, nothing less. One should not feel hurt as no individual or religion has been picked for unwarranted criticism. In chapter XI it is the indigenous faith of Bharat that is in the firing line. Jain religion and Buddhism are very much of Indian origin and a separate chapter deals with their anti-Vedic stance and sufficient space has been devoted for the purpose.
Christianity has been analysed threadbare in the 13th chapter and Islam in the 14th chapter. Swami Ji had got the Bible and the Quraán translated into Hindi before expressing his views and examining their precepts in the light of the Vedic injunctions. Swami Dayanand found that the concept of birth of a baby without a male and a female coming together for sex was the biggest lie perpetrated by Christianity. How could Jesus be son of God all by himself? We all are sons and daughters of God.
Likewise the stories of Islam that were unscientific were analysed threadbare and the myth was exposed. How was it possible for the prophet to ascend on a white horse and go to heaven, asked the analyst? The Muslims slaughter animals for food but say that they are doing so in the name of the Merciful God. Indeed it was a contradiction of terms.
It may be clarified that Christian missionaries and Islamist Mullahs had launched a tirade on the Hindu Dharma and a counter-attack was an absolute must. In any case Maharishi Dayanand wished to enlighten all human beings without fear or favour through the Satyarth Prakash or the Light of Truth. The great Swami achieved his aim. Here is what he wrote in the preface of his treatise:
“My chief aim in writing this book is to unfold Truth. I have expounded truth as truth and error as error. The exposition of error in place of truth and of truth in place of error does not constitute the unfolding of truth.......
It is not our object to hurt anyone’s susceptibilities or to injure anyone. On the other hand, our aim is to further the advancement and advance the well being of mankind....In our opinion there is no other way of elevating the human race.”
Swami Dayanand Saraswati always favoured those who were truthful and opposed those who favoured falsehood. Nothing could deter him in expressing the Truth. At the end of the Preface, he says with emphasis:
“We consider it the first and the foremost duty of every man to proclaimthe Truth without fear or favour.”
Maharishi Dayanand ends the preface with a prayer to the Almighty:
“May the Omniscient, Omnipresent, Supreme Spirit who is the true personification of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss through His grace diffuse this spirit and give it permanency.” A word to the wise.

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