Ethics Of Dayananda Saraswati And Sri Aurobindo

Dayananda Saraswati was one of the forerunners of the Indian Renaissance, a man who was well-travelled and knowledgeable about the Indian scene. He is best known as the founder of the Arya Samaj, a Vedic-inspired Hindu reform movement. He was an expert on Vedic lore and the Sanskrit language. In 1876, he was the first to call for Swarajya, or "India for Indians," which was later picked up by Lokmanya Tilak. He worked to revive Vedic ideologies by denouncing the idolatry and ritualistic worship prevalent in Hinduism at the time. S. Radhakrishnan, a philosopher and former Indian President, later referred to him as one of the "makers of Modern India," as did Sri Aurobindo.

 

•    Maharshi Dayananda was a proponent of the karma and reincarnation doctrines. He emphasised brahmacharya (celibacy) and devotion to God as Vedic ideals. 

 

•    Maharshi Dayananda's contributions include advocating for equal rights for women, such as the right to education and the reading of Indian scriptures, as well as his intuitive commentary on the Vedas in Sanskrit and Hindi so that the common man can understand them. 

•    Long before Mahatma Gandhi, Dayanand was the first to preach Swadeshi and Harijan to the dalits and Pariahs (outcastes).

 

•    His critique of casteism is particularly noteworthy. The social position of a man should not be determined solely by his birth, but rather by his qualifications, accomplishments, and character. Even the son of a cobbler is capable of steadying Vedas, and a man born into a Brhmaa, Katriya, or Vaiya family should be treated as a Shudra if his actions resemble dra, the lowest caste. Mahatma Gandhi had placed a high value on his character. 

 

•    Dayanand's mission was to ask humanity for Universal Brotherhood through nobility, as spelled out in the Vedas, rather than to start or establish a new religion. He founded Arya Samaj for this purpose, enunciating the Ten Universal Principles as a code for Universalism Krinvanto Vishwaryam, which means the entire world should be an abode for Nobles (Aryas).

•    Despite numerous attempts on his personal life, his next step was to devote himself to the difficult task of reforming Hinduism. He crisscrossed the country, challenging religious scholars and priests to debates, and winning on the strength of his arguments based on his Sanskrit and Vedic knowledge. 

 

•    He believed that Hinduism had been tainted by a departure from the Vedic founding principles, and that Hindus had been duped by the priesthood for the priests' personal gain. Hindu priests discouraged laypeople from reading Vedic scriptures and promoted rituals like bathing in the Ganges River and feeding priests on anniversaries, which Dayananda dismissed as superstitions or self-serving practises.

 

1.    God is the effective cause of all true knowledge and all knowledge gained through knowledge.

 

2.    God is real, intelligent, and happy. He is formless, omniscient, just, merciful, unborn, endless, unchangeable, beginning less, unequalled, all-supporting, all-mastering, omnipresent, immanent, un-aging, immortal, fearless, eternal and holy, and the maker of all. He alone is deserving of worship.

 

3.    The Vedas are the holy books that contain all true knowledge. It is the primary responsibility of all Aryas to read, teach, recite, and hear them read.

 

4.    One should always be willing to accept the truth and reject the lie.

 

5.    All actions should be carried out in accordance with Dharma, or after careful consideration of what is right and wrong.

 

6.    The Arya Samaj's main goal is to do well in the world, which includes promoting everyone's physical, spiritual, and social well-being.

 

7.    Love, righteousness, and justice should guide our actions toward everyone.

 

8.    We must eliminate Avidya (ignorance) and promote Vidya (knowledge).

 

9.    No one should be satisfied with promoting his or her own good; rather, one should seek his or her own good in promoting the good of all.

 

10.    One should regard oneself as constrained in order to follow the rules of society designed to promote the well-being of all, while everyone should be free to follow the rules of individual welfare.

 

His goal was to educate the nation to 'Return to the Vedas' by exhorting them to reject such superstitious beliefs. He urged Hindus to return to their religion's roots and live the Vedic lifestyle, which he emphasised. He urged Hindus to accept social reforms such as the value of cows for national prosperity and the adoption of Hindi as the national language for national integration.

 

•    He inspired the nation to aspire to Swarajya (self-governance), nationalism, and spiritualism through his daily life and practise of yoga and asanas, teachings, preaching, sermons, and writings. He advocated for equal rights and respect for women, as well as the education of girls in the same way that boys are educated.

 

•    Swami Dayanand analysed faiths such as Christianity and Islam, as well as other Indian faiths such as Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, logically, scientifically, and critically. In his book Satyarth Prakash, he also preached against idolatry in Hinduism. 

 

•    He was opposed to what he saw as the corruption of his own country's true and pure faith. Unlike many other Hindu reform movements at the time, the Arya Samaj's appeal was directed not only to the educated few in India, but to the entire world, as evidenced by the Arya Samaj's sixth principle. His teachings, in fact, preached universalism for all living beings, not just for any sect, faith, community, or nation.

 

•    Converts to Hinduism are permitted and encouraged by the Arya Samaj. Dayananda’s concept of dharma is stated in the “Beliefs and Disbeliefs” section of Satyartha Prakash. 

 

Sri Aurobindo was regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century, but he was much more than that. He was a politician, a mystic, a spiritual leader, a poet, a yogi, and a teacher, among other things. Sri Aurobindo was exposed to a wide range of human endeavours and was able to communicate his insights in a way that we can appreciate and comprehend.

 

•    Sri Aurobindo's contribution to human potential and growth was made possible by his fusion of Western and Eastern cultures. He combined the West's energy and vision, which focuses on the perfection of the physical, material, and mental aspects of human life, with the East's spiritual development and philosophical directions, which have been developed over thousands of years.

 

•    Sri Aurobindo's writings assist us in reconciling the apparent conflicts of two disparate societies while also developing a new, broader, more inclusive perspective that vibrates with spiritual force, mental clarity, and a heart of love and compassion for humanity's efforts.

 

•    It is natural for man's vital nature to desire success, happiness, and vital fulfilment in his or her life. This includes the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. In the vast majority of cases, this serves as the motive spring or impulsion for our actions. We've framed our ethical concepts to include the fulfilment of these compulsions, and as a result, we've created a benchmark for our ethical framework that demands it.

 

•    However, Sri Aurobindo points out that ethics as a conceptual principle can be seen and recognised even in the absence of specific desire fulfilment. In fact, an ethical framework based on achieving or avoiding pleasure or avoiding suffering is more akin to a bargain than a truly ethical act. 

 

•    Human law is designed to more or less conform to the expectation of desire, punishing those who cause pain and suffering while rewarding those who act within the framework or have been victimised by acts deemed punishable.

 

•    The law of Karma, as popularly conceived, “…is expected…to deal with man on his own principle and do this very thing with a much sterner and more inescapable firmness of application and automatic necessity of consequence.” Thus, we have created the cosmic law in the image of our human law, and transformed it into a system of meted out rewards and punishments in our normal view of the matter.