Arya Samaj

When does modern 'Hinduism' begin and what were the circumstances that it emerged from? Modern can be an umbrella term from post-colonial India, which contains multitudes of beliefs in diaspora and the nefarious Hindutva fascist movement that plagues the current generations. Going back further to the colonial occupations of the subcontinent shows us a different story that contains suppression of Vedic education alongside the promotion of British social programming with a pre-existing Brahmin-dominated forms of worship similar to pre-Reformation Holy Roman Empire. What I am describing is a time when 'Hinduism' began to emerge as an exportable product for the global academic market versus well established systems of knowledge connected amongst the multitude of local cultures and traditions. Recognizing this disconnection of spiritual practice under occupation was Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj and creator of his own system of universal Vedantic practice and the call for Swaraj, to end the occupation and to allow Indians to rule themselves in their own homeland.

Swami Dayananda and many others had a two-fold problem shared between spiritual and social aspects of the land occupied by European colonizers. The social engineering of land, language, and lashes received on the backs of [insert colonized culture here] led to the underdevelopment and exploitation of millions of people, forcing them to be replaceable slaves under indentured service agreements and leave their necropolis homeland for other crown colonies. As people left the sub-continent with their lived traditions in mind, what remained was an unnatural spiritual emptiness hollowed out from the violently coercive occupation that systematically erased traditions and beliefs not suitable with profit making, such as the rejection of materialism and imposed beliefs. Extending the dystopian narrative further, Dayananda lived through the violent transfer from colony to crown (1857), where full foreign political control and economic restructuring was designed to punitively extract as much resources and life out of India as possible, leading to death under occupation of over 100 million people and $45 trillion (USD in 2018) stolen. While on his travels, 44 documented violent events were encountered demonstrating the destitute nature of colonial India amongst the variety of social castes.

Prior to the Partition, the crown colony operated on divide and conquer, pitting desperate communities of believers against each other in an effort to keep Hindus fighting Muslims for British profits. The Arya Samaj (Community of Nobles) and other social and religious reform movements emerged from this necropolis of suffering. There is an entire conversation surrounding the history and growth of the Samaj in colonial India, which included conversion efforts to Christians and Muslims (and the tensions that followed), will be sparsely mentioned. There is no downplaying religious conflict or how proselytization was a reactionary tool to foreign rule, these elements of institutionalized beliefs are part of the history of the organization and carried out by members in its name. This lesson will focus on the spiritual knowledge found in the Arya Samaj's core beliefs and practices, why reformation within Hinduism was necessary, and what we can apply from these teachings in developing your own practice.

Formulating Beliefs

Describing life under the oppressive rule of the British Raj can be an entire course by itself, but sectarianism is highly relevant to how colonized subjects were divided amongst each other. This includes leveraging a maldeveloped Vedic varna caste system that exploited pre-existing unjust social divisions amongst; Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (kings/warriors), Vaisyas (merchants), Shudras (laborers), and Dailts (the ostracized outsiders, Untouchables, whom handled the lowest societal tasks). This highly exploitive interpretation of what the Vedas originally describe as qualities of every individual (Purusha) limited and segregated India prior to British control. Not only was there a distinction of societal class embedded within every Indian birth, this lottery also determined the quality of spiritual education afforded within each class. Being from a Brahminical family is more exposed to (secret or esoteric) teachings, those in lower castes only receive knowledge of rituals that continues the priests relevance, and Dalits received no spiritual instruction or were condemned if taught.

This stratification exposed fault lines from historic Brahmanism and the gradual loss of religious identity for many spiritual seekers under occupation. On one hand, there is an ostentatious elite caste turned literal princes that represent the majority of 'Hindu' Dharma, and on the other there was everything else practiced in India including; Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Indigenous beliefs, and non-theistic practices within Yoga. Separate from the religious identification were the common practices across India that were non-Vedic and held in superstition; child marriage, discriminating against women, the aforementioned castes and priest craft, animal sacrifices, meat eating, idol worshipping, pilgrimages, and the ongoing conversion efforts away from Sanatana Dharm. Reformation, in Dayananda's mind, fell into his hands to restore Vedic instruction for spiritual practice and make it accessible for everyone. This was the precursor to his 1875 discourse, Satyarth Prakash, which critiqued the spiritual and social cultures he experienced while affording Vedic derived instructions for living. It should be recognized that this is a monumental effort in summarizing and communicating the Vedas, but also the struggle to make what he considered to be the ultimate truth available to seekers with no discrimination or indulgences.

The spiritual instruction and practice generally favors self-directed behavior and community engagement over superstitious practices that expect immense preparation of material offerings to a local sacrificial alter. Rather, there is an emphasis on learning Sanskrit and abstracting wisdom from the Vedas and the Upanishads for ritual practice. The significance here is the deliberate exclusion of non-Vedic texts like the Puranas and the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, but also the Agamic, Indigenous, or Tantric practices that were seen as artifacts of historic Brahminic assimilation. Dayananda's work included the distillation of the Vedas into a modern system of practice. This ideology challenged an increasingly unrecognizable Oriental society to reflect on the multitude of 'Hindu' beliefs with the equally various ways British occupation underdeveloped the culture. Dayanand and the Arya Samaj were confronted over their own beliefs and actions ultimately leading to his 1883 (successful) assassination. This did not stop his followers from continuing the call for emancipation both socially and spiritually where the Arya Samaj's mission spread throughout India and immigrated to Africa and the West Indies.

Core Beliefs

Covering the Brahminic and colonial background is an important bridge to cross to get to what the Arya Samaj believes and practices. For those whom grew up with practicing Hinduism (outside of India), there are peculiar differences in ritual worship, primarily focused on the daily sacrifice of the Agni Hotra ceremony coinciding without the use of idols. For those whom grew up without practicing Hinduism, the stereotypes of idol worship and elaborate rituals are the aesthetics Western eyes are drawn to, when you strip away the cosmetics you are left with the metaphysics and philosophy that runs counterintuitive to the Western/Empiricist oriented mentality which modern science and society functions on. There are plenty of other cultural worldviews that are counter to Western thinking (re: Indigenous), even within the same traditions around the world, where the primary (Western) contradiction is focused on material acquisition over spiritual wellbeing. The Arya Samaj have formulated their beliefs that address the gap in Western conditioning with the reality of living with imposed Western values. These core beliefs which Dayananda Sarwasati formulated and which were later refined is as follows:

1. The primeval cause of all genuine knowledge and all that is known by means of knowledge is God.
2. God is truth-consciousness: formless, omnipotent, unborn, infinite, unchangeable, incomparable, omnipresent, internal, undecaying, immortal, eternal, holy, and creator of the universe. God alone deserves worship.
3. The Vedas are repositories of all of true knowledge. It is the paramount duty of all Aryas to study, teach, and propound the Vedas.
4. One should be ever ready to imbibe truth and forsake untruth.
5. All acts should be done in accordance with Dharma, i.e., after deliberating on what truth and untruth are.
6. The prime object of Arya Samaj is to do good to the whole world, i.e., to achieve physical, spiritual, and social prosperity for all.
7. Our conduct towards all should be guided by love, by injunctions of Dharma and according to their respective positions.
8. One should dispel ignorance and promote knowledge.
9. One should not be content with one's own prosperity only, but should consider the prosperity of all as their own prosperity.
10. All human beings should subject themselves in abiding by the rules of social interest and should be free to follow every rule which is beneficial for all

Upon initial reading, these seem like universal humanist principles promoting attention to personal conduct with a little God sprinkled in at the beginning to know that you are dealing with a religion. This is intentional, as your beliefs, principles, and values are reflected in your personal conduct with the world and the inhabitants in it. Following the previous lesson and section on the proliferation of New Atheism, the first three listed are the most contentious based on the definitions and associations made between God and consciousness, a paradigm shift away from the bearded white man sitting on a throne ruling over everyone that much of the world has grown used to. What begins to shift away are the mythological narratives that disempowers individuals to a subservient role in a mechanistic world to the mythological narrative of Truth, Consciousness, and Bliss (Satchitananda) which is infinite Being. The objective of realizing the first three beliefs is based on your performance of the latter seven, which is why education has been a central focus of the Arya Samaj. Let us summarize or review these 10 beliefs as it relates to our lives and deep dive in a future lesson.

Decoding the beliefs

The primeval cause of all genuine knowledge and all that is known by means of knowledge is God.

Consciousness enables awareness and the feeling of life itself. Because of consciousness, we have access to what is known (sense objects, emotions, thoughts) to help us experience the world 'out there' and 'in here' (the heart). We have five senses that hear, touch, taste, see, and smell through the process of sensing the world. We have an intellect to think within our native language to string together meta-cognitive metaphors that help construct meaning within the world. And we have a mind that intuitively allows us to 'feel' emotions that physiologically modulates our body habitus. What is the origin of consciousness? It is not the breakdown of the bicameral mind, nor is it produced in the individual brain that interfaces with the world 'out there', nor is it pure information combining in to living beings. What the Arya Samaj suggests (and many other Dharmic beliefs point to) is the 1:1 association between God and consciousness mentioned in point 2. There is a large metaphysical claim that must be analyzed, I reviewed Bernardo Kastrup's Analytic Idealism: In a Nutshell which offers an extensive review of his philosophy of mind closely related to the 'proof' of this opening point. However, Swami Dayananda positioned himself as a dualist rather than a nondualist of Shankarya's Advaita Vedanta, which upon reflecting on his own reasoning in Satyarth Prakash, is rather unconvincing due to his polemic nature towards other religions and the chapters dedicated to debunking others claims versus building rationale beyond the veracity of the Vedas.

God is truth-consciousness: formless, omnipotent, unborn, infinite, unchangeable, incomparable, omnipresent, internal, undecaying, immortal, eternal, holy, and creator of the universe. God alone deserves worship.

There are many transcendental adjectives and a commandment in this second belief. The adjectives can draw skepticism as the reality we experience is; formulated, powered by ignorance, experiences time and space, changes with every moment, built on metaphorical comparisons, limited in expression, perceived externally, decays, dies, and is filled with defilement. Worship what again? This is a very grounded perception that many people share as believers or non-believers because of how random life is. Yet, that is exactly the point of spiritual education from a trusted Guru, to get you on the journey of Self-discovery and challenge yourself to listen, reflect, and know the truth for yourself rather than accepting without examining your assumptions.

The Vedas are repositories of all of true knowledge. It is the paramount duty of all Aryas to study, teach, and propound the Vedas.

This third belief is another claim and commandment that is more culturally coded than universal. The Samaj explores Vedic education through the study of the four Vedas and the primary (10 or 11) Upanishads. How does one experience point 1 and point 2 if they are born outside of the in-group (Samajis)? This observation extends to the proselytization history of the Samaj, which is a separate debate behind the merits of instigated conversion and its use in India. Focusing on the claim of surrounding the Vedas, the positive claim as the 'repository of true knowledge' can be misconstrued if the contents of the Vedas are seen in competition to other holy scriptures rather than its intent in establishing fields of knowledge that interprets subjective reality. If the medium is the Vedas, the message is transcendence. This does not degenerate the rich storytelling that predicates the vast expression of religious beliefs, in fact, it adds a sense of unity promoted in the Vedas, "Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti", Truth is one, the sages know it as many. Learning more about the Vedas explores humanities ancient interest in learning about the world and their place in it, a shared spiritual pursuit.

One should be ever ready to imbibe truth and forsake untruth.

This is just solid advice to live by. Attaching ourselves to a belief without examining the assumptions behind the belief is a form of ignorance that hinders spiritual development. Skepticism is good to have when it is applied without a superiority complex, where you intend to conquer a belief rather than learning by comparison, otherwise it is a hinderance towards overcoming ignorance.

All acts should be done in accordance with Dharma, i.e., after deliberating on what truth and untruth are.

A definition is provided to help understand the multifaceted concept of Dharma and why it is important to abide in it. Truth is enacted with mental and physical discipline. This speaks to the power of Yoga, or the yoking of the individual toward Moksha or spiritual liberation. Yogis train their mind through meditation, ethics, reading, possibly some substance use to alter their conscious state, and controlled devotion. Yogis train their body with strict diets (animal free is up to their ethics), Hatha Yoga, good sleeping habits, asanas, and more. After all, these Yogis are practitioners and must deliberate how their Yog approaches liberation, eliminate practices that are harmful, and seek out practices that work.

The prime object of Arya Samaj is to do good to the whole world, i.e., to achieve physical, spiritual, and social prosperity for all.

Excellent. We do live in a world where organizations can say they are doing good to the whole world, but they lie and are in fact doing evil to the whole world, for example Google's 'don't be evil' was removed from their code of conduct and they and many others are complicit in genocide profiteering. Let us not forget the history of abuse in the Catholic church or Hindu guru cult leaders who were sex pests to their cult followers, and many other cult organizations. I am by no means stating this is an issue with the Arya Samaj from my experience and research, the end of the 20th century saw the gradual exposure of rampant crimes within religious institutions and continue on to this day. How the Arya Samaj accomplishes these objectives are towards education and community development, which I would recommend reading any annual reports produced by the lead foundation to review their work.

Our conduct towards all should be guided by love, by injunctions of Dharma and according to their respective positions.

An ethical statement that references Dharma (see previous points) and anticipates conflict resolution based on the use of 'injunction'. Reading only the Vedas and Upanishads will make you ill prepared for the ethical dilemmas faced in this world as they are more suited for metaphysics. The Bhagavad Gita is an instruction manual on Dharma and provides 17 chapters of Yoga to resolve ethical challenges. We will cover the dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna in a separate module, but it is worth reading for the insights in the same way the Quran and Christian Bible contain niche stories that emulates expected ethical conduct.

One should dispel ignorance and promote knowledge.

Solid advice, yet slightly different from imbibing truth and forsaking untruth. The difference is internal (truth) vs. external/social (ignorance/knowledge). The truth is what we tell ourselves, knowledge is shared with others. Hopefully there is a parity between the two, otherwise ignorance is included when sharing information with others. This shared information can demonstrate the quality of knowledge transmitted in dialogue to determine if someone is truthful or speaking out of their ass, this is the origin of 'bullshit detector'. We can all think and relate to moments when we heard facts or claims made about a religion (or any general subject) and your red flags start to raise, this Samaj belief suggests to understand why by overcoming ignorance.

One should not be content with one's own prosperity only, but should consider the prosperity of all as their own prosperity.

From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs? Selfish individualism is a core feature of Western civilization, "F you, I've got mine". This socially conditioned attitude is enabled by economic underdevelopment for 99% of the worlds population and maintained by reinforcing capitalist values of exploitation and extraction. This real existing system of late stage capitalism has financed and insured every aspect of life to the point where prosperity is a class weapon to keep others poor for the sake of self-preservation. Mutual aid is very common amongst religious institutions, the Arya Samaj is not alone in sharing these values. However opening with Marx's famous statement from Gotha (released in the same year as Satyarth Prakash in 1875) is the accurate cure to the illness that capitalism produced in Europe and in every European colony. The prosperity of all does not translate to blood money (U$D) to pay equal wages or fair share of taxes, it refers to free access to and distribution of goods, capital, and services by removing the parasites that monopolize access to and distribution of these means.

All human beings should subject themselves in abiding by the rules of social interest and should be free to follow every rule which is beneficial for all

This is probably the most interesting point because it discusses freedom from the societal point of view. Keep in mind that colonized subjects wrote this statement with the assumption that government and governance can change. Here is the plural imagination of the Oppressed witnessing the world and wanting to change it for equality over dominating others. Because why subject yourself to rules that benefit nobody or discriminate one over another? What makes an imagined community like a Nation-State a legitimate social authority? Does a social contract even exist or as the Samaj points out, it is within our personal conduct to organize and advocate for positions that benefit all and ought to be followed.

Conclusion

The Arya Samaj is the tradition I grew up with and has very relevant pedagogical contributions to the SolarPunk Sangha. By understanding Swami Dayananda Sarwasati's life and the creation of the Arya Samaj, we benefit through his hard work and dedication with a Vedic education system that is unique and true to the Vedas. Knowing this history, we are again afforded a set of 10 universal core beliefs to follow. After reviewing my commentary on those 10 beliefs, be sure to reflect on how you can apply this lesson to your understanding of what we call Hinduism and its believers.

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