Swami Dayanand Saraswati

Dayanand Saraswati, a great thinker, social reformer, and patriot of modern India, was born on February 12, 1824, in Tankara, Rajkot district, Gujarat. His father was Karshanji Lalji Tiwari, and his mother was Yashodabai. His father was a tax collector and a wealthy, prosperous, and influential man. Dayanand Saraswatis real name was Mulshankar, and his early life was spent in relative comfort. Maharishi Dayanand possessed a high sense of idealism, a natural inclination to adopt a realistic approach, an indomitable zeal to reorient the destiny of his motherland, a strong desire to think in a contemporary manner from religious, social, economic, and political perspectives, and a sense of devotion to the glorious past among the people of Aryavarta (India). He set out to transform Hindu society in Aryavarta (India), regardless of opposition or criticism. Maharishi Dayanand founded the Arya Samaj in Girgaon, Bombay, on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, 1932. In his epic poem Satyarth Prakash, Swamiji denounced the evils prevalent in all religions. Among Swami Dayanands prominent followers, Lala Hansraj founded the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College in Lahore in 1886, and Swami Shraddhanand established a Gurukul in Kangri, near Haridwar.