2. His methods and the scientific interpretation of the Vedas.
Dayānand’s attempt to found a sect which, while not going entirely outside Hinduism, should prove acceptable to educated Hindus desiring a purer faith, appears to have been distinctly successful. The leaders of the Brahmo Samāj were men of higher intelligence and ability than he, and after scrupulously fair and impartial inquiry were led to deny the infallibility of the Vedas, while they also declined to recognise caste. But by so doing they rendered it impossible for a man to become a Brahmo and remain a Hindu, and their movement has made little headway. By retaining the tenet of the divine authority of the Vedas, Dayānand made it possible for educated Hindus to join his sect without absolutely cutting themselves adrift from their old faith. But Dayānand’s contention that the Vedas should be figuratively interpreted, and are so found to foreshadow the discoveries of modern science, will naturally not bear examination. The following instances of the method are given by Professor Oman: “At one of the anniversary meetings of the society a member gravely stated that the Vedas mentioned pure fire, and as pure fire was nothing but electricity, it was evident that the Indians of the Vedic period were acquainted with electricity. A leading member of the sect, who had studied science in the Government college, discovered in two Vedic texts, made up of only eighteen words in all, that oxygen and hydrogen with their characteristic properties were known to the writers of the Rig Veda, who were also acquainted with the composition of water, the constitution of the atmosphere, and had anticipated the modern kinetic theory of gases.”[4] Mr. Burn gives the following parallel versions of a verse of the Rig Veda by Professor Max Müller and the late Pandit Guru Datt, M.A., of the Arya Samaj:
Professor Max Müller.—“May Mitra, Varūna, Aryaman, Ayu, Indra, the Lord of the Ribhus, and the Marūts not rebuke us because we shall proclaim at the sacrifice the virtues of the swift horse sprung from the Gods.”
Pandit Guru Datt.—“We shall describe the power-generating virtues of the energetic horses endowed with brilliant properties (or the virtues of the vigorous force of heat) which learned or scientific men can evoke to work for purposes of appliances. Let not philanthropists, noble men, judges, learned men, rulers, wise men and practical mechanics ever disregard these properties.” In fact, the learned Pandit has interpreted horse as horse-power.