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.
3. Tenets of the Samāj.
Nevertheless the Arya Samāj does furnish a haven for educated Hindus who can no longer credit Hindu mythology, but do not wish entirely to break away from their religion; a step which, involving also the abandonment of caste, would in their case mean the cessation to a considerable extent of social and family intercourse. The present tenets and position of the Arya Samāj as given to Professor Oman by Lāla Lājpat Rai[5] indicate that, while tending towards the complete removal of the over-swollen body of Hindu ritual and the obstacles to social progress involved in the narrow restrictions of the caste system, the sect at present permits a compromise and does not require of its proselytes a full abjuration. In theory members of any religion may be admitted to the Samāj, and a few Muhammadans have been initiated, but unless they renounce Islam do not usually participate in social intercourse. Sikhs are freely admitted, and converts from any religion who accept the purified Hinduism of the Samāj are welcome. Such converts go through a simple ceremony of purification, for which a Brāhman is usually engaged, though not required by rule. Those who, as Hindus, wore the sacred thread are again invested with it, and it has also been conferred on converts, but this has excited opposition. A few marriages between members of different subcastes have been carried out, and in the case of orphan girls adopted into the Samāj caste, rules have been set aside and they have been married to members of other castes. Lavish expenditure on weddings is discouraged. Vishnu and Siva are accepted as alternative names of the one God; but their reputed consorts Kāli, Durga, Devi, and so on, are not regarded as deities. Brāhmans are usually employed for ceremonies, but these may also, especially birth and funeral ceremonies, be performed by non-Brāhmans. In the Punjab members of the Samāj of different castes will take food together, but rarely in the United Provinces. Dissension has arisen on the question of the consumption of flesh, and the Samāj is split into two parties, vegetarians and meat-eaters. In the United Provinces, Mr. Burn states, the vegetarian party would not object to employ men of low caste as cooks, excepting such impure castes as Chamārs, Doms and sweepers, so long as they were also vegetarians. The Aryas still hold the doctrine of the transmigration of souls and venerate the cow, but they do not regard the cow as divine. In this respect their position has been somewhat modified from that of Dayānand, who was a vigorous supporter of the Gaoraksha or cow-protection movement.
4. Modernising tendencies.
Again Dayānand enunciated a very peculiar doctrine on Niyoga or the custom of childless women, either married or widows, resorting to men other than their husbands for obtaining an heir. This is permitted under certain circumstances by the Hindu lawbooks. Dayānand laid down that a Hindu widow might resort in succession to five men until she had borne each of them two children, and a married woman might do the same with the consent of her husband, or without his consent if he had been absent from home for a certain number of years, varying according to the purpose for which he was absent.[6] Dayānand held that this rule would have beneficial results. Those who could restrain their impulses would still be considered as following the best way; but for the majority who could not do so, the authorised method and degree of intimacy laid down by him would prevent such evils as prostitution, connubial unfaithfulness, and the secret liaisons of widows, resulting in practices like abortion. The prevalence of such a custom would, however, certainly do more to injure social and family life than all the evils which it was designed to prevent, and it is not surprising to find that the Samāj does not now consider Niyoga an essential doctrine; instead of this they are trying in face of much opposition to introduce the natural and proper custom of the remarriage of widows. The principal rite of the Samāj is the old Hom sacrifice of burning clarified butter, grain, and various fragrant gums and spices on the sacred fire, with the repetition of Sanskrit texts. They now explain this by saying that it is a sanitary measure, designed to purify the air.
The Samāj does not believe in any literal heaven and hell, but considers these as figurative expressions of the state of the soul, whether in this life or the life to come. The Aryas therefore do not perform the shrādhh ceremony nor offer oblations to the dead, and in abolishing these they reduce enormously the power and influence of the priesthood.
5. Aims and educational institutions.
The above account indicates that the Arya Samāj is tending to become a vaguely theistic sect. Its religious observances will probably fall more and more into the background, and its members will aspire to observe in their conduct the code of social morality obtaining in Europe, and to regulate their habit of life by similar considerations of comfort and convenience. Already the principal aims of the Samāj tend mainly to the social improvement of its members and their fellow-Indians. It sets its face against child-marriage, and encourages the remarriage of widows. It busies itself with female education, with orphanages and schools, dispensaries and public libraries, and philanthropic institutions of all sorts.[7] Its avowed aim is to unite and regenerate the peoples of Aryavārrta or India.
As one of its own poets has said:[8]
Ah! long have ye slept, Sons of India, too long!