Identifier: aryasamajaccount00lajpuoft Title: The Arya samaj; an account of its origin, doctrines, and activities, with a biographical sketch of the founder Year: 1915 (1910s) Authors: Lajpat Rai, Lala, 1865-1928 Subjects: Dayananda Sarasvati, Swami, 1824-1883 Arya-Samaj Publisher: London Longmans, Green Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image: n first place in the school. Thiswas in 1891. Up to that time we had all workedfor the College. I was among those who thought that the truespirit of the religious reform which we all had atheart could only be carried out with the help of aschool primarily devoted to re-establishing theprinciples and authority of the Vedas in the lives ofmen. Those who held the view that English andscience were the most important, declared that therest of us were religious fanatics and debarred usfrom the management of the College. Then we turnedour energies into the line of preaching the religion.In time we keenly felt the necessity of a school. Iwished one for the education of my two sons, andsecured the co-operation of thirteen others to establishit. Our object was a school where strong religiouscharacter could be built up on the basis of pure Vedicinstruction. We recognized two great wants of thepeople—men of character and religious unity—andwe set out to do what we could to supply these wants.

Text Appearing After Image: MAHATMA MUNSH] RAM EDUCATIONAL PROPAGANDA 197 Our primary aim is simply to give our boys the bestmoral and ethical training it is possible to give them—to make of them good citizens and religious men,and to teach them to love learning for learnings sake.Our model is the great universities of ancient India,such as that of Taxilla, near Rawalpindi, wherethousands of students congregated, and which weresupported, as were also the students who attendedthem, byj:he munificence of the State and wealthycitizens. The managing committee of the Samaj (that is,of our section of the Samaj ; there had been a split,caused not, as some have said, by questions as tomeat-eating, but by the educational difference) soonafter took up our scheme. They authorized thestarting of a Gurukula when Rs.30,000 should besubscribed and Rs.8,000 paid in. The project hungfire for some months, then I went out myself to raisethe money. I was not satisfied with Rs. 8,000, andsecured Rs.30.000 in cash in a short time.

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