The Selected Letters of Maharshi Dayanand

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Foreword Man is the only class in the animal world who has the best ways and means to express its feelings and thoughts. Man normally uses language to convey his feelings and thoughts to others. This expression of ours is usually verbal, but sometimes symbolic and written also. In this way, writing and speaking are considered to be the most suitable mediums for the expression and exchange of ideas. Writing can also be divided into two parts: the first writing is that which is for the general public and is conveyed to the readership community through articles published in newspapers, journals, social media, internet or books. The second type of writing is letter writing which is written by targeting a specific person. To know the life, thoughts and importance of any great personality, the letters written by him are also a very useful means. In the letters, the person publishes his thoughts mostly in a very clear and simple style. From this point of view, the importance of letters is sometimes considered even more than the books written by him.

The books written by the great men give us ideas of their unique thoughts, abilities, feelings and concern for the welfare of all living beings and their biographies publish all the ways to reach their greatness. Their general behaviour and conversational habits, especially their correspondence helps us to take us to the very close to almost all the parts of their personal lives and put in front of the public the great efforts made by them to fulfil their noble objectives and principles. Except the books written by them, all other means to know about them are collected by the public only after their life, this is a common rule. It is also undisputed that in all these means, the works of great men are the main luminaries of their principles and beliefs. Since all the rest is collected after his lifetime and all those circumstances in the biographies or which the above efforts were made do not currently exist exactly in the same manner, correspondence are considered as auxiliary sources to know about the great men. However, they are very instrumental in understanding the feelings and inner spirit of them.

There is a strange magic in letters or correspondence. This is the main reason that if a person receives someone's letter, then there is hardly a few who do not read it very carefully. The second thing is that the light that we get on a man's conduct and thoughts from the letters written by him is sometimes not available even from his articles and lectures.

Letter writing is a personal process in which we say our words keeping a particular person in mind. Normally such personal letters are not made public, but in a special situation, when it is felt that others also are expected to get benefit from the contents of these letters, then there is no harm in disseminating them to general readers. Sometimes some of the letters of great men who sacrificed themselves for the welfare of society, nation and entire humanity are private in nature, but they contain such a valuable stuff and great message that they too deserve to be brought to the knowledge of the common people.

Preface Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati was one of the greatest men that the world has yet produced. He was an all-round reformer who worked whole heartedly and selflessly for the betterment of the people in every field-religious, social, educational and political.

In this book, the readers will find some of his important letters on religious, social, educational and national subjects addressed to his followers and admirers to guide them properly. Some of these letters were originally written in Sanskrit, many of them in Arya-Bhasha (as Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati used to call Hindi) and some in English. The letters written in English originally by his assistants or admirers have been retained as they were, though in some of them the language used is very defective and un-grammatical.

Personal letters reveal the real innermost feelings and sentiments of a person. So, these letters written or dictated by one of the greatest personages of the world are very significant as they throw a flood of light on his innermost feelings.

The late Swami Shraddhanandji, one of the greatest martyrs, Pandit Chamupatiji M.A. and Pandit Bhagawad Dattji, the well- known research scholar, published a collection of the Maharshi's letters from time to time. Pandit Bhagawad Dattji took the greatest pains to collect and edit about 680 letters which were published in a book form by Shri Ram Lal Kapoor Trust, Amritsar, under the title of Maharshi Dayanand Ke Patra aur Vijyapan, second edition in 1955.

In this collection of some important letters are translated into English by Shri Bharat Bhushan, Senior sub-editor, Samachar.

The readers will find what a great zeal Maharshi Dayanand possessed for the propagation of the Vedic dharma, Sanskrit and Arya-Bhasha (Hindi) and banning the slaughter of the cattle.

Shri Bharat Bhushan has translated in to English some big books like Vedon ka Yatharth Swarup, Arya Sanskriti ke Mool Tattva and Vedic Vichardhārā kā Vaijyänik Adhar. He is also the author of a book in English poetry named Whispers which has been very highly appreciated by English knowing public as its review in many English magazines show. It was at the instance of Shri Chaudhary Pratap Singh Ji, rais (noble and wealthy person) of Karnal, a liberal Philanthropist, highly interested in the propagation of the Vedic ideals and teachings and a great devotee of Maharshi Dayanand that Shri Bharat Bhushan undertook the English translation of this and the two other big works mentioned above. Chaudhary Pratap Singh Ji deserves all praise for the publication of such useful works through his trust.

I am quite sure that this faithful English translation of some of the important letters and advertisements of Maharshi in simple and lucid style will be found to be very useful like his other works.

**Contents and Sample