Address of Shri Ram Madhav at the First Anniversary of the Maha Samadhi of Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati Ji of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam on 11 Sept 2016 at Hrishikesh (Uttarakhand)

India is a land of saints – Dharma Bhumi. Countless saints and sages have tread this sacred land. We don’t have to wait for decades on to locate a saint and then celebrate. Our saints are not miracle-makers. They are epitome of Brahma Vidya – the essence of all knowledge and wisdom.

Pujya Swami Dayanandaji was a saint of the saints. A guru of the gurus. Swamiji was a great teacher of Vedanta. In fact I wouldn’t hesitate to call him the greatest teacher of Vedanta in 21st Century, second only to his Guru who attained Maha Samadhi in 1993.

In the 18th Chapter of the Gita, Bhagwan says of dedicated activist:

mukta-sango ‘naham-vadi

dhrty-utsaha-samanvitah

siddhy-asiddhyor nirvikarah

karta sattvika ucyate 

A man of detachment and devoid of any egos – that was Pujya Swamiji. And he was ‘Dhrty-utsaha-samanvitah’ – passion personified. He was passionate about three things – Desha, Dharma and Dharmi.

Desha – country was always uppermost in his mind. In my close to two decades association with Pujya Swamiji I had innumerable hours of interaction with him where we wouldn’t discuss any spiritual matters but the issues regarding our country and its problems. Swamiji was concerned about corruption, illiteracy, lack of healthcare for the poor and the general indifference of the ruling class. He started numerous schools and hostels through Aim for Sewa.

Dharma of course was his main mission in life. He inspired millions through his spiritual discourses. He trained hundreds of Acharyas to carry forward the teaching tradition to protect our Dharma.

But for him protecting Dharma didn’t mean building a few more temples or printing a few more thousands of copies of Gita. For him protecting Dharma meant protecting the Dharmi, the Hindu society which is the embodiment of this Dharma. Every Hindu Dharmi needs to be protected in order to protect Dharma. He is a target of religious conversions today, he also is exposed to many Adharmic tendencies.

Swamiji’s biggest mission in life was to protect the Dharmi Hindu society. In that he was always very focused and forthright, even at the risk of being on the wrong side of so-called political correctness.

I pay my tributes to the cherished memory of Pujya Swamiji on the first anniversary of his Maha Samadhi and wish that all of us who were inspired by his teachings carry forward his legacy by dedicating ourselves to the protection of the Dharmi – the Hindu society.