Having arrived at certain conclusions he read these back into the Vedas and pleaded for unques tioning faith in their infallibility. His followers are noted more for their character and militant spirit than for intellectual ability or wide culture. There is a large proportion of men of more than average ability in the ranks of the Arya Samaj, but with the possible exception of Lala Lajpat Rai and Mahatama Munshi Ram, the community has not produced many conspicuous instances of scholarship. There have been, of course, a proportion of men high up in professional careers or in Government service—men of the stamp of the late Lala Lal Chand and others —but we shall look in vain for men with breadth of vision and large mental calibre, from the community that might " rub shoulders " with Ranade or Tagore, Gokhale or Keshab Chandra Sen. When we bear in mind, however, that the Punjab, where the Samaj has most flourished, is not educationally advanced, even though it is making rapid strides now, and that the whole fabric of the Samajic doctrines rests on superficial foundations—the infallibility of the Vedas as the repository of all knowledge—we shall make generous allowances for the incapacity to produce outstanding leaders. I have no intention to dis parage the splendid work done by the Samaj. I should only say that any movement that calls itself progressive, and yet rests on the verbal inspiration of ancient scriptures, and their being a storehouse of all possible human knowledge, is bound, sooner or later, to develop a narrow, hardened theology, and produce disastrous reactions on the mind, be the movement in question professedly Christian, Hindu or Islamic.
We conclude this chapter with a concrete instance of how the Samaj does splendid work by means of a progressive interpretation of texts, rites or cere monies apart from the consideration whether these texts, rites and ceremonies admit of such liberal construction or not. I am quoting from Lala
Lajpat Rai's interesting book : " The Arya Samaj : An Indian Movement," pp. 86-87.
" Devas (gods) are those who are wise and learned ; asuras (demons) those who are foolish and ignorant ; Rakshas those who are wicked and sin-loving ; and pishachas, those whose mode of life is filthy and debasing.
" Devapuja (or the worship of the gods) consists in showing honour and respect to the wise and learned, to one's father, mother, and preceptor, to the preachers of the true doctrine, to a just and impartial sovereign, to lovers of righteousness, to chaste men and women.
" Tirtha (i.e., pilgrimages) is that by means of which ' the sea of pain ' is crossed. It consists in truthfulness of speech, in the acquisition of true knowledge, in cultivating the society of the wise and good, in the practice of morality, in contemplating the nature and attributes of the Deity with con centrated attention, in active benevolence, in the diffusion of education, and so on. Rivers and other so-called holy places are not Tirthas." Most ingenious explanations, indeed, of customary observances do these statements appear to be. But how else can you combat wrong ideas except by the substitution of right ones ? The Swami was, in this respect, full of moral enthusiasm and initiative.
The late Madame Blavatsky pays the following compliment to Dayananda : " It is perfectly certain that India never saw a more learned Sanskrit scholar, a deeper metaphysician, a more wonderful orator and a more fearless denunciator of ariy evil than Dayananda, since the time of Shankaracharya."