Before being given the name Rishi Dayanand, his name was Mool Shankar. He was the son of a Tax Collector, Karsanji Tiwari. Watching a mouse eating the offering in the temple on Shivratri night before Shiva's idol and deaths of his sister and uncle, provoked great desire to search God and truth of life. Eventually he left home in this search and travelled all over India right from the caves of Vindhyachal to Himalayan peaks. On his way, he met several Yogis and highly literate people. It took him 15 tiring years to finally meet an old monk (sanyasi) at Mathura (Uttar Pradesh, India) who satisfied his desire and quenched his thirst. The old enlightened monk Swami Virjanand was blind but guidied Mool Shankar for about two and a half years. Mool Shankar learnt the Vedic Traditions, the deeper meaning of Vedas, and the real meaning of truth of life from him. Now Mool Shankar was an enlightened person and was named Rishi Dayanand by his Guru Swami Virjanand. Rishi Dayanand with the blessings of his Guru travelled again all over India to spread the teachings of Veda's and real meaning of truth of life. Rishi Dayanand briskly started reforming the society and preached the people through three weapons ie. Speech, Discourse and Writings. He went through villages, towns and cities and delivered the message of Vedas and truth. He debated with religeous Pundits and in presence of thousands of people made them speechless. He wrote many books, some of his famous works are Satyarth Prakash (Light on truth), Rigvedadi Bhashya Bhumika (Introduction to Vedas), Rigveda & Yajurveda Bhashya (Introduction to commentary on Vedas) and in Sanskar Vidhi Rishi Dayanand has explained the sixteen different rituals and means of worship according to Vedic traditions.
Rishi Dayanand founded Arya Samaj in 1875 in Mumbai (Bombay, India) to organise the followers of Vedic religion. The selfish people made other people to live under blind and unreasonable beliefs. These selfish people hated the courageous, outspoken, broad minded Rishi. Eventually through consistent assaults he was killed by a deadly poison on Diwali Day on 30th October 1883.
His untiring efforts to promote and reorganise Vedic religion earned him the status of MAHARISHI DAYANAND SARASWATI, a great legend and reformer.
Email: RajKali@Yahoo.com