July 2007
Swami
Shraddhanand
Born on February
22, 1856 at village Talwan in
Jalandhar district of the
Punjab province, Swami Shraddhanand ji was named as Brihaspati and
Munshiram. The young boy, a pampered child, moved from place to place on his
dad’s transfers and was bereft of formal education in the formative years of
life. Nonetheless, he learnt a lot in the school of life and, therefore,
developed a pragmatic approach to life’s problems and their solutions.
Munshiram gave
the credit to Swami Dayanand Saraswati for putting him back on the rails.
Munshiram was a young boy when Swami Dayanand Saraswati had visited Benares .
That was indeed a turning point in the life of Munshiram. After a long
intellectual discourse with Swami Dayanand Saraswati there was a gradual
change of heart in Munshiram. Munshiram was transformed into a man with a
mission who ascended the pedestal of a Mahatma. It was also a turning point in
the religious and political history of
India which was struggling for freedom from the British Empire .
He became a
successful lawyer and earned name and fame. He was quite active in the Arya
Samaj circles and took the Reformation movement seriously. He promoted
movement of education of girls. The Gurukul system of education was the new
mission of Munshiram. He founded many institutions and established Arya
Samajes for the upliftment of the people. He was pragmatic in his approach
Mahatma Munshiram
made a debut in the world of journalism with his writings in Urdu and Hindi on
both religious and social subjects. Propagation of the Vedic Dharm was his
mission and he never deviated from this path. Following in the footsteps of
his mentor, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the Mahatma gave precedence to Hindi in
Devnagari script in his writings. He stuck to Truth, come rain come shine.
Swami
Shraddhanand died on 23 December 1926. He made the supreme sacrifice in the
cause of religion. The name of this martyr will remain immortal in Hindu
world..
Contributions
of Swami Shraddhanand:
-
He assisted in the formation
of International Aryan league in Delhi .
-
He fought against Purdah
System and established a kanya (girls) Vidhalaya in
Punjab , in 1890.
-
He founded the Gurukul Kangari
in Hardwar followed by Kanya Gurukul for girls in Dehradun. It was the first
institution to offer education in the mother tongue up to college level.
-
He helped in times of
earthquakes, floods and famines by volunteering with his band of helpers.
-
Cooperated Mahatma Gandhi in
the struggle for freedom of
India .
-
He started the Shuddhi
movement. Any person desirous of becoming a Hindu was accepted as such after
the prescribed ceremony.
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