Born in affluence and luxury, he left the house when forced by his parents to get married and wandered in the Himalayas in pursuit of knowledge and truth. Facing hardships and difficulties, resisting all temptations, he studied the ancient scriptures, particularly the Vedas which he regarded as a source of Divine Knowledge and engage himself in the Herculean task of spreading that knowledge.

Swamji believed that Dharma consists in following the Truth, which alone triumphs ultimately and secures for its devotees "Dharma; arth, kama and moksha".

The man who resolves, said he, "to stick to the Truth at all costs, steadily rises in virtues. When his virtues raise his reputation and prestige, he becomes all the more a unerring source of power and greatness'. Truth according to him, was not only conformity in word, thought and action "but also propriety of ideas in connection with real matters". In his Satyartha Prakasha (Light of Truth), Swamiji lays down certain criteria to judge what is Truth. Some of them were whether it was in conformity with the teaching of the Vedas, nature, attributes and characteristics of God; whether it was in harmony with the practice and teaching of the APTAS, the pious, truthful, unprejudiced, honest and learned men, whether it was in keeping with the purity and conviction of one's own self or some whether it stood the test of direct perception, inference, analogy, testimony, history, deduction, possibility and negation.

It was indeed his love of Truth that drove him to make comparative study of the religions and pass judgment on their demerits and merits. As he himself said,

"My sole aim in criticizing the views of others is to arrive at the Truth."

Swamiji maintained that man' s salvation lies in following the teachings of the Vedas which he considered to be revelation from God. The teachings of the Vedas are infallible because God who revealed them to the Rishis are Perfect.

He held ignorance the root cause of all the miseries. This, he thought, consisted in regarding impure things as pure, painful things as pleasure giving, mortal things as immortal. Emancipation depended on removal of this ignorance. There is no emancipation so long as ignorance persists.

For the first time in history he asserted and proved that there was no Monoism but Trinism in the Vedas. He showed through apt quotations from the scriptures that God, soul and matter were different attributes.

As a social reformer, Swamji, waged an eternal war against evil like idol worship, untouchability, child marriage and Sati (burning of widows). He preached that having dip into the sacred water of the Ganges cannot absolve a person of his sins. One has to bear the consequences of one's sins as God who is just, is not easily beguiled by such rituals. He also attacked the theories of Sakarvad (incarnations) on the ground that God is All-supporting and formless. He removed the misconception among the Hindus that shudras (low caste) and women had no right to study the Vedas. He tried to break all barriers of caste, creed, color and sex which separated man from man by propagating the doctrine of the universal brotherhood based on the assumption that God is the creator of all.

He maintained that one's actions and not sheer birth determined one's Varna (class). He prescribed the duties of each varna - Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra in conformity with the teachings of the scriptures and the Vedas.

He also divided a man's life into four stages and taught the respective duties and obligation of each of ashram in addition to formulation of a common code of conduct formally. The four ashrams, according to him were Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanaprastha and Sannyas.

Realizing that the Indian society's main drawback is its disunity and division, he gave a call of one God - OM, one religion - Vedic Dharma, one scripture - HINDI, one caste - ARYA and one method of worship - SANDHYA.

To ameliorate the lot of the suffering humanity, he founded an institution which he named as the Arya Samaj.

"Doing good to the whole world" he said, "is the primary object of this society i.e., to look after its physical, spiritual and social welfare."

Among the ten principles enunciated by him for the Arya Samaj are:-

• "One should always be ready to accept truth and give up untruth."
• "One's dealings should be regulated by love and justice in accordance with the dictates of Dharma."
• "One should promote knowledge and dispel ignorance."

We are sure that following his path that humanity can certainly overcome the pain and suffering and enjoy the Divine bliss and happiness which are being sought by everybody.