Dayanand Saraswati was and no doubt still is one of the greatest reformers and spiritual forces India has known in recent times. His dominant personality had I found extraordinary reflection in the virility of the Arya Samaj movement, and in almost every one of its adherents. I am naturally specially interested in the educational aspect of the great work the Arya Samaj has done, and I can only wish that every Movement were affected with the same zealous spirit as has from the very beginning animated Arya Samaj workers in the educational field.
The Dayanand College at Lahore is itself a monument to the efforts of members of the Arya Samaj under the inspiration of their great leader and the Gurukula Academy at Hardwar exemplifies the very rightful eagerness of many Samajists to revive the ancient ideals and traditions of Hindu education . There may be some who feel that in this latter movement there has been too great a tendency to revive the old at the expense of the new. In all reforms this is inevitable, and it may be that in course of time the authorities of the Gurukula will find it advisable to modify their scheme. On the other hand, without such movement, even if an extreme direction, we shall never attain the just balance between the essential ideals of the East and the practical achievements of the West.
That members of this movement are in the forefront of the public service of their country is clear from the number of members of the Samaj who have attained public eminence and have won the gratitude of the India Nation. Not the least among these stands the name of the president of the Special Congress Lala Lajpat Rai. The Arya Samaj is thus one of the great forces drawing India to her destiny, and I am glad, therefore, to have had this opportunity of paying my tribute to its worth and work.
George Sidney Arundale (1 December 1878 in Surrey, England — 12 August 1945 in Adyar, India) was a theosophist, freemason, president of the Theosophical Society Adyar and bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church.
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