We bow in reverence to Sachidanand and seek HIS guidance for all times to come. We thank and express our gratitude to Maharishi Swami Dayanand Saraswati for his great guidance and for enlightening our thoughts to achieve the BHADRA and enabling us to forsake the darkness of DURIT. May we Aryas always walk on the Vedic path shown by you generation after generation.

PURNAHUTI OF THE YAJNA

The Brahma-muhurt beckoned and thus motivated my wife, Sudha and I left the bed earlier than usual. With Vedic prayer on our lips and Bhadra in our hearts we got ready to go to the yajnashala. Both Ajay Arya of Vedic Books prakashan and Devinder Sachdeva were there on the dot to give us a car ride to yajnashala and arrived earlier than most of the fellow Yajnik and Hota.

We were in high spirits as no less a person than Brahmchari Raj Singh Arya Ji had personally invited us to become Yajman for the Purnahuti Yajna. Indeed a matter of honour. Little did we realize that the devil called communication gap was breathing down my neck. Our names were missing from the list of yajman. Anyway, Raj Singh ji was contacted and he reached there post haste to sort out the matter. The rest was hunky-dory and having offered all the aahutis, both of us were on Cloud Nine.

I had never offered such a large amount of money as aDaan as I did that morning. It was an exhilarating experience indeed. Of course, the Bhamashah of the Arya Samaj, Mahashay Dharmpal Ji of the MDH masala fame was towering above all in philanthropy contributing crores of rupees to the cause of the Vedic Dharm. Besides him the Munjals of Ludhiana, the Chauhans of Amity university and educational group, Dharampal of Aarsh Sahitya prachar trust, Surendra Arya of JVM Group and some more shone like the beacon lights on the uncharted high seas.

Before leaving the Yajnashala for other activities I would like to make a mention of the Yajna Brhama Acharya Satyanand Vedvagish ji who presided over the proceedings so well and gave us gems of knowledge. Acharya Surya Devi ji Chaturveda of Panini Mahavidyalaya fame, presently with Kanya Gurukul Shivganj, Sirohi, Rajasthan and Brahmacharinis of the Kanya Gurukul Shivganj deserve bouquets for illuminating the minds of a large gathering there with their Vedic thought communicated so well. The gratefulness of all assembled there was reflected in the Dakshina offered individually to them by Aryas lined up for Aashirvad and yajnashesh. What had begun so well ended so well on a high note the memory of which we shall cherish for the rest of our lives.

I must make a mention of Arya Sanyasis in their ochre robes carrying themselves with dignity and honour. They were present in all major sessions and participated with preparation. Sadhwi Uttama Yeti was conspicuous by her lady-like presence and impressed the audience with her erudition. Among the Arya Sanyasis Swami Pranavanand Ji, Acharya Pradyumn Ji, Acharya Baldev Ji (by the way both were Gurus of Swami amdev Ji at Gurukul Kalba, Hariyana), Swami Sumedhanand Ji, Swai Divyanand Saraswati, not forgetting Swami Vivekanand Parivrajak, the young Sanyasi, were noticed by their august presence and as exponents of the Vedic Dharm and culture.

THE CROWNING GLORY SESSION

Ah! Here we are to hear the stalwarts of the Arya Jagat and feel motivated. May I mention that the gentleman chosen to preside over the Samapan Satra, Dr Ashok Kumar Chauhan is a dedicated Arya to his finger tips. He has inherited the Vedic Vichar from his father and grandfather and also passed on to Generation Next, one of whom, Amit, is the Chancellor of the Amity University. The family performs Havan daily with great shraddha.

A fact worth mentioning in this context of the Arya Mahasammelan is that the Chauhans form a singularly prominent family to have provided dedicated Aryas to preside over two different sessions and a lady, Smt Mridula Chauhan as a distinguished guest in the Mahila Sammelan. Her husband and younger brother of Dr Ashok Chauhan, Anand Chauhan had presided over the Arya Parivar and Yuva Sammelan. Of course, for the crowning session is Dr Ashok Kumar Chauhan who has carved a niche in the educational world by starting from the scratch and founding an educational empire including a university and several schools of repute. He is proud of being an Arya Samajist and we are proud of him.

The star speakers of the session were Dr Ram Prakash, MP(Rajya Sabha), Dr Satyapal Singh, Police Commissioner Mumbai and a serving officer of the Indian Police Service, and Dr Mahesh Vidyalankar, a Vedic scholar and speaker.

Dr Ram Prakash has all along been a dedicated Arya Samajist and a writer and researcher on the life and times of Pundit Guru Datt, the agnostic who was a keen observer of the last moments of life of Swami Dayanand Saraswati that made him a Ved Pracharak. Dr Ram Prakash has convinced many doubting Thomases that the HAVAN is not a pollutant but an anti-dote to the poison of pollution of environment. He is an orator par excellence and has an eye to detect an Arya speak in a mass multitude. That is how we met in a lecture hall of the Punjab University where he presided as an acting Vice-Chancellor and I was a speaker on China. At the end he walked over to my seat, patted on the shoulders and said “ You are an Arya Samajist. You spoke on China and the Vedic view was noticeable all along.” We have been friends since then. People flock to meetings just to listen to him.

Dr Mahesh Vidyalankar is erudition personified. He is known for calling a spade a spade. He minces no words when he comes to telling the truth. He has been advising Aryas in various conclaves not to stick to a post of the Arya Samaj for many many years and block the path of the youth. Unfortunately the neo-mahants do not listen to good advice. History has been repeating itself but Mahesh ji goes on hammering the point tirelessly.

Dr Satyapal Singh, IPS, the present incumbent of the coveted office of Police Commissioner of Mumbai is a dedicated Arya Samajist and he announces it from rooftops. I admire him for his courage in not being supplicant to his political bosses who are pseudo-secularists and truth is an anathema to them. It was in a mammoth Arya Sammelan in Mumbai ,organized by late Captain Dev Ratna Arya in the year 2000 that I had heard and admired him. He has come a long way since then but still begins his discourse by paying a tribute to the Arya Samaj, Swami Dayanand Saraswati and the Satyarth Prakash. He said that but for his reading of the Satyarth Prakash, his knowledge and ability to discuss thorny issues threadbare would not have been there and perhaps he would not have made it to the high and coveted office that he is occupying today. Hats off to friend in uniform and a practising Arya Samajist, Dr Satyapal Singh. Indeed he is a lion among a herd of deer, a leader among men. May Ishwar make him a Shatayu.

Well, all good things come to an end. So do the bad ones. I had begun writing this series of three articles on the Antar-Rashtriya Arya Mahasammelan – 2012 by thanking ISHWAR and expressing my gratitude to Him for giving me an opportunity to be a part of the Vedic Conclave that both Aryas and others would talk about for a long time to come. May He give wisdom and moral strength to organizers and office bearers of the Arya Sabhas to keep on doing Ved Prachar with an aim of converting others to the Vedic Dharm. Our Arya Samaj must proselytize lest it perishes. I pray to Ishwar for making the Arya Samaj as strong as the Rishivar had wished it to be. It is our sacred duty to carry forward the mission of Dayanand Saraswati, bearing the AUM DHWAJ aloft and saying with a sense of pride WE ARE ARYAS; WE ARE VEDIC DHARMIS.