The Arya Samaj was founded on April 10th 1875 in Mumbai, India by Maharishi Swami Dayanand Saraswati. At the time of its establishment, India was experiencing religious, social, economical, and political ills. These prevailing conditions catalyzed the Maharishi to establish this organization, not merely as a religious body, but more so as a unifying force to bring the people of India together for the reformation of the existing religious, social, economical, and political climate.
The Arya Samaj is grounded upon ten Vaidik Principles that provide the mandate for its operation and for its membership to follow. These ten principles: (1) God is the primary cause of all spiritual and physical sciences and of everything known through their means. (2) God is existent, intelligent and blissful. He is formless, omnipotent, just, kind, unborn, endless, unchangeable, beginning less, unequalled, the support of all, the lord of all, omnipresent, immanent, immortal, fearless, eternal, holy, and the Creator of the universe. He alone should be communed with. (3) Veda is the scripture of all true knowledge. Reading, teaching, hearing and reciting the Veda is the first duty of all Aryans. (4) One should always be prepared to accept truth and reject falsehood. (5) All work should be done in keeping with righteousness, i.e. after due reflection over right and wrong. (6) To do good to the whole world is the main object of this Samaj, i.e., to improve the physical, spiritual, and social states of human experience. (7) One should have dealings with all in accordance with love, law, and propriety. (8) No-one should remain content with his/ her own prosperity. Individual prosperity should be considered in the prosperity of all. (10) Everyone should be bound in following altruistic, social rules. However, in matters relating to personal welfare, let all be free.
When the Maharishi founded the Arya Samaj, he declared: “I have not come to preach any new dogma or religion, nor to establish a new order, nor to be proclaimed a Messiah or Pontiff. I have only brought before my people the Light of Vedic Wisdom which had been hidden during the centuries of India’s thralldom.”
For decades thereafter, the Missionaries, both foreign and local, have been busy with spreading Vedic wisdom to the Guyanese people through the rituals and yajna across the communities. Its intentions were to make religious reforms in Vedic practices.
However, the activities of the Arya Samaj in Guyana began to witness and bring a new wave of change in the hearts of the Guyanese people, more so the downtrodden as of 2005. This became possible through the Humanitarian Mission New Jersey Arya Samaj Mandir, Inc. This was the year of the major flood that affected the lives of many of our Guyanese brothers and sisters. The Arya Spiritual Centre of New York and the Guyana Central Arya Samaj (along with its district bodies in the different regions) made tremendous contributions to alleviate the hardships of the flood victims wherever they were in Guyana. But the Humanitarian Mission of New Jersey Arya Samaj Mandir, Mandir, Inc. did not stop there. The Mission recognized the critical role it can play in the well-being of the less fortunate’s in the Guyanese society.
The HM of NJASM embarked on its robust work as an annual feature by partnering with the Berbice Central Arya Samaj first. And then with the Guyana Central Arya Samaj, to carry out its mandates as part of Arya Samaj International, to serve the Guyanese people. The New Jersey Arya Samaj Mandir/Guyana Central Arya Samaj Humanitarian Mission, as it has been registered under the Friendly Society Act of Guyana as being a non-profitable, charity organization in 2008, has jumped the boundaries of religion, race, politics, and gender to become a service-provider to humanity.
Over the years, assistance was given to orphanages, needy families, the sick, school children, the bed-ridden, the homeless, sports clubs, youth groups, and even NDCs.
The Mission has also partnered with other NGOs, most notably the Food For The Poor Inc. (Guyana) that has been most helpful in helping the Mission in accomplishing some of its projects, Governmental agencies, and international agencies. They have all contributed towards making the Mission becoming more viable in executing its works as an integral part of the Arya Samaj.
The establishment of the Humanitarian Mission Village seeks to serve humanity at large. The Humanitarian Mission Village will provide accommodation for street children, abused persons, aged persons without family, as well as provide a skills training centre meant to train and empower not only the residents of the Mission Village, but also single parents, teenage mothers, school dropouts etc. The Mission realizes that such critical and aggressive empowerment programmes are necessary to reduce poverty and at the same time increase the individual’s sense of independence and marketability in the world of work.
The Mission Village, therefore, will enhance the implementation of the Government’s social policy on empowerment of the underprivileged in our country.
