A LIFETIME OF DEVOTION

Example from a Missionary

FOR no less than forty years, Pandit Ashu Ram Arya, a Vedic scholar, had been busy completing his self-ordained mission to translate all of the four Vedas into Urdu. He embarked upon his task when he was in his youth. In the year 1984, when he was 70 years old, the Urdu translation of Yajurveda came out. Pandit Arya was a missionary whose zeal was fired by the Arya Samaj.

Pandit Arya said in an interview that his life’s mission would be completed when he finishes the translation of Sam Veda in Urdu and publishes it. Then for the first time, translation of all the four Vedas in Urdu would be available.

His translation of Yajurveda in Urdu was published in 1984 and his translations of the Rig Veda and the Atharva Veda came out a year later from New Delhi and Chandigarh.

Before him, several scholars had attempted to translate the Vedas into Urdu, but their efforts took them no further than putting the Hindi ‘Rig Veda Adi Bhashya Bhumika’ (only the gist of the Vedas) into Urdu.

Panditji accomplished this task in an age when Urdu poetry was the first thing writers turned their attention to. He too started his writing career by composing some poems. It was his missionary spirit that made him realize how important it was to produce Urdu translations of the Vedas. He writes: By embarking on the difficult journey of translating the Vedas, I left the field of poetry.

What was the objective that Panditji desired to attain through these translations? He writes in the preface of Yajurveda:

I am hopeful that the publication of Urdu translations of the Vedas would usher in a pleasant revolution that would demolish the walls of ignorance that separates people. It will clear the way towards peace, love, friendship and brotherhood. People will be inspired to lead a pious life.

Panditji’s life presents a beautiful picture of the life of a missionary. One should be willing to change the field of action as and when necessary. A missionary must possess well-wishing and love for his fellow human beings. And most of all, missionary life should be governed by the single-minded pursuit of some noble purpose.