Under Swami Dayananda's guidance, various centers for Vedic teaching have been founded around the world. Swami Dayananda has established four Gurukulams, three in India at Rishikesh, Coimbatore, and Nagpur; and one in the U.S. at Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania (http://www.arshavidya.org/home.html). At present there are more than one hundred centers in India and abroad that carry on the same tradition of Vedanta teaching through his graduate students.
To make the teaching more widely available and for preserving the teaching tradition, Swami Dayananda has created :-
· Bhagavad Gita Home Study programme, based on the classroom material.
· Purna Vidya
teaching programme to give children a comprehensive understanding of our
cultural forms and their meanings, in a syllabus graded from grade 1 to 12.
- Arsha Vidya Centre for
Research and Publications
(http://www.avrpt.com/) to publish Swami
Dayananda’s books and archive Swami Dayananda’s classroom materials.
- Swami Dayananda Digital
Library
for the discovery and preservation of manuscripts of ancient scriptures
approved by a team of renowned scholars.
- Veda Pathasalas to revive the learning of
the Vedas in a traditional manner.
In addition, Swami Dayananda has initiated and supported
various philanthropic efforts for the last forty-five years.
The most far-reaching of these is the establishment
of All-India Movement For Seva (www.aimforseva.org) which has been awarded
consultative status with ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) by the United
Nations in 2005. This organization is devoted to serving people in the remote
regions of India, in the areas of Education, Healthcare, Programs for Women, the Environment, Cultural Validation and Relief and Rehabilitation Work during natural disasters.
AIM for Seva was commended for its efforts by former U. N. Secretary General
Kofi Annan, during his tenure. As of
now, it has established 96 student homes in 15 States, 10 schools, 9
health-care projects, and 10 special projects in the above categories.
Krupa
and Shanmuga Society for Special Children has also been established to
help mentally challenged children.
In 2002, Swami Dayananda convened the Hindu Dharma Acharya
Sabha that is a unifying body that provides leadership, guidance and a
collective voice for the Hindus. One of its achievements was to hold the Hindu-Jewish
Dialogues between the Rabbinate of Israel and the Hindu Dharma Acharya
Sabha, resulting in landmark declarations in which the Rabbinate acknowledged
that Hinduism is not idol worship, opening the way for a bilateral relationship between these two
traditions.
The
Dharma Rakshana Samiti was founded to preserve the native spiritual culture
of Bharat inherited from the Rishis and to raise awareness among Hindus of the
Vaidika Dharma.
To
promote classical Carnatic Music, Swami Dayananda established the Arsha Kala
Rangam and instituted the ‘Arsha Kala Bhushanam’ award, which has been conferred
on thirteen senior musicians (both vocal
and instrumental).
The
annual Thinkers Meet organized by Swami Dayananda provides a forum for
educationists, journalists, industrialists and political leaders to come
together to address Hindu and National issues.
On
the occasion of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Swami Dayananda joined leaders of the
world’s religions at The Hague on Oct 22, 2008 to sign a Faith in
Human Rights Statement.
Besides
these initiatives, Swami Dayananda has been participating and taking a lead
role in several global initiatives to promote harmony among religions and world
peace. A few of these are: the United Nations gathering of NGO's
in 1980 where he spoke on “The Moral Imperatives of Ending the Arms Race”, the UNESCO
Seoul Global Convention where he spoke on “Tolerance,
Restoration of Morality and Humanity” in September, 1995; the United
Nations 50th Anniversary Celebration in October, 1995 where he
represented the Shankaracarya of Kanchi; the Millennium World Peace
Summit in New York, September 2000, where he represented the
Hindu delegation; the International Congress
for the Preservation of Religious Diversity, in Delhi, November
2001, which he initiated and co-chaired; the Conference on the
Preservation of Sacred Sites in Taipei in June, 2002 in which
he was a key participant; the World Council for Preservation of Religious
Diversity in Bangkok June, 2002 which initiated and co-chaired;
the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders
in Geneva, October 2002, which he helped organize and for which he delivered
the keynote address; and a Hindu-Christian dialogue with the World
Council of Churches in Geneva, October 2002 which he
initiated. Swami Dayananda serves as one
of the 73 Participant Scholars for Foundation for the Future’s The
Next Thousand Years television. Swami Dayananda played a major role in the World Youth Peace
Conference, Kyoto, Japan 2003, the Dharma Conference in New Jersey,
July 2003, the World Youth Peace
Conference, Nairobi, Kenya, 2004, the Hindu Collective Initiative
(North America)’s Hindu Dharma Summit at Orlando, December 14-16, 2007 (Swami
Dayananda was the Convener). Swami Dayananda was the Keynote Speaker at the International
Inter-religious Encounter, held at Monterrey, Mexico, Sept 2007, and
the Parliament of World Religions in Madrid,
Spain, Oct 10, 2008 and was a key participant and organizer of the Fifth Global Peace Initiative
of Women in Jaipur,
March 2008, and the Hindu-Buddhist Summit
at Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Feb 12-14, 2009.
