FIRST CHAPTER

Because of inclusion of a lot of Sanskrit grammar, first chapter appears a little bit boring. In fact, this chapter forms the basis for understanding the further chapters in their spirit.  That time, like today, many gods were worshiped by Hindus. These gods were said to be 33 crores in number, though, nowhere there is a mention of the names of these gods. Many names of gods like Shiv, Vishnu, Brahmaa, Laxmi, Sarasavati et cetra happen to be there in vedaas also. On these basis, worshipers of these gods claimed their rituals to be in consonance with vedaas. Swami Dayanand, for the first time, gave logical explanation of these names of gods supported by their grammatical roots. He answered the questions like who are gods, do they live at earth or somewhere out of earth, that is, heaven and do these gods refer to God or is God  different from gods? He established that use of the words like Shiv, Vishnu, Brahmaa, Laxmi, Sarasavati et cetra in vedaas refer to different qualities or attributes of the one God and these names do not mean different gods. Further, he proved that it is very much possible to explain a single thing by different words, where, these words refer to different qualities of the same thing. Because of un-knowledge of this fact, Hindus created many gods and this became the basis of their idol worship.

WORDS OF SWAMIJI

-As God has many attributes, His names, too, are many.

-Personal name of God is OM.

-Meaning of the word should be taken depending upon the context.

-That person is called great, who is great in his attributes, actions and nature. God is the greatest of all such great persons. There is and will be no one at par with God.