(First edition in samvat1931, second edition in 1939) – Satyarth Prakash, written in Hindi language, is a unique literary achievement of Rishi Dayanand. According to Dr. Lakshminarayan Gupta – “It is no exaggeration to call this book (Satyarth Prakash) the era-maker of Hindi literature. The turmoil and change in the Hindi literary field of North India in the last phase of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the main reason for this is the Arya Samaj Movement and Satyarth Prakash.”

Swamiji was inspired to write Satyarth Prakash by Moradabad resident Raja Jaikrishan Das CSI, who was the Deputy Collector in Banaras at that time. When Raja Saheb met Rishi Dayanand in Kashi, he requested him to write a book outlining his accepted principles and thoughts which would be useful for all those people who could not get  the opportunity to listen to Swamiji’s  sermons in person. As a result Rishi Dayanand resolved to publish a revolutionary book named Satyarth Prakash. Rishi Dayanand did not have good knowledge of Hindi till then. That’s when he started trying to give speeches in Hindi. His first lecture in Hindi was given in Kashi in May, 1874. Raja Jaykrishan Das not only accepted the responsibility of printing and publishing the book, but also appointed a Maharashtrian Brahmin named Chandrashekhar to serve Swamiji, who helped him in writing the book.

First edition of Satyarth Prakash -The work of writing Satyarth Prakash started on AshadhBadi 13, Samvat 1931 accordingly   Friday, June 12, 1874. In the year 1875, with the help of Raja Jaikrisan Das, it was printed in the light press of MunshiHarvansh Lal, a resident of Kashi.

Rishi Dayanand did not write Satyarth Prakash himself but got it written. Then he went to Bombay from Prayag via Jabalpur and Nashik and Satyarth Prakash continued to be published in the Star Press of Banaras. He did not even get a chance to see the proof, therefore the opposing pundits got the opportunity to add many things against Swamiji’s principles. When Swamiji came to know about the printed books that were accessible to the public,  he immediately countered it through an advertisement. Chief amongst them, in protest against the Shraddha of dead ancestors and meat eating, the sage had got printed the following advertisement on the backside of the front page of the first and second issues of Rigveda Bhasya and Yajurveda Bhasya, which were published in Shravan and Bhadrapada Samvat 1935 – “ Let everyone know  thatI believe in whatever is according to the Vedas and is in accordance with them,  whatever words have been written in the books like Satyarth Prakash or SanskarVidhi etc. written by me many verses from books like Griha Sutra and Manusmriti etc. have been written in it. Among them I consider them as direct evidence in favour of Vedarth and non-evidence against it. All the things emanating fromVedarth, I consider all of them as evidence because they are considered to be the word of God. Since they are completely acceptable to me  and all the scriptures written by the Saimts starting from Brahma to Jaimini Muni, according to the Vedas, I also consider them as witnesses and which are mentioned in Satyarth Prakash page 42 line 2, “Whoever is alive among the ancestors should not be offered  and all those who have died must be offered” and on page 47, line 21, “do tarpan and sraadha of dead ancestors” and whatever has been published regarding Tarpan and Shraddha has been printed due to the mistake of the writer and researcher. Instead of this, it should be understood that – “Continuing to satisfy the living by serving them with devotion, this is the ultimate religion  of the son and do not do anything to those who have died, becauseneither can any human being deliver any substance to the dead nor can a dead person accept the things given from a son etc.  This proves that serving the living father etc. out of love is called Tarpan and Shraddha, not others.” In this regard the evidence of Ved Mantras is  printed from page 251 of  preface issue 11 to page 267 of  issue 12, take a look there.” 

Till the writing of the first edition, Rishi Dayanand did not have any special command over the Hindi language. Although he was not  a devotee of pure and refined Hindi writing,yet once he decided to speak and write in Hindi, he remained firm on it and whatever happened, he got Satyarth Prakash written in Hindi. 

Swami Shraddhanand wrote about the first edition of Satyarth Prakash  

–  “ RishiDayanand did not write this book but got it written  and it is not written in the order of the book but in the form of lectures. Like us, the gentlemen who have listened to the sermons of Acharya Dayanand will testify that after reading the revised second Satyarth Prakash, they get a sense of the writings of a philosophical Acharya. While reading aadimSatyarth Prakash, it seems as if one is clearly hearing the slogan of the biggest iconoclast of the present times. In fact, this book is an exact description of the lectures which AvadhootDayanandhad  as per the mantra of “SATYAPOOTAM VADED VACHAM” thrown amongst the people like thunderbolt”. 2. Dr. Lakshminarayan Gupta wrote about the first edition of SatyarthPrakash  – “From the language of the book, it seems as if someone is forcefully expressing the true feelings of the heart, hence the language, despite having strong and clear statements, was not concise and well-conducted.” In the preface to the second edition of Satyarth Prakash, Rishi Dayanand has also written about the first edition of Satyarth Prakash – “At the time when I wrote this book  and before that ,  due to speaking and studying  Sanskrit and the language of my birth place being Gujarati, I did not have much knowledge of this language, because of this the language had become impure”. But the first edition of Satyarth Prakash is important from many points of view. It also contains many such things which, despite being important, could not be included in the second edition. In that version, Rishi Dayanand has opposed the salt and forest laws. Gandhiji had protested against it in 1930 but  RishiDayanand has expressed his sorrow and sympathy in sad words 55years before, which is a vivid example of his foresight and all-round talent. There is also mention of the suffering that poor people have to endure due to high taxes and stamp duty so they  are deprived of justice. Apart from this, there are many topics like description of Jains, artificial untouchability, atrocities of Mahmud Ghaznavi, bad  effects of Idol worship etc. which are not in the next edition. The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters also could not be printed in this edition, in which there is review of Islam and  Christianity. ” At that time, Swamiji’s speeches had created a strange stir and upheaval in the entire North India. Along with listening to his speeches, the common people wanted to study the religious reforms and contemporary revolutionary changes through reading his books, hence the books were printed. There was so much demand already that Swamiji was forced to sell 120-page volume  for a rupee each.”

Second edition of Satyarth Prakash – The need to print the second edition of Satyarth Prakash soon became apparent due to many reasons. Rishi Dayanand was especially cautious this time due to the mix-up in the first edition. They did not want that like the first edition, in this too, anti-theoretical things should be published arbitrarily by the writers or similar things would be published in the previous edition similarly, there may be language-related and other printing-related errors in this also. Meanwhile, he had also started a grand  ritual of writing Vedabhashya. He did not get much leisure from the work of preaching religion, however, he prepared a revised version of Satyarth Prakash and sent it for publication. According to Shri HarvilasSharda – “From the introduction to the second edition till Swamantvyamantvyaprakash, Swamiji himself wrote and researched from beginning to end”. This time the book was printed in his personal Vedic press, under the supervision of trusted manager MunshiSamarthdan. The introduction to the revised Satyarth Prakash was written in Udaipur, in which the purpose of writing the book and the rationale for refuting the differences of opinion have also been explained. The publication of this version had started during his lifetime but its  publication completed  in 1884,  a year after his death. 

Popularity of Satyarth Prakash – Satyarth Prakash is an important book from many points of view. We saw that within the time of printing of the first edition, it had become so famous and there was so much demand that Swamiji had to sell only 120 pages at one rupee each before printing. The same situation happened in the second edition also. ‘CharanNavaldanbought  ten chapters printed upto 364 pages for  Thakur Girdhari Singh’.  The eagerness to read a semi-printed book throws light on the usefulness and importance of the book. Its popularity can be estimated from the fact that hundreds of editions of this book have been published in the last century and millions of its copies have reached the hands of attentive readers. The author has told  thePurpose of creation of Satyarth Prakash is  to illuminate the true meaning. In this, the author has expressed in strong words the completeness, practicality and utility of Arya-life philosophy and Arya life-system.  Proper efforts have been made to solve the questions and problems related to the temporal aspects of human life and worldly matters, their human philosophical curiosity and an attempt has also been made to answer the  questions related to religion and spirituality. In the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and tenth chapters(samullas) there are the topics of upbringing and education of children, high level education, household duties, lifestyle of Saints and ascetics, royal religion,  eating habits,  conduct and immorality which are related to human beings personal, family, a clear perception of social and national responsibilities emerges. Spiritual and philosophical topics have been discussed in the first, seventh, eighth and ninth chapters. After explaining the grammatical process of God and His hundred names in the first chapter, Rishi Dayanand has introduced the form, qualities, actions and nature of God in the seventh chapter. Along with this, the interpretation of the divine knowledge Vedas has also been contextualized. By resolving almost all the doubts related to the Vedas, the author has resolved many misconceptions spread about the world’s oldest scripture. The origin, state of creation, destruction, bondage and salvation etc. are such subjects which were discussed with utmost seriousness by the ancient philosophers. Rishi Dayanand has tried to present these subjects in the classical context as well as represent them on the intellectual and scientific level.

In the last four chapters, the unreasonable and impossible notions of the world-famous four sects – Sanatan Hinduism, Buddhism-Jainism, Christianity and Islam – have been refuted and their fact-based and logical criticism has been made. Before starting the book, in the preface itself, the Rishi has written, clarifying his vision implicit in the criticism of various sects – “My main purpose of creating this book is to illuminate the true meaning of truth, that is, to render what is true as true and what is false as false is considered to be the light of true meaning. The matter has to be said , written and believing exactly as it is, is called the truth.  The soul of man is the knower of the truth, yet the accomplishment of his purpose, stubbornness, obstinacy and due to the vices of ignorance, one abandons the truth and leans towards falsehood. But such a thing is not mentioned in this book, and neither is it meant to hurt anyone’s heart or to cause harm to anyone, but so that mankind can progress and benefit, after knowing the truth. People should accept the truth and abandon the untruth, because of the teachings of truth, there is no other reason for the progress of mankind.”

Similarly, at the end of the book, in the beginning of Swamantvyamantvyaprakash, it is written – “I do not have the slightest intention of creating any new idea or difference of opinion, but I wish to make you accept what is true and to leave and get rid of what is untrue.”

Certainly the study of Satyarth Prakash has a wide impact on individuals and society. The usefulness and popularity of a book can be gauged from how large group of readers it has attracted. The popularity of Gita and Ram Charit Manas in India is undeniable. Among the religious texts of the world the christain religious book, The Bible is a book which has been translated into all the major languages of the world. From this point of view, Satyarth Prakash holds its own special place. Apart from Hindi, it has been translated into Sanskrit, Urdu, Bengali, Sindhi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Gurmukhi, English, French, Nepali, Chinese, Japanese and German languages. Many editions have been published in many languages.PanditGadadharPrasadji Vaidya has also translated Satyarth Prakash under the name Satyasagar, four editions of which have been published.

All this is indicative of the fame and importance of Satyarth Prakash.