I've heard a lot about this group as of the last few days, but I am completely unfamiliar with the concept (though it seems to be quite a hot topic.) I'm curious to know what it is.

Either way, I would like to express my frustration with certain members of this forum that I believe are becoming quite childish regarding this subject. If there must be any fighting going on below this message, please try to keep it calm and mature.

Dear Andrew,

You may visit ARYA PRATINIDHI SABHA AMERICA at http://www.aryasamaj.com/ to learn about the Arya Samaj movement in Hinduism.

Julie Maitra

The above site is listed on The Sanatana Dharma page at http://www.hinduweb.org/home/general_sites/jmaitra/

Namaste Andrewji,

For more information on arya samaj, please visit the following sites:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/3440/index.html
http://www.aryasamaj.com
http://www.hronline.com/aryasamaj/
http://world.std.com/~aditya/
http://www.geocities.com/vedic_temple
http://www.geocities.com/chicagoland_arya_samaj

Ramesh

there's a good biography of swamiji given at:

http://www.freeindia.org/biographies/dayanand/

sri andrew has asked the toughest question i've faced so far... to put down what the samaj means to me would run into pages and pages and i'm sure accurate descriptions of this ancient dharma can be found on the sites sri ramesh has suggested....

incidently, i just came back from a talk by swami agnivesh, an arya activist from india, and he impressed me greatly with his open-armed universalist approach to interfaith understanding... he advocates people come together and cogitate on the common ethics and moral codes throughout all faiths and establish a global sort of link through faith... though a bit too idealistic, it dawned upon me that i as an arya have perhaps been using the wrong approach... i feel we should first and foremost identify and build on our common characteristics and then when we have reached a point of mutual respect and dialogue, we can challenge the tougher issues, like image worship and the puranas...