Swami Dayananda, along with his students, has taught ten three-year programs (eight in India and two in the United States), and many of his students from these programs are now teaching all over India and abroad. More than two hundred of his sannyasi-disciples are teaching Vedanta and Paninian grammar around the world.
Institutions
As a teacher of Vedanta, Swami Dayananda has established four traditional teaching centers and many more across the globe through his students, with a primary focus on teaching Vedanta, Sanskrit, and related disciplines. These traditional teaching centers carry the banner ‘Arsha Vidya’ or ‘Arsha Vijnana,’ i.e., Knowledge of the Rishis. The word ‘Arsha’ has also been used by many of Swami Dayananda’s students in naming their facilities to mark their lineage.
The four Arsha Vidya teaching centres that Swami Dayananda has established are:
These residential centers conduct long-term courses, 1–2-week camps, weekend study programs, and family camps throughout the year. The subjects taught include the major Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, several secondary texts of Vedanta, and the Brahma Sutras. The study also includes the Sanskrit commentary of Adi Sankara on these texts, known as bhashya. Along with these studies, the Sanskrit language is taught with Paninian grammar. The Gurukulas also conduct sessions of daily meditation and satsangas. Additionally, camps are conducted for teaching yoga, Indian classical music, Ayurveda, Jyotisha, and allied disciplines.
There is one more center that was initiated by Swami Dayananda during his lifetime in his birthplace, Manjakkudi, Thiruvarur Dist, Tamil Nadu, under the aegis of the Swami Dayananda Educational Trust. With the inauguration of the Swami Dayananda Memorial, it has come to full-scale operation, called Jnana Pravaha, where regular residential study programs are conducted by the disciples of Swami Dayananda.
The teaching centers founded by Swami Dayananda offer Indians and non-Indians, Hindus and non-Hindus, men and women alike, an opportunity to study the profound knowledge of Vedanta. The teaching centers conduct outreach programs to reach the public at large. At present, there are at least sixty centers in India and abroad that carry on the tradition of Vedantic teaching under the banner of Arsha Vidya.
Question to Pujya Swami Dayananda ji – Among the disciples, is there a hierarchy, senior or junior?
Reply: No, we don’t have anything like that. There is no hierarchy. But in the tradition, we have gurubhais. When a younger disciple meets an older disciple, he or she shows respect by doing namaskara.
There is no hierarchy, only respect. After taking sannyasa, if there are senior disciples present, the new sannyasis will do namaskara to them. That is customary. All are sadhus. If there is any difference, it is only in age, learning, and the year they took sannyasa.
(Pg250-251, Swami Dayananda Saraswati – Contributions and Writings – Sheela Balaji, Arsha Vidya Research and Publication Trust, July 2011)