<P> Dayananda Saraswati spent nearly twenty - five years, from 1845 to 1869, as a wandering ascetic, searching for religious truth . He gave up material goods and lived a life of self - denial, devoting himself to spiritual pursuits in forests, retreats in the Himalayan Mountains, and pilgrimage sites in northern India . During these years he practiced various forms of yoga and became a disciple of a religious teacher named Virajanand Dandeesha . Virajanand believed that Hinduism had strayed from its historical roots and that many of its practices had become impure . Dayananda Sarasvati promised Virajanand that he would devote his life to restoring the rightful place of the Vedas in the Hindu faith . </P> <P> Dayanand's mission was to ask humankind for universal brotherhood through nobility as stated in the Vedas . He believed that Hinduism had been corrupted by divergence from the founding principles of the Vedas and that Hindus had been misled by the priesthood for the priests' self - aggrandizement . For this mission, he founded the Arya Samaj, enunciating the Ten Universal Principles as a code for Universalism, called Krinvanto Vishwaryam . With these principles, he intended the whole world to be an abode for Nobles (Aryas). </P> <P> His next step was to reform Hinduism with a new dedication to God . He traveled the country challenging religious scholars and priests to discussions, winning repeatedly through the strength of his arguments and knowledge of Sanskrit and Vedas . Hindu priests discouraged the laity from reading Vedic scriptures, and encouraged rituals, such as bathing in the Ganges River and feeding of priests on anniversaries, which Dayananda pronounced as superstitions or self - serving practices . By exhorting the nation to reject such superstitious notions, his aim was to educate the nation to return to the teachings of the Vadis, and to follow the Vadic way of life . He also exhorted the Hindu nation to accept social reforms, including the importance of Cows for national prosperity as well as the adoption of Hindi as the national language for national integration . Through his daily life and practice of yoga and asanas, teachings, preaching, sermons and writings, he inspired the Hindu nation to aspire to Swarajya (self governance), nationalism, and spiritualism . He advocated the equal rights and respects to women and advocated for the education of all children, regardless of gender . </P> <P> Swami Dayanand also logical, scientific and critical analyses of faiths including Christianity & Islam, as well as of other Indian faiths like Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism . In addition to discouraging idolatry in Hinduism, he was also against what he considered to be the corruption of the true and pure faith in his own country . Unlike many other reform movements of his times within Hinduism, the Arya Samaj's appeal was addressed not only to the educated few in India, but to the world as a whole as evidenced in the sixth principle of the Arya Samaj . As a result, his teachings professed universalism for all the living beings and not for any particular sect, faith, community or nation . </P>

Who gave the famous slogan return to vedas
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