28 Principles of Arya Samaj

1. The establishment of Arya Samaj is essential in the interest of society.
2. The Arya Samaj shall regard the Vedas as absolutely authoritative. For purposes of testimony, for the understanding of the Vedas and for ascertaining the history of ancient Aryans all the four Brahmanas, Shatpath, etc., the Vedangas, the four Upavedas, the six Darshanas, and 1,127 Shakhas or expositions of the Vedas, shall by virtue of their being ancient and recognised works of Rishis, be also regarded as secondarily authoritative, in so far only as their teaching is in accord with that of the Vedas.
3. There shall be a principal Arya Samaj in each province and the other Arya Samajas shall be its branches, all connected with one another.
4. The Branch Samajas shall conform to and follow as model the principal Samaj.
5. The principal Samaj shall possess various Vedic works in Sanskrit and Aryabhasha (Hindi) for the dissemination of true knowledge, and it shall issue a weekly paper under the name of ‘Arya Prakasha,' also an exponent of the Vedic teachings. The papers and the books shall be patronised by all the Samajas.
6. Every Simaj shall have a President and a Secretary. Other men and women shall be members thereof.
7. The President shall be responsible for the maintenance of the integrity and for the promotion of well being of the Samaj, while the Secretary shall reply to all letters and shall keep a record of the members of the Samaj.
8. The members of the Samaj shall be truthful, straightforward, pure and philanthropic.
9. Whatever leisure a member gets from household work, he shall devote the same to the good of the Samaj with greater earnestness than that displayed in the discharge of household duties. Those that have no family to care for should in particular, be always striving to promote the well-being of the body.
10. Every eighth day, the President, the Secretary and other members of the Samaj, shall come together in the Samaj Mandir, giving precedence to punctual attendance to everything else.
11. Having assembled together, they should be calm and composed in their minds, and in a spirit of love and free from bias, they may ask questions and obtain answers from each other. This done, they shall sing the hymns of the Sama Veda in praise of God, and songs bearing on true Dharma, righteous conduct and right teaching, to the accompaniment of musical instruments. And the mantras shall be commented upon, and explained and lectures delivered on similar topics. After this, there thall be music again, to be followed by interpretation of mantras and speeches as before and so on in succession.
12. Every member shall cheerfully contribute a hundredth part of the money he has earned honestly, and with the sweat of his brow, towards the funds of the Samaj, the Arya Vidyalaya and the Arya Prakasha paper. If he contributes more, the greater shall be his reward. The money thus contributed shall be used for the purposes specified and in no other way.
13. The more an individual bestirs himself in bringing income to the Samaj for the purposes specified, and for the diffusion of knowledge of the teachings of the Arya Samaj, the more honour he shall receive for his energy and zeal.
14. The Samaj shall do stuti, prarthana and upasana (i.e., shall glorify, pray to and hold communion with the one and only God) in the manner commanded by the Vedas. To speak of God as the Being who is formless, almighty, just, infinite, immutable, eternal, incomparable, merciful, the father of all, the mother of the entire universe, all-supporting, the lord of all, possessing the attributes of truth, intelligence, happiness, and so on, as all pervading and the knower of all hearts, indestructible, deathless, everlasting, pure and conscious, as inherently in a state of salvation, to speak of Him as endowed with such and similar other qualities and attributes is to do his stuti (i.e., to glorify and praise Him). Asking His help in all righteous undertakings is identical with prarthana (i.e., praying to Him) and to become absorbed in the contemplation of His Essence, which is absolute Happiness, is termed upasana (i.e., holding communion with Him). The aforesaid Being, possessing the attributes of incorporeity, etc., shall alone be adorned and naught besides.
15. The Samaj shall perform Vedic Sanskaras, such as antyeshti, etc.
16. The Vedas and the ancient Arsha Granthas, shall be studied and taught in the Arya Vidyalaya, and true and right training calculated to improve males and females alone shall be imparted on Vedic lines.
17. In the interests of the country, two kinds of reforms shall receive thorough attention in the Samaj, spiritual and temporal. There shall be uplifting in these two directions, for the promotion of purity: indeed reform conducive to the welfare of entire mankind shall be undertaken by the Samaj.
18. The Samaj shall believe in what is right and just only, i.e., in the true Vedic Dharma, destitute of all element of partiality, and standing the crucial test of all the pramanas - ocular demonstration and so forth. It shall never have faith in anything else, so far as possible.
19. The Samaj shall send learned men of approved character everywhere to preach the truth.
20. In the interest of education of both males and females, separate schools shall be established, if possible in all places. In the seminaries for females the Work of teaching and that of serving the students shall be carried on by females only and in the schools for males, the responsibility for doing the same shall be with males. Never shall this rule be infringed.
21. The school shall be looked after and maintained as the President of the Samaj shall direct.
22. The President and other members of the Samaj shall, for the maintenance of mutual goodwill, keep their minds free from all feelings of pride, wilfulness, hate, anger, etc., and divested of such vices, they shall, being free of enmity and pure of heart, love one another, even as each loves his own self.
23. When deliberating on a subject, that which has been, as the fruit of this deliberation, ascertained to be in thorough accord with the principles of justice and universal benevolence and absolutely true, the same shall be made known to the members and believed in by them. Acting thus is termed rising above bias or prejudice.
24. He who conforms his conduct to the principles specified, and is righteous and endowed with true virtues, the same shall be admitted to the superior order of the Arya Samaj, while who is otherwise than this shall belong to the ordinary cadre of the Samaj. But the individual who openly appears to be utterly depraved and debased, shall be expelled from the Samaj. Such a step, however, shall not be dictated by prejudice, on the contrary, both the things specified shall be done after due deliberation, by the exalted members of the Samaj and not otherwise.
25. The President and other sabhasads of the Samaj shall ever strive, to the utmost of their ' power, to look after and improve the Arya Samaj, Arya Vidyalaya, the Arya Prakasha paper, and the finances of the Samaj.
26. So long as an Arya Samajist can get a brother Arya Samajist to employ or to serve him, so long he should not employ or get anyone else to serve him. The relations in existence between these two should be the relations that ought to subsist between master and servant.
27. Whenever an occasion for making a donation arises, as for instance, in connection with a marriage, the birth of a son, the realisation of a fortune, or a death in the family and so on, the Arya Samajist concerned shall be expected to make donation on such an occasion. No act is more meritorious, and the members shall always bear this fact in mind.
28. Whenever an addition is made to the principles or rules above laid down, or whenever any of them is altered or amended, such an addition, alteration or amendment shall invariably be the result of thorough deliberation on the subject by the exalted sabhasads of the Samaj, and the nature of the same shall be previously made known to all the members.