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As some of you must be knowing, Arya Samaj is a Hindu organisation that rejects the notion of idol worship and teaches God is only formless. This is due to the controversial verses in the Yajurveda such as "Na tasya pratima asti".

As a result, the Arya Samajis reject Puranas and Agamas (but accepts the Itihasas and the Dharmasastras though they believe these texts have a lot of interpolation) and accept the Vedas and the Mukhya Upanishads as the only true authoritative texts of the Vedic religion.

However, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.3.1 says God is both formless and has form:

dve vāva brahmaṇo rūpe, mūrtaṃ caivāmūrtaṃ ca

English Translation: God (Brahman) has two modes, formless (nirakara, asambhuta) as well as form (sakara, sambhuta).

Of course Sanskrit words can have multiple meanings so I guess Arya Samaj has an alternate translation and interpretation to the above verse. So how do Arya Samajis translate and interpret this verse?

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    I have seen Arya samajis on quora including a neo Vedic guy, they just ramble off saying that many mantras which point towards diety worship can be interpretted differently. If not they claim it is interpolation. – Anubhav Jha Mar 04 '18 at 16:59
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    Na tasya patima asti means he is one without a second, nothing to do with idols. – Anubhav Jha Mar 04 '18 at 17:00
  • Its technically dont fall under category of vedas as per them. – Rakesh Joshi Mar 06 '18 at 22:58
  • @RakeshJoshi They do follow it. They accept the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Itihasas and the Dharmasastras. They reject only Puranas and Agamas. –  Mar 07 '18 at 04:29
  • @SuryaKantaBoseChowdhury this is what i have understood from my contact with them. But you can find translations in their website – Rakesh Joshi Mar 07 '18 at 10:56
  • @Surya Kanta Bose Chowdhury: They accept only samhitas as vedas(divine revelations). rest (brahmana, aranyak, upanishads) as addon by men). see https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/26719/reference-for-dayanand-saraswati-rejected-brahmanas-of-vedas-and-aranyakas-o – zaxebo1 Apr 14 '18 at 03:29
  • @zaxebo1 That's not outright rejection. Its true they don't accept them as words of God but Rishis instead. And they do follow them as well as the Itihasas. At the same time, they dont accept them as infallible as the Samhitas. The only thing they don't follow are the Puranas and Agamas. –  Apr 14 '18 at 04:36

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How does Arya Samaj intepret Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.3.1?

For this You can check Upanishad translated by an Arya Samaj I author. I am using Narayanan Swami translation. Here he translated ब्रह्मणो as Universe or Five elements in place of God.

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In the commentry Narayan Swami has written that Brahmana has many meaning like God, Vedas Elements etc. And here it is used for Elements.

Sanatan Darshan
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