Early Writings — Page 4
4 THE Thirdly, by virtue of this arrangement, those who are ignorant would be able to fully ascertain details about the doctrine of the Vedas and the Quran. Fourthly, this debate on reincarnation will not be seen as the opinion of an individual alone, rather when it is published in the form of a book and thus established as authentic, no one will doubt its credibility or consider it to have been forged. It is not necessary for Pundit Kharak Singh Sahib to sin- gle-handedly bear the burden of penning a response to my argu- ments, rather I hereby make a general announcement that any of the distinguished and learned men whose names are mentioned in the essay being produced herewith under the title Reincarnation Refuted can come forward to write a response. However, if some- one does not pay attention to this request despite being reminded of it so persistently and instead continues to put forth arguments in favour of reincarnation merely on the basis of Vedic philoso- phy; or being unable to find any arguments from the Vedas, fails to write a response based even on his own wisdom and rationale, then the followers of the Arya Samaj will have to acknowledge, for all times to come, that belief in reincarnation is baseless and that the Vedic claim that it comprehends all branches of knowledge is simply unfounded and untrue. In the end, by way of reminder, I would also like to say that the announcement I had published earlier in February 1878 in refuta- tion of reincarnation and for which I put forth a challenge with a reward of 500 rupees, is equally relevant to the present essay of mine. If Pundit Kharak Singh Sahib, or any other person for that matter, is able to rationally disprove all my arguments, taking them up one by one and quoting arguments from the Vedas, he will surely be worthy of the reward mentioned in the announcement.