Within the Arya Samaj, the Vedas are regarded as the sole, infallible and self-evident source of religious truth, standing above all later scriptures and traditions. The four Vedas are taken as the ultimate authority for doctrine, ethics, and ritual, and other texts or customs are accepted only insofar as they accord with this foundational revelation. From this vantage point, the movement reads the Vedas as fundamentally monotheistic, affirming one formless, omniscient, omnipotent God and rejecting polytheism, idol worship, and the notion of divine incarnations. This interpretive stance is closely tied to a rational and ethical reading of scripture, favoring meanings that harmonize with universal morality and setting aside mythological or miraculous elements as later distortions.

In practical religious life, Arya Samaj centers its worship on Vedic fire rituals—yajña or havan—performed with Vedic mantras and explained in terms of their inner, purifying significance. These rites are understood both as concrete acts of devotion and as symbolic expressions of self-offering and moral transformation, with an emphasis on chanting mantras with understanding rather than mere recitation. Animal sacrifice is rejected, and offerings are limited to non-violent substances such as ghee, grains, and herbs, in keeping with an ethic of non-harm. More broadly, the movement seeks to restore and simplify the traditional saṁskāras, or life-cycle rites, conducting ceremonies such as initiation, marriage, and funeral rites strictly on Vedic lines and free from what it sees as superstition and unnecessary elaboration.

This Vedic orientation also shapes a distinctive social vision. Arya Samaj appeals to Vedic principles to challenge caste by birth and to uphold a social order based on qualities and actions rather than heredity. It uses the authority of the Vedas to support women’s education and spiritual equality, to advocate widow remarriage and inter-caste marriage, and to oppose practices such as child marriage, dowry, untouchability, intoxication, and social exploitation. In this way, the Vedas are not treated as relics of the past but as a living charter for an egalitarian and just society.

Education and disciplined study form another major avenue through which the Vedas are applied. The movement establishes schools, colleges, and gurukuls where Vedic learning is combined with broader fields of knowledge, and where Sanskrit and the tools of grammar and etymology are cultivated to access the original sense of the texts. Public discourses, classes, and publications are used to present Vedic teaching as a universal and rational dharma, intended for all humanity rather than confined to a particular community. Through these intertwined strands of worship, ethics, social reform, and education, Arya Samaj seeks to embody what it understands as the original, uncorrupted spirit of the Vedas in contemporary religious practice.