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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www. kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
INTRODUCTION.
XV
mediæval Einduism, it does not propose to itself the highest objects of social improvement--that it is more calculated to produce a “hypertrophy of the religious feelings," than a healthy heart-felt veneration for the great Father of the universethat it is more suited to the temper of lazy monks than the requirements of honest citizens. He will discover, also that Sufüism is the result of the same process of thinking and of the same state of the religious feelings, which are the causes of Bhaktiism, and bears to it a family likeness, such as would afford strong primâ facie evidence of its Indian origin. Sir William Jones was led, from a study of its peculiar characters, to attribute its paternity to Vaishıņavism ; Capt. Graham traces it to the pantheism of the Sankhya, and Malcolm and others have pointed out its resemblance to the doctrine of the later Vedantins. While others again regard it as “ a disease of the mind, which attacks every nation as soon as it has passed the meridian of its grandeur," and deny its Brahmanic parentage. We do not intend, however, to enter here into a discussion of the question, for at present, we think, there is scarcely data sufficiently explicit and harmonious in their evidence to afford a satisfactory solution.
Soorah, 18th May, 1854.
* Sprenger's Istalláhát Sufiá, p. 1.
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