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I come into contact with the Revered Panditji nearly twenty years ago when he was actively teaching in the Benares Hindu University as the incumbent of the Jain chair of Logic and Metaphysics in the Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya. I have been privileged to enjoy his valued friendship all these years. Numerous were the occasions when we have had lively philosophical discussions on the roadsides or in his study; most of these just occured without pre-arrangement or set purpose. And seldom have 1 come back from these discussions without receiving new light or striking interpretations even on subjects which I thought I understood quite well. Of course, Panditji's scholarship of Indian thought is suprisingly comprehensive and deep; and his memory is phenomenal. I should however like to record what has specially impressed me in his personality Pandit Sukhlalji is an original thinker, a restless one. He would look at a theory now from this, now from that angle; he would often-times reverse his own previous conclusions on the subject. The open-mindedness of his spirit, his sensitivity to all aspects of a problem and his indefatigable persistence in the search of truth have impressed me as worthy of emulation. I have no manner of doubt that Panditji is an authentic and worthy representative of the spiritual line of Indian seers. It is not surprising that his outspoken and independent views have not found favour with some sections of Hindus and Jainas. A fearless thinker, a seeker of truth is not worried, as Panditji is not, by the thought of secular gains and losses. I have not known him utter an unfair or uncharitable remark about any person or get upset by adverse happenings. With few easily satisfied wants and as equanimous temperament, he has been a living example of a true philosopher, a Sthitaprajña. As an original thinker and as a man of striking spiritual virtues, Panditji has been successful in inspiring a circle of young men like Pandit Dalsukhbhai Malvaniya and others. This is not one of the least of the many services that he has rendered to our cultural life.
1
ORIGINAL THINKER 1
T. R. V. Murti
Written for the occasion of the felicitation of Pt. Sukhlalji at Bombay University in 1957 under the presidentship of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.
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