The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c11.129

v1.c11.129

It is abundantly manifest that both are the results of the same process of thinking and of the same state of the religious feelings. Both the Sufi and the Bhakta alike yearn for communion with a beneficient creator, and assume an ardent and enthusiastic love for him to be the only means through which that union is to be effected. The one is as thorough an optimist as the other. The Sufi represents himself as entirely devoted to the search of truth, and perfectly independent of the ordinances of the canonical law; so does the Bhakta. A blind submission to the opinions of the Khalifā is a peculiar characteristic of Sufism. Its followers "are invited to embark in a sea of doubt under the guidance of a sacred teacher, whom they are required to deem superior to all other mortals, and worthy of a holy confidence that borders upon adoration". With the Bhakta the case is still more impressive. "Of all obligation", says Professor Wilson, "the *Guru Padāśraya*, or servile veneration of the spiritual teacher, is the most important and compulsory : the members of this sect not only are required to deliver up themselves and everything valuable to the disposal of the Guru, they are only to entertain full belief of the usual Vaiṣṇava tenet, which identifies the votary, the teacher and the god, but they are to look upon the Guru as one and the present Deity, as possessed of more authority even than the Deity, and as one whose favour is more to be courted, and whose anger is more to be deprecated, than even that of Kṛṣṇa himself". ⁶⁴ A literal interpretation of this principle by the high priests of the Vallabhācārya sect has resulted in the licentiousness of the Mahārājā Gossāins of Western India.