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The Eighth Lesson: Sufiism.1269
be said safely that Mahommed had no share in keeping alive the germ of
mysticism, for he was opposed to it, and taught positively against it.
While there are many apparent points of difference between the Sufi
doctrines, as now taught, and the doctrines of the Vedanta, still one familiar
with both may see many points of resemblance, and easily may reconcile the
points of divergence. Both hold to the One Reality which they declare is “All
that Is,” although the Vedanta conception is more metaphysical and abstract
in its conception of that without attributes and qualities, while to the Sufis
the One is God, warm, personal, and living—but this is merely a difference
in the temperament, training and environment of the two races—the Hindu
and the Persian—and still more the influence of the particular form of “Yoga”
manifested by the two schools. The Vedantists prefer the Yoga of Wisdom—
“Gnani Yoga,” while the Sufis adhere tenaciously and earnestly to the Yoga
of Love—Bhakti Yoga. And there is but little difference in the teachings of
the Hindu Bhakti Yoga, and the Persian Sufi. To both Love of God is the
best Path of Attainment, and the Moksha or Nirvana of the Hindu is almost
identical with the “Union with God” of the Sufi. And as the Hindu Yogi has
his state of Samadhi, or Ecstasy of Spiritual Consciousness, so has the Sufi his
state of Ecstasy of the “Sight of the Beloved”—both being identical in nature,
and both being forms of the world-wide state of Illumination of the Mystics.
Just as the Yogis have their teachers known as “Gurus,” so have the Sufis their
teachers known as “Pirs,” the same reverence being shown in both cases, and
the same methods of initiating the neophytes into the esoteric mysteries
being observed. Some authorities have pointed out correspondences
between the Neo-Platonists and the Sufis, and have held that the latter
owed their teachings to the former. But when it is remembered that the
Neo-Platonists themselves obtained their germ-thoughts from the Hindus,
it is not to be wondered that resemblances may be traced between the
Grecian followers, and the Persian followers, of the same root-teachings.
Undoubtedly later Sufiism has been influenced by thought from many