• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction
• Famous-Fiction
• Historical-Fiction

By Root 9765 0

—at one time, in one place, in my Soul, which, as I say, had touched the Great Soul. Also I saw the stupid body of Teshoo Lama lying down, and the hakim from Dacca kneeled beside, shouting in its ear. Then my Soul was all alone, and I saw nothing, for I was all things, having reached the Great Soul. And I meditated a thousand thousand years, passionless, well aware of the Causes of all Things. Then a voice cried: “What shall come to the boy if thou art dead?” and I was shaken back and forth in myself with pity for thee; and I said: “I will return to my chela, lest he miss the Way.” Upon this my Soul, which is the Soul of Teshoo Lama, withdrew itself from the Great Soul with strivings and yearnings and retchings and agonies not to be told. As the egg from the fish, as the fish from the water, as the water from the cloud, as the cloud from the thick air, so put forth, so leaped out, so drew away, so fumed up the Soul of Teshoo Lama from the Great Soul. Then a voice cried: “The River! Take heed to the River!” and I looked down upon all the world, which was as I had seen it before—one in time, one in place—and I saw plainly the River of the Arrow at my feet. At that hour my Soul was hampered by some evil or other whereof I was not wholly cleansed, and it lay upon my arms and coiled round my waist; but I put it aside, and I cast forth as an eagle in my flight for the very place of the River. I pushed aside world upon world for thy sake. I saw the River below me—the River of the Arrow—and, descending, the waters of it closed over me; and behold I was again in the body of Teshoo Lama, but free from sin, and the hakim from Dacca bore up my head in the waters of the River. It is here! It is behind the mango-tope here—even here!’

‘Allah kerim! Oh, well that the Babu was by! Wast thou very wet?’

‘Why should I regard? I remember the hakim was concerned for the body of Teshoo Lama. He haled it out of the holy water in his hands, and there came afterwards thy horse-seller from the North with a cot and men, and they put the body on the cot and bore it up to the Sahiba’s house.’

‘What said the Sahiba?’

‘I was meditating in that body, and did not hear. So thus the Search is ended. For the merit that I have acquired, the River of the Arrow is here. It broke forth at our feet, as I have said. I have found it. Son of my Soul, I have wrenched my Soul back from the Threshold of Freedom to free thee from all sin—as I am free, and sinless! Just is the Wheel! Certain is our deliverance! Come!’

He crossed his hands on his lap and smiled, as a man may who has won salvation for himself and his beloved.

THE END

Inspired by Kim

Rudyard Kipling’s masterpiece, Kim, was made into a lavish, MGM-PRODUCED film in 1950. Directed by Victor Saville and starring screen legend Errol Flynn, Kim is an adventure brimming with gorgeous landscapes (much of the film was shot on location in India) and memorable characters who establish themselves quickly. Flynn brings his swashbuckling talents to bear as Kim’s mentor, Mahbub Ali. Posing as an Afghan horse trader, Flynn cuts the perfect British secret agent, albeit one perhaps past his prime. The eponymous hero is played by a young and wily Dean Stockwell, who portrays the privileged orphan with charm and intelligence, making Kim a convincing candidate for the spy apprenticeship for which he is fated. Roaming the land and disguised as a native Indian, Kim befriends Mahbub Ali and soon finds himself immersed in the clandestine and dangerous world of the “Great Game”—British colonial and military espionage—in which he must risk his life to gather information about the Russian forces out to conquer India for the czar.

Saville remains largely faithful to Kipling’s text, though sometimes at the expense of the rollicking pace expected of adventure dramas, giving ample attention to the character of the aging lama, played by Paul Lukas. Saville conveys the mystique of nineteenth-century India with beautiful costumes and sets, all dressed in sparkling Technicolor. The film features a score by famed composer André Previn.