How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #7
'Therefore, in one situate as thou art, it particularly behoves thee to remember this with both kinds of faces. Among Sahibs, never forgetting thou art a Sahib; among the folk of Hind, always remembering thou art—' He paused, with a puzzled smile.
'What am I? Mussalman, Hindu, Jain, or Buddhist? That is a hard knot.'
'Thou art beyond question an unbeliever, and therefore thou wilt be damned. So says my Law—or I think it does. But thou art also my Little Friend of all the World, and I love thee. So says my heart. This matter of creeds is like horseflesh. The wise man knows horses are good—that there is a profit to be made from all; and for myself—but that I am a good Sunni and hate the men of Tirah—I could believe the same of all the Faiths. Now manifestly a Kathiawar mare taken from the sands of her birthplace and removed to the west of Bengal founders—nor is even a Balkh stallion (and there are no better horses than those of Balkh, were they not so heavy in the shoulder) of any account in the great Northern deserts beside the snow-camels I have seen. Therefore I say in my heart the Faiths are like the horses. Each has merit in its own country.' (8.122-4)
Mahbub Ali's faith teaches him that people who do not follow the Muslim religion must be damned, but in spite of what his religion teaches him, Mahbub Ali cannot deny that he loves Kim, his "Little Friend of all the World." Just as the lama continues treating Kim as an almost-grandson even though his Buddhist faith says that emotional attachment will keep him bound to this Wheel of Existence, Mahbub Ali does not let his religion dictate whom he should love.
What kinds of conflict does Kim present between personal emotional and spiritual faith? What lessons do you think the book might be suggesting about balancing religion and emotional attachment? What do you make of Mahbub Ali's conclusion that "Each [Faith] has merit in its own country"? Does Mahbub Ali's statement have significance to any other character's ideas about spirituality or religion in the novel?
Quote #8
A long-haired Hindu bairagi [holy man], who had just bought a ticket, halted before him at that moment and stared intently.
'I also have lost it,' he said sadly. 'It is one of the Gates to the Way, but for me it has been shut many years.'
'What is the talk?' said Kim, abashed.
'Thou wast wondering there in thy spirit what manner of thing thy soul might be. The seizure came of a sudden. I know. Who should know but I? Whither goest thou?' (11.6-9)
As Kim is sitting in the Benares train station worrying about who he really is, a holy man walks by and immediately recognizes that Kim is in the middle of an existential crisis. All it takes is one look at Kim for the holy man to realize that Kim is "wondering […] what manner of thing [his] soul might be." By portraying so many different belief systems and genuinely religious people in this novel, Kipling appears to present India itself as a land of true spirituality.
His image of India is also a deeply humanist one, where people of lots of different faiths can discuss universal matters of the human soul together. How accurate does his portrayal seem to you? Why might Kipling focus on spiritual and social divisions among Indian people instead of emphasizing political differences and conflicts?
Quote #9
He drew from under the table a sheet of strangely scented yellow Chinese paper, the brushes, and slab of Indian ink. In cleanest, severest outline he had traced the Great Wheel with its six spokes, whose centre is the conjoined Hog, Snake, and Dove (Ignorance, Anger, and Lust), and whose compartments are all the Heavens and Hells, and all the chances of human life. Men say that the Bodhisat Himself first drew it with grains of rice upon dust, to teach His disciples the cause of things. Many ages have crystallized it into a most wonderful convention crowded with hundreds of little figures whose every line carries a meaning. Few can translate the picture-parable; there are not twenty in all the world who can draw it surely without a copy: of those who can both draw and expound are but three.
'I have a little learned to draw,' said Kim. 'But this is a marvel beyond marvels.'
'I have written it for many years,' said the lama. 'Time was when I could write it all between one lamp-lighting and the next. I will teach thee the art—after due preparation; and I will show thee the meaning of the Wheel.' (11.68-70)
We have talked about different kinds of Western science that crop up in this book, such as Creighton's ethnology (see our "Character Analysis" of Creighton) and the technologies of the train (check out our "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory" entry). But the lama has his own kind of knowledge, based on the accumulation of wisdom across "many ages" of Buddhist faith.
How does the lama's understanding of the world differ from that of, say, Creighton or the curator of the Lahore Museum? How does the lama use his religious knowledge in his travels with Kim? Does the novel appear to evaluate the lama's Buddhist knowledge any differently from, for example, Lurgan or the Babu's collections of folktales and customs?