How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #1
There were hundreds of pieces, friezes of figures in relief, fragments of statues and slabs crowded with figures that had encrusted the brick walls of the Buddhist stupas and viharas of the North Country and now, dug up and labelled, made the pride of the Museum. In open-mouthed wonder the lama turned to this and that, and finally checked in rapt attention before a large alto-relief representing a coronation or apotheosis of the Lord Buddha. […]
'The Lord! The Lord! It is Sakya Muni himself,' the lama half sobbed […] 'And He is here! The Most Excellent Law is here also. My pilgrimage is well begun. (1.41-4)
The lama's response to this museum exhibit is deeply emotional and religious: he doesn't look at these statues of the Buddha as pieces of art but as signs of his faith encouraging him to go on his pilgrimage. How might the curator of the Lahore Museum view these Buddhist artifacts differently? How do you think the curator of the Lahore Museum views the lama as he is looking at all of these statues?
Quote #2
The girl looked up at the lama, who had mechanically followed Kim to the platform. He bowed his head that he might not see her, and muttered in Tibetan as she passed on with the crowd.
'Light come—light go,' said the cultivator's wife viciously.
'She has acquired merit,' returned the lama. 'Beyond doubt it was a nun.'
'There be ten thousand such nuns in Amritzar alone. Return, old man, or the te-rain may depart without thee,' cried the banker. (2.61-4)
We know that the Amritzar girl is a high-class prostitute, but she gives Kim money for a ticket to Umballa and for some food. Since the Amritzar girl does a good thing for Kim and the lama, the lama assumes that "beyond doubt it was a nun."
Not only does this scene emphasize the lama's total lack of skill or interest in figuring out people's social statuses from their appearances (unlike most other major characters in the novel), but it also shows the lama's misunderstanding of the complexity of human moral character. He assumes, because the Amritzar girl does something good for him and his disciple, that she must be a nun—since a nun would be, in his judgment, the most moral kind of woman.
The plot of Kim teaches us that people's motivations can be complex and contradictory—witness the weird and amazing character of the Babu—and the lama is the slowest character in the book to learn this lesson.
Quote #3
'There is no pride,' said the lama, after a pause, 'there is no pride among such as follow the Middle Way.'
'But thou hast said he was low-caste and discourteous.'
'Low-caste I did not say, for how can that be which is not? Afterwards he amended his discourtesy, and I forgot the offence. Moreover, he is as we are, bound upon the Wheel of Things; but he does not tread the way of deliverance.' He halted at a little runlet among the fields, and considered the hoof-pitted bank. (3.14-6)
We've said before that the lama is deeply naive about the world, but part of his naivety seems to be a choice that comes from his spiritual commitment. In this passage, when a farmer tries to chase Kim and the lama from his fields, Kim pulls rank and asks if the man wants to risk bad luck by insulting a holy man like the lama. But the lama warns Kim that he shouldn't bully people for their lack of courtesy, especially once they apologize. And anyway, there is no such thing as low or high class: we are all humans traveling through life, trying to figure out the answers to the same questions.
The lama may not be the most observant guy when it comes to social cues, but he does recognize the larger truth that these differences between people are mostly misunderstandings—underneath, we are all made of the same stuff.
Quote #4
It was as he suspected. The Sahibs prayed to their God; for in the centre of the Mess-table—its sole ornament when they were on the line of march—stood a golden bull fashioned from old-time loot of the Summer Palace at Pekin—a red-gold bull with lowered head, ramping upon a field of Irish green. To him the Sahibs held out their glasses and cried aloud confusedly. (5.55)
As Kim watches the officers of the Irish Mavericks toasting their mascot, the red-gold statue of a Bull, he immediately assumes that they are engaged in some kind of religious ritual. In our section "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory," we talk about the significance of this spectacle to the novel's presentation of British manners, so here we want to emphasize the religious side of this scene.
Kim's assumption that this red-gold bull is the Sahibs' "God" is proof that he does not share the Christian education that many of Kipling's reading audience would have had. Father Victor tells Kim to go to St. Xavier's school and become a good Catholic, but we see no sign that Kim picks up any kind of Christian faith over the course of the novel, any more than he takes up the lama's Buddhist faith or the Islam of Mahbub Ali. Why might Kipling present Christianity from Kim's distanced, unfamiliar perspective?
Quote #5
'And I am a Follower of the Way,' he said bitterly. 'The sin is mine and the punishment is mine. I made believe to myself for now I see it was but make-belief—that thou wast sent to me to aid in the Search. So my heart went out to thee for thy charity and thy courtesy and the wisdom of thy little years. But those who follow the Way must permit not the fire of any desire or attachment, for that is all Illusion. As says ...' He quoted an old, old Chinese text, backed it with another, and reinforced these with a third. 'I stepped aside from the Way, my chela. It was no fault of thine. I delighted in the sight of life, the new people upon the roads, and in thy joy at seeing these things. I was pleased with thee who should have considered my Search and my Search alone. Now I am sorrowful because thou art taken away and my River is far from me. It is the Law which I have broken!'
'Powers of Darkness below!' said Father Victor, who, wise in the confessional, heard the pain in every sentence. (5.150-1)
This passage occurs just after the lama realizes at last that Kim is a Sahib, and that he will be going to a British school instead of continuing on the road with the lama. Why does the lama feel so broken up and disappointed here? What mistake does he say he has made by allowing himself to grow too close to Kim, his disciple? How do the lama's regrets in this passage influence his later behavior towards Kim?
Quote #6
He showed nothing of his mind when Father Victor, for three long mornings, discoursed to him of an entirely new set of Gods and Godlings—notably of a Goddess called Mary, who, he gathered, was one with Bibi Miriam of Mahbub Ali's theology. He betrayed no emotion when, after the lecture, Father Victor dragged him from shop to shop buying articles of outfit, nor when envious drummer-boys kicked him because he was going to a superior school did he complain, but awaited the play of circumstances with an interested soul. (7.25)
Kim has "an interested soul," but his interests really do not seem to be in religion. He can see the intellectual overlap between the Christian "Goddess" Mary and the Muslim "Bibi Miriam," but he doesn't appear too concerned with the differences between the two faiths, nor does he seem to prefer one to the other.
Indeed, for a book that focuses so much on spirituality, its main character has very little (if any) religious belief. What does Kim follow or believe in, if it is not religion? How do Kim's worldly beliefs differ from those of the lama, and how might they be similar?
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?
Quote #10
'Then all Doing is evil?' Kim replied, lying out under a big tree at the fork of the Doon road, watching the little ants run over his hand.
'To abstain from action is well—except to acquire merit.'
'At the Gates of Learning we were taught that to abstain from action was unbefitting a Sahib. And I am a Sahib.'
'Friend of all the World,'—the lama looked directly at Kim—'I am an old man—pleased with shows as are children. To those who follow the Way there is neither black nor white, Hind nor Bhotiyal. We be all souls seeking escape. No matter what thy wisdom learned among Sahibs, when we come to my River thou wilt be freed from all illusion—at my side. Hai! My bones ache for that River, as they ached in the te-rain; but my spirit sits above my bones, waiting. The Search is sure!' (12.45-8)
As we mentioned in our "Character Analysis" of the lama, in a lot of ways we find his spiritual perspective to be the most sympathetic and approachable one in the novel. When he says that there is truly "neither black nor white," but only "souls seeking escape," we breathe a sigh of relief: finally, someone in Kim who is not endlessly obsessed with skin color and cultural difference.
At the same time, while we like the lama's humane attitudes towards other people, we're not sure how we feel about the idea that "to abstain from action is well." Why might the lama believe that it is goodnot to act? When does the lama think that "Doing" is justifiable or worthwhile? Do you believe that it is necessary to remain outside of the everyday world in order to gain greater spiritual understanding?