I took no food. I took no water. I sat in
meditation two days and two nights, abstracting my mind; inbreathing
and outbreathing in the required manner ... Upon the second night--so
great was my reward--the wise Soul loosed itself from the silly Body
and went free. This I have never before attained, though I have stood
on the threshold of it. Consider, for it is a marvel!'

'A marvel indeed. Two days and two nights without food! Where was the
Sahiba?' said Kim under his breath.

'Yea, my Soul went free, and, wheeling like an eagle, saw indeed that
there was no Teshoo Lama nor any other soul. As a drop draws to water,
so my Soul drew near to the Great Soul which is beyond all things. At
that point, exalted in contemplation, I saw all Hind, from Ceylon in
the sea to the Hills, and my own Painted Rocks at Such-zen; I saw every
camp and village, to the least, where we have ever rested. I saw them
at one time and in one place; for they were within the Soul. By this I
knew the Soul had passed beyond the illusion of Time and Space and of
Things. By this I knew that I was free. I saw thee lying in thy cot,
and I saw thee falling downhill under the idolater--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