The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes - Jamyang Norbu [110]
Of course. A Mandala).
A roar like that of a thousand giant Thibetan trumpets reverberated through the air as it slowly descended, burning so brightly with flashing, moving lights that my senses failed me for sometime. Then I felt myself rising towards the lights, which, strangely enough, did not discomfort me in spite of their awesome brilliance and energy. Then the brilliance changed to a comfortable glow like that of a well-lit room, and I imagined figures moving around me. I may have dreamt it for the figures, though vaguely human, were enormous — at least ten feet tall and clad in strange suits of iridescent armour, and grim helmets crested with nodding plumes of fire. Of course, the statues in the cavern! That's why I was dreaming all this. One of the figures walked silently over to my side and bent down. His face was that of a warrior, noble and stern, but he smiled kindly at me and put his hand on my eyes. I slept.
I dreamed I was lying on a high altar surrounded by faceless, white robed priests, who cut my body open with shining knives of Kght, and poured liquid fire inside me. But I felt no pain and I slept again.
1. In The Valley of Fear, Holmes tells Watson that Moriarty is the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid — 'a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticising it.'
2. What we now call the polarisation of light.
3. Pho-wa (Tib.) is one of the most jealously guarded secret yogic practises of Tibet. It is the yoga of transferring the principle of consciousness from one incarnation to the next without suffering any break in the continuity of consciousness.
4. The consciousness principle (or life-force) leaves the body through the 'Aperture of Bhrama (Skt. Bhrama-randhra) situated on the crown of the head at the sagittal suture where the two parietal bones articulate, opened by means of the yogic practise of the Pho-wa. The bird flying out of it is the consciousness-principle going out; for it is through this aperture that the life-force quits the body, either permanently at death, or temporarily during the practice of Pho-wa. The process is a part of Kundalini Yoga.
5. Judging by the Lama Yonten's words, it would seem that in this case the process was not one of reincarnation with continuing consciousness, but a radical transfer of the consciousness principle into the body of another existing person. It would therefore seem that the yoga of Trong-jug and not the yoga of Pho-wa was performed in this case. The Babu is probably not to blame for this error in the narrative. It is most likely that the Lama Yonten made-a mistake in his choice of terms, a perfectly understandable error considering the desperation of the situation.
6. Sanskrit for the Blue Lotus (Nymphaea caerulea).
23
His Last Bow
I opened my eyes to see larks flyinghigh above in a clear blue summer's sky.
I 'Ah, Hurree. You are awake,' Sherlock Holmes's reassuring voice came from dose beside me. He was sitting near where I lay on the grassy slope of a sun-drenched hillside, smoking his pipe contentedly. I was confused, but strangely did not care very much. I just felt wonderful to be alive. I touched my chest. There was no wound there — not the least trace. Had it all been but a dream? As I pressed my right hand on my chest I felt a twinge of pain in the hand — where a foot had trodden on it.
'Moriarty!'
'He has passed on to another existence, Hurree. Do you not remember how you tripped him up when he was preparing to deliver his coup de grace? If they had such a thing as a public museum in this country, that's where your umbrella ought to be.'
Hearing our voices, the Grand Lama, the Lama Yonten, Tsering and