Tulpas

       'Guten Tag! Ich bin Herr Harish.’ Professor Harish wrote down his first sentence in German. It was his second vacation since he began teaching in Pune University. Actually he taught Physics but always wanted to learn new things. He believed that art and science were the products of two different sides of the brain. So, he always turned to various forms of art such as painting, music, and poetry. This time he was trying to learn German, 'Deutsch' as he called it.

       Just as he was about to look into the dictionary for the German word for 'Professor ', the doorbell rang. On opening the door, he was filled with wonder to find the khaki clad postman.

"There is a queer letter for you from abroad Sir!” he said.

      Usually, the postmen delivered letters directly into the post boxes unless there was some problem. In this case there was a problem too! There was no postage stamp on the letter. Seeing this, Harish examined the letter carefully to find if it had it's sender's address. It had none. Yet, he took it assuming that his absent-minded uncle had sent it to him from Japan. He had to pay a large sum for this heavy letter, which exceeded 40 grams. This didn't look like any ordinary letter too. It had a large size, almost that of a wall calendar. Prof. Harish was scribbled on it in a kind of calligraphic writing that suggested the use of a quill for the purpose. Harish tore open the letter carefully on one side to find out what his uncle had sent enclosed. To his surprise, it was an 18th century letter. Anyone else would have discarded it saying that someone had tried to play a trick on him, but not Harish.

    As a child, Harish had himself witnessed a man getting transformed into a lion and back into a human being! That the doctor suggested hallucination and nobody believed him was another issue. That was also the main reason why Harish always looked out for something supernatural. Yet, he had never expected that this letter in his hand would be as occult. It read as follows: -

16th April 1767

Dear Sir,

I was greatly surprised to receive your letter, for which, I have not the slightest doubt; you have spent a great amount of time thereby conforming your interest in this subject.

It gives me a great amount of pleasure to inform you that I have created my own TULPA!

Keeping my promise and not keeping any of my new discoveries from your knowledge, I have hereby included some information that is useful in the creation of a tulpa. The first page contains a written paragraph on the basics, which you might as well ignore. The remaining pages contain the gestures, positions, stages and warnings to be understood while the creation. In case you find problems after creation of your tulpa, contact me immediately.

Finally, please excuse me for the numerous mistakes in my letter, for my Tulpa Harry has written it and he's from the 20th century, though he claims to be from the 21st. He likes short sentences and the use of a lot words from some dialect they call 'slang'.

Yours sincerely,

Henry.

Just as Harish was about to read further, the doorbell rang again. Quickly hiding the letter under an opened newspaper on the table, he opened the door. Seeing Dr. Gopal, he heaved a sigh of relief. Dr Gopal was a close friend of Harish and had almost similar interests. Harish let him in and showed him the letter. Carefully removing his raincoat and hanging it in the gallery, Dr Gopal took a chair close to Harish. The professor now realised that it was raining outside. He seemed to have inherited the absent - mindedness of his uncle. He checked his watch. It was 8:05pm.

Gopal was fascinated by the letter and read it carefully. Then the professor kept the first page on ' Tulpas' in the centre of the rectangular table and both of them read it together. It went like this: -

TULPAS: -

    This is a sort of a phantasm of the human mind that renders a person the ability of projecting imaginary images into the exterior world outside the boundaries of the mind. Amazingly it is known widely in Tibet. Tibetan monks have known this phenomenon since ages. Most of them warn about the problems they can cause. Yet, I presume, this has been solely to keep this phenomenon a secret. I have done a lot of research while creating a tulpa and then disappearing it. While we sleep, our tulpa is awake and we can let a person from the future enter this Tulpa. The process is mentioned in the following pages. I hope you read it carefully before proceeding. Also, I have sent hand drawings of the postures I have found useful while making my Tulpa. So, I wish you the ' best of luck '.

Both of them were so excited that Gopal phoned home to inform that he would be staying over at Harish's house, the next day being a Sunday. Harish suggested that they should have dinner before proceeding and both of them went to a nearby restaurant as Harish's wife had gone to Mumbai. They reached home by about 8:45 pm and they promptly began their work. They briefly went through the pages. There were 5 parts in all for the complete Tulpa. After some argument, they decided that Harish would have his Tulpa first.

He took the weird posture, closed his eyes and proceeded as the doctor read on. It was about 1:00am by the time they finished the first chapter. On opening his eyes, Harish could see a human skeleton he had made. It was the skeleton of his tulpa! They were so overjoyed that they continued with the next part after a short break of 15 min. This chapter too consisted of similar weird postures and gestures. They finished at 3:00 am. Now, the tulpa had flesh and a nervous system. It wasn't much for the doctor who saw it every day, but if shocked Harish. For him it was quite eerie to send a chill down his spine.

"I feel, now it's enough and we should go to sleep and continue tomorrow.” Gopal said, but Harish was not pleased. "The tulpa looks so human that if we do not put a skin on it, we are at risk to be arrested. Gopal agreed and they continued with the next part. At the end of this exhausting part it was 6:00am. The tulpa had a skin; blood, nerves and everything except a face. Now it looked like a mannequin. " I'm using the bed now, you use the sofa. Let us continue later. " Gopal said, and amazingly, Harish agreed. As he went to sleep Harish unknowingly visualised himself, teaching after one week when the vacation was over.

Harish was the first to wake up at 11:30 am. To his amazement, the tulpa now had a face! It was very familiar. Harish kept looking at it unaware of the fact that Gopal had woken up and was looking in the same direction. Gopal looked at the tulpa and then at Harish in confusion. Suddenly, Harish realised where he had seen this face. He saw it everyday in the mirror! It was an exact replica of Harish! Hastily, he went through the fourth part. It suggested that the tulpa would take the form of anyone whom the maker would think of while going to sleep. To make it alive, there

was a passage in a language, which could not be deciphered at the top of the page. Yet the script was the common one. This he had already read aloud to Gopal and was startled to find the tulpa sitting beside him. Then, he also looked for information to disappear the tulpa in the fifth part. It sent a shiver down his spine to find it torn in half. On the half that was retained was written: -

' 5. It is very easy to disappear the tulpa. You just have to express '

Now he realised that he had imposed a tulpa on himself.

This tulpa could think as well. In fact it was Harish reincarnated! They named the tulpa Hari. Initially he just lived inside Harish's house for 24 hours. Soon he started getting bored and with great difficulty, convinced Harish to share some of his work. After some days, each of them started going for delivering lectures on alternate days. For most people it would be relief, but for Harish, it was trouble incarnate, for he liked to teach. Some days later, he revealed this tulpa to the world saying that it was his twin brother. People were amazed at the shocking similarity between the two. They soon found that their fingerprints were the same! Might be their D.N.A. was the same too!

Once Harish took the tulpa for a game of badminton, their favourite game. It looked like Harish was playing with himself. All the strokes, tricks and styles were same. They played for a long time till the shuttle got spoilt. They played for about 2 hours and the final score was 2:1 when they were exhausted.

After about two weeks, Harish was troubled greatly by some inexplicable reason with this tulpa. He began thinking of ways to get rid of this trouble. Quietly he sneaked into the Chemistry laboratory and bribed the lab-assistant to obtain about 1mg of potassium cyanide. Then he mixed it with the soup made especially for Hari. He calmly drank it and showed no signs of dying even after about half an hour! Thinking that there was some problem with the cyanide, Harish started thinking of other ways. So, two days later, he thought of another plan and made sure that Hari wouldn’t get away easily.

" Let's go out for a long drive. I'm quite bored today." Harish said and took the tulpa to a mountain cliff that was less visited. Hari was leaning against the railing and as Harish was about to push, he heard a police siren. He was amazed to find a police jeep passing that way. Generally they are to arrive after a crime is committed. Now Harish didn't dare to take a risk. While returning home, Harish observed a small scar behind Hari's ear. At home, he was happy to find Gopal waiting for him.

"I found out something new about Hari "Harish said.

"What?” Gopal and Hari said almost simultaneously.

"He has a scar behind his left ear that I don’t!"

"So, that is how I can know the difference between you two." Gopal said.

"Yes, but you need not anymore!” Saying so, Harish took out a pistol fitted with a silencer that he kept secretly and shot at Hari! The bullet went straight through the tulpa and rebounding from a metal cupboard, hit the glass behind. One of the splinters hit Harish behind the ear, at the same spot where Hari had a scar. The next moment the tulpa smiled.

"I was called Harry before, and the letter you possess is written by me. So, if you wanted to get rid of me, you could as well have asked me. Nothing affects a tulpa more than it's creator's displeasure. That is what actually makes it disappear. You just have to express your displeasure. I am leaving you a small memento as a token of my appreciation for having re-created me. You will find it in your cupboard tomorrow. Goodbye.” Saying this he began disappearing and vanished completely within the next five minutes.

The next morning Harish opened his cupboard for the memento and was astonished. There was a travel bag inside. He opened it to find a note that read: -

‘Thanks for the trouble you took in eliminating me. I thought I should repay you.’

Inside the bag were many bundles of Rs. 1000 notes. Harish had never seen so much money before and was greatly amazed. Soon, the doorbell rang again. There were many cops outside.

"Mr. Harish, you are under arrest for bank robbery. " One of them said while putting handcuffs on to Harish's wrists. While going to the police station, he asked Harish," I don't get one thing clear. How did the bullets we shot pass right through you? ".

"It's a long story that you'll never believe. Take my advice, if you ever find anything on TULPAS, BURN IT!”