Abstract

Critics of Victorian detective fiction have hinted at alternate careers for Sherlock Holmes—that is, scientist and lawyer—almost entirely overlooking the spiritual side to the detective. Working within the hermeneutics of nondual Vedanta and the Indian monk Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophy, this article reexamines Holmes as a calm and unfettered yogi who descends from the roof of the Pondicherry Lodge to solve the case of the Great Agra Treasure and is later resurrected from his supposed death at Reichenbach Falls to become the Man on the Tor, overlooking the ancient mysteries of Dartmoor. The Holmesian world is scattered with disguised Vedantic variables. Drawing a scope of compatibility between Holmes (and the science of deduction) and Sri Ramakrishna (and Vijnana Vedanta), this article argues that Holmesian methods reflect yogic strategies that make his science amenable to a spiritual hermeneutics without religion.