Siddhartha: eine indische dichtung

Summary

• The story is set in India and starts off with the main character Siddhartha and his friend Govinda in their village where they feel there is more to life than what they were living so when they saw Samanas temporarily reside in their village they took a chance and joined them.
• Though it's interesting how Siddhartha was able to convince his father to let him join the Samanas, once he got the idea to join them he went to his father and told him and his father though for several hours while sitting in the same spot then disagreed, in response Siddhartha stood in the same place for two days without moving, eating or drinking water, by the second day his father saw that his knees were shaking but his face was still.
• His father then asked him if Siddhartha will stay standing in the same position until he agrees and Siddhartha said yes, so reluctantly his father agreed for Siddhartha to join the Samanas.
• Siddhartha and Govinda spent several years with the Samanas learning to control their breath and the Om and about Atman but Siddhartha felt that there were many more lessons in life that he won't learn from the Samanas so he took Govinda with him and went to tell the head Samana that they were leaving which was unheard of so the head Samana acted un-monk-like and acted angrily to them and insulted them; All the while Siddhartha was acting cooly. This showed Siddhartha that the Samanas didn't know everything.
• Siddhartha then learned of a man called Gotama who was said to be 'holy' so he then went to find that man and he and Govinda eventually found him, asked to join his monk group and listened to one of his talks. But Siddhartha found an inconsistency in Gotama's logic so he started explaining it to Gotama and Gotama agreed that he was correct so Siddhartha left the group, leaving Govinda behind.
• Siddhartha then went to the nearest city where he saw Kamala's grove and her red lips that looked like a fruit where she was being served by servants and butlers. Siddhartha then asked Kamala to learn the art in which she was good at (meaning seduction or lust) and she laughed and told him to get new clothes and groom himself and get her gifts before coming again.
• The next day Siddhartha went to a barber to cut his hair and shaved his beard and washed himself in the river then went to Kamala's grove again where he asked her for a job. She asked him what are his skills and he replied that he can meditate, fast, and think. She replied that these aren't very useful skills though she managed to find out that he knows how to read and write so he tasked him to work with a local merchant called Kamaswami though she told him to not act too humbly as the not make Kamaswami think that Siddhartha was his servant.
• By joining Kamaswami Siddhartha realises that all of the people in his life now were 'childlike' and are afraid of things that aren't important. Siddhartha gets new clothes, starts eating good food though without meat and starts getting baths made for him by Kamaswami's servants.
• Siddhartha then becomes better at business though he's criticized by Kamawsami when he doesn't seem saddened or angered when he makes a loss neither feels happy or excited when he makes a profit, when Siddhartha had to make a business trip to buy some goods from a neighbouring town by the time he got there the goods had already been sold, instead of heading home immediately he sticks around for a couple of days meeting the people of the town and having fun. When he returns Kamaswami asked him why he did that and Siddhartha replies in essence that he was building a business relationship.
• Though over time Siddhartha becomes a 'childlike' person himself as he starts eating meat, drinking wine, hiring women, and caring whether he makes a profit or not. He eventually goes gambling and once he loses he figures out that the time his come for him to leave Kamala and the 'childlike' world. Though all the while he was in that world he had been with Kamala and the last time he was with her she conceived.
• Siddhartha eventually left the gambling place and with his fine clothes and shoes he leaves the city entirely and people think that he went missing but only Kamala knew that this was inevitable.
• Siddhartha sleeps in the woods and Govinda was in the neigbourhood and watches him while sleeping unaware that this is Siddhartha. Siddhartha wakes up and talks to Govinda until Govinda realises that this is Siddhartha then bids him farewell.
• Siddhartha then looks for the ferryman who took him from the land of the Samanas to the land of the 'childlike' people all those years ago and then finds him and asks him to live with him and to learn to become a ferryman, the ferryman is then introduced as Vasudeva.
• Siddhartha lives with Vasudeva for many years and learns from him and from the river, but as time goes by news that Gotama's health is fading and that he's about to die makes Kamala donate her grove to the Samanas and takes her son from Siddhartha and goes to look for Gotama before he dies.
• While on the journey Kamala gets bitten by a poisonous snake but she is found by Vasudeva and Siddhartha and she is later buried by them.
• Siddhartha, his son and Vasudeva live in grief for the next few months unable to move on and Siddhartha is unable to be strict to him or to teach him to move on, later the son gets angry, takes a satchell, the boat across the river, breaks an oar then goes presumably to the city where he used to live.
• Siddhartha is saddened by this then realises that he has done pretty much the same to his own father who is by now long dead, he looks for a short while for his son but realises that he is long gone.
• Vasudeva and Siddhartha continue living together until one day Vasudeva says that it's his time to leave this life and walks to the woods and never comes back again.
• Later Govinda wants to cross the river so Siddhartha helps him cross it but once again Govinda doesn't recognise Siddhartha initially but then Siddhartha explains to Govinda that only knowledge can be transferred to another person but that knowledge cannot.

Notes