It is as I thought; the river has spoken to you." (Hesse 105)

What is the significance of this line?

What is the significance of this...? (Leonardo)

"After he had stood for a long time at the gate to the garden, Siddhartha realized that the desire that had driven him to this place was flooish, that he could not help his son, that he should not force himself on him." (Hesse 126)

"He felt indeed that this love, this blind love for his son was a very human passion, that it was Samsara, a troubled spring of deep water" (Hesse 122).

What is the significance of this line?

"Is it not true, my friend, that the river has many voices?" (Hesse 107).

What is the significance of this line?

Siddhartha is rich and admirable. If this is true, why does he feel empty and sick?

Siddhartha had become a different man in his time living in the town. He had become rich, people looked up to him, and he had a house. He had been introduced to the world of business and money. As these changes occured within Siddhartha, he slowly forgot all he had learned from the Samanas. Siddhartha had become an ordinary person. The voice that he had always listened to had faded and no longer spoke in his mind. His "new" life seemed old. "In the same way it lost its color and sheen witht the passing of the years: creases and stains had accumulated, and hidden in the depts, here and there already appearing, waited disillusionment and nausea" (Hesse, 78). Siddhartha was no longer the person he had once been and the idea of what he had become made him sick and hateful. He became evaricious and gambled all the time. He would play dice to hide how he felt and would drink to make the gambling easier. He would win or lose his money and the thought of all this made him sick, so he went back to gamble again. He knew that his life had become circuitous. "...whenever shame and nausea overtook him, he fled to a new game of chance, fled in confusion to passion, to wine, and from there back again to urge for acquiring and hoarding wealth. He wore himself out in this senseless cycle, beame old and sick" (Hesse,80). Siddhartha lost all equanimity and became a person who almost seemed insane. He tried to continue in the life he was leading, but he knew that life was wrong. He felt reproach for the person he had become. He thought this was the life he had wanted, but he realized how wrong he had been.

What was Siddhartha attitude towards business and how did Kamaswami try to change his attitude?

When Siddhartha came to the town, he was interested in Kamala. Kamala is austere and follows her beliefs and is proud of her role in society. In order for him to get to know Kamala, she told him that he must become equal to her and not seem like her servant. As a result, Siddhartha moved into Kamaswami’s house and started to work with business. Siddhartha’s attitude towards business was very bad though. He acted as if it was a game and did not really care about it. Siddhartha’s typical reaction to a bad business deal was imperturbable. “Oh well, this transaction has gone badly” (Hesse 67). He was more worried about making himself happy and was not avaricious in any way. He demonstrated that and also that he liked to satiation himself when Kamaswami asked him a question and he replied, “Certainly I have traveled for my pleasure” (Hesse 68). Kamaswami did not like Siddhartha’s bad attitude toward business and showed reproach, so in order to fix this, he decided to give Siddhartha a percentage of all the gains from each transaction. However, Siddhartha did not care about the money he was getting. He still decided to treat business as a game and nothing that Kamaswami does to change his attitude effects Siddhartha’s way of doing business.

One thing to think about while reading this novel is, why does learning about business not interest Siddhartha as much as the love her learns from Kamala, even though he knows that he can never fully love her and be with her?

Leonardo (By The River) - What does Siddhartha realize after he is done meditation?

Many events occur in the chapter "By the River". Siddartha leaves the town that he was in with Kamala to go down by the river to think more deeply and wonder what he can do to find his path to enlightenment. After meditation, Siddhartha awakes and notices a buddha next to him. The buddha that appears is Govinda. Siddhartha realizes many aspects to his path to enlightenment after his meditation and conversation with Govinda. During his meditation, Siddhartha sees the world around him as being very peaceful. Also, Siddhartha had a feeling of imperturbability and equanimity.
After Siddhartha is done meditation, he feels as if he was reborn again. Siddhartha did not have a feeling of austereness any more. "Never had a sleep so refreshed him, so renewed him, so rejuvenated him!" (Hesse 91). After he is done meditation Siddhartha realizes that he has been trying way to hard to find what he seeks. Just like a river flows, Siddhartha has to just take it easy and flow. When he flows, he will eventually find his path.