As they made their way in search of the Illustrious One, they started to connect with people right away. They met a lady who had offered them some food and whom they had a good conversation with. At this stage in his journey, Siddhartha had already decided that he would no longer be a Samana, but he still hadn’t decided what he would do next. Govinda had decided that he would become a follower of the Buddha, but Siddhartha was not quite satisfied with the teachings of the Buddha. He and the Buddha didn’t have a teacher-student relationship like the other believers and curious people who had come to listen to Gotama. When Siddhartha spoke to the Buddha, he spoke quite boldly, but because he admired the Buddha and respected him so much, he still lowered himself before the Illustrious One.
After Siddhartha had left Govinda with the Buddha, he met a ferryman whose straw hut he had slept in during the night. The ferryman saw Siddhartha as a Samana from the forest, and Siddhartha found this ferryman to be very friendly. Siddhartha continued on with his journey and passed through a village, where all the children there ran away at that sight of the strange Samana.
It was soon after this, that Siddhartha met Kamala, a courtesan, whom Siddhartha found very beautiful. When Kamala met Siddhartha, she saw him as a poor ignorant Samana from the forest, but when she taught him about the art of love, she found him to be an apt pupil. He was like a child astonished at the knowledge she had given him. Kamala had soon transformed Siddhartha into a man with fine clothes and shoes, and with a scent in his hair. She introduced him to Kamaswami, the rich merchant who taught Siddhartha about business and money. He had been told by Kamala to never be servile to Kamaswami and to treat him as his equal, but Siddhartha treated him even more than his equal. However, Siddhartha didn’t find himself very close to Kamaswami. He only found business useful to him in order to bring money for Kamala. He was not passionate about business as Kamaswami was and he treated everyone who came to him equally. The rich foreign merchant was not treated differently form the servant whom he bought bananas from. More than anything else though, Siddhartha loved Kamala and he still kept a relationship with her.
Years passed and Siddhartha had become very rich. He had his own house with his own servants and a garden by the river. People liked him and they went to him for money and advice, but then Siddhartha had started to lose his patience with slow-paying debtors, and he was no longer kind-hearted to beggars. He soon broke his relationships with Kamala and Kamaswami and left the town.
Siddhartha wondered into the forest and stopped by a river. By the river, Siddhartha was considered to be a merchant by everyone and his social status was still very high. It was by the river that Siddhartha met Govinda, his old friend. At first Govinda hadn’t recognized Siddhartha who was wearing the clothes and shoes of a rich man. He looked at Siddhartha very doubtfully, and when he left he bowed to Siddhartha as one does to a man of rank and went on his way.
At this time Siddhartha found himself in love with the river and he didn’t want to leave it. He found the friendly ferryman, Vasudeva who had once taken him across the river. Siddhartha had become good friends with him and he had soon become a ferryman like him. When he and Vasudeva would take travellers across the river, many of these travellers felt that something emanated from the two ferrymen. Sometimes a traveller would begin to talk about his life and troubles and would ask for comfort and advice from them.
When Siddhartha was given to him his son, he took good care of the boy like a good father. Even when the boy would give Siddhartha and Vasudeva a lot of trouble, he would continue to love him until the boy left him.
One day when Govinda came to visit the old ferryman whom many people considered to be a sage, he recognized that this old ferryman was Siddhartha, his friend, and when Govinda saw Siddhartha smile, it was the same calm, delicate, impenetrable, wise, thousand-fold smile of Gotama, the Buddha. Govinda knew that the Perfect One smiled.
In the end, Siddhartha finds what he had been looking for. He had met many different individuals who had affected his way of thinking and living, and each path Siddhartha chose greatly affected his social life. He had gone from holding a high status to having no status, and now Siddhartha’s status was unsure of. To Govinda, Siddhartha was the Perfect One. Many people saw him as a wise man, a magician, or a holy man. Others however saw him as a crazy old man. In the end however, we learn that Siddhartha’s social status didn’t matter.
