Amongst the
People
Feraco
Search for Human Potential
17 October 2011
Siddhartha
 “Amongst the People” is
ironically named: Siddhartha is
among them, but he never allows
himself to be part of them (even
as he increasingly becomes one of
them, he remains steadfastly in
denial)
 It begins with a description of
Kamaswami that fits well with
what Kamala has said about him:
he’s the picture of decaying
wealth, graying hair paired with
clever eyes
Siddhartha
 He’s confused by Siddhartha’s
statement about not being in
need; as a creature of desire,
Kamaswami literally cannot
comprehend such a thing
 “How will you live if you are
without possessions?”
 This gives Kamaswami and
Siddhartha the chance to learn
about one another via a dialogue
about the giving and taking that’s
omnipresent in human life
Siddhartha
 Once again, Kamaswami cannot
understand how Siddhartha lives as he
does, for he doesn’t believe
Siddhartha has anything to offer if he
can only use his skills (rather than
possessions) in an exchange
 The language of exchange is really the
only language Kamaswami speaks
 Once Siddhartha convinces him that
his skills are useful in an exchange,
Kamaswami respects him –
particularly once he learns Siddhartha
can write
Siddhartha
 Both what Siddhartha writes and
that Siddhartha writes prove
important
 His saying – “Writing is good,
thinking is better. Cleverness is
good, patience is better” – has
poignancy when we consider
where he ends up, trapped by his
own “cleverness” and attention to
the bottom line
 Moreover, the fact that
Siddhartha can read, write, and
speak is very noteworthy
Siddhartha
 Once we acquire language, we lose
the ability to think without words
– to come up with thoughts that
no words can describe
 Indeed, our thoughts express
themselves in sensory terms
 Thus our thoughts become part of
our reality, and our command of
language therefore dictates the
depth of the reality we perceive
(maya!)
Siddhartha
 Kamala’s reality is therefore
incomplete – she cannot read or
write, and by lacking language,
she lacks connection to the
world…she lacks reality
 The less you understand about
the veil, the harder it proves to
pierce
 This is why Siddhartha chooses to
study the Self rather than hide
from it, and why our bodhisattvas
finally reach enlightenment
Siddhartha
 Once Siddhartha is accepted into
Kamaswami’s service, he retains some
of his old habits; he doesn’t become
entirely like the man for another
chapter/decade or so
 “Kamaswami conducted his business
with care and often with passion, but
Siddhartha regarded it all as a game,
the rules of which he endeavored to
learn well, but did not stir his heart.”
 His approach to business frustrates
and even infuriates the old merchant,
for the younger man’s lackadaisical
approach to profit and loss increases
the elder man’s risk
Siddhartha
 Siddhartha, on the other hand, seems
interested in making human
connections – a noble (and, for
Kamaswami, novel) sentiment, but one
we quickly see isn’t entirely accurate
 “Siddhartha’s sympathy and curiosity
lay only with people, whose work,
troubles, pleasures, and follies were
more unknown and remote from him
than the moon. Although he found it
so easy to speak to everyone, to live
with everyone, to learn from everyone,
he was very conscious of the fact that
there was something which separated
him from them…”
Siddhartha
 However, he increasingly devotes
himself to Kamala, which is in keeping
with his single-minded approach to his
pursuits
 He even convinces himself that Kamala
understands him better than Govinda did
 “He spent wonderful hours with the
clever, beautiful courtesan and
became her pupil, her lover, her
friend. Here with Kamala lay the value
and meaning of his present life, not in
Kamaswami’s business.”
Siddhartha
 In other words, the embodiment
of desire understands him better
than the searcher
 His conversation with her about
leaves and stars is sad, in a way
 Even though Hesse only says it
outright at the end, the tone of
Siddhartha’s dialogue is weary
and regretful, the pitch of a man
who knows he’s letting his life
slip away yet refuses to stop it
 The seeds of Siddhartha’s fall are
sown here
…He occupied his thoughts with all this game and
the passion with which all men play it, as much as
he had previously occupied his thoughts with the
gods and Brahman. At times he heard within him
a soft, gentle voice, which reminded him quietly,
complained quietly, so that he could hardly hear
it. Then he suddenly saw clearly that he was
leading a strange life, that he was doing many
thing that were only a game, that he was quite
cheerful and sometimes experienced pleasure,
but that real life was flowing past him and did
not touch him. Like a player who plays with his
ball, he played with his business, with the people
around him, watched them, derived amusement
from them; but with his heart, with his real
nature, he was not there. His real self wandered
elsewhere, far away, wandered on and on invisibly
and had nothing to do with his life. He was
sometimes afraid of these thoughts and wished
that he could also share their childish daily
affairs with intensity, truly to take part in them,
to enjoy and live their lives instead of only being
there as an onlooker.
Siddhartha
 There’s a reason he ends the
chapter by confessing he cannot
love: “Ordinary people can – that
is their secret.”
 Rather than becoming
extraordinary, Siddhartha finds
himself envious of the
aggressively ordinary
 And thus we hit the book’s
midpoint, standing at the
precipice of something more