Siddhartha

     "Very beautiful are your verses," exclaimed Kamala, "if I was rich, I would give you pieces of gold for them.  But it will be difficult for you to earn thus much money with verses as you need.  For you need a lot of money, if you want to be Kamala's friend."
"The way you're able to kiss, Kamala!" stammered Siddhartha
"Yes, this I am able to do, therefore I do not lack clothes, shoes, bracelets, and all beautiful things.  But what will become of you? Aren't you able to do anything else but thinking, fasting, making poetry?" 
"I also know the sacrificial songs," said Siddhartha, "but I do not want to sing them any more.  I also know magic spells, but I do not want to speak them any more.  I have read the scriptures-"
"Stop," Kamala interrupted him.  "You're able to read? And write?"
"Certainly, I can do this.  Many people can do this."
"Most people can't.  I also can't do it.  It is very good that you're able to read and write, very good.  You will also still find use for the magic spells."


     In this passage, its clear that Kamala is interested in Siddhartha but there is more to it.  She has showed him how well she can kiss and those kisses can very well be a trap for her convenience.  She knows he can think, fasting, and make poetry, but she wants more than that.  She tell him that for him to be her friend he will need a lot of money and lots of it, since she does not lack clothes, shoes, bracelets, and all beautiful things.  Moreover, her learning that he can read and write makes it more interesting for her to get to know him.  It opens up the idea that with him reading and writing he will obtain more money as she made it obvious that it will be something that he most have to be with her.
     I choose this passage because when she says "For you need a lot of money, if you want to be Kamala's friend" it caught my attention.  It made think of today's society and how there are so many people around us that only use their so called "friends" as a way for them to get something out of the friendship.  It's a sad world knowing that there are plenty, plenty of people who are just ignorant and only use others to get what they want.  They won't value the meaning of priority in life, and they are just stock in their own "bubble word".


1.  To my understanding Siddhartha leaves his father so he can escape life his father and other teacher were teaching.  He want it to follow his own path and learn from his own decision the good and bad of life.  They knowledge he was seeking for was something nor his father or teacher were going to be able to provide to him, it was something that he needed to learn on his own.
4.  The significance of the river, its life itself.  Its the road, path, or stream that one can choose to experience life by our own decision and gain knowledge by own trial and error of life, and not live only by what they teach us.
7.  Siddhartha feels the priest cannot see the true beauty of the world because they only live by what they are taught.  To uncover the meaning of the world will only be learned through experience.
8.  Vasudeva is the ferryman he encountered when he first began his journey decades ago when still a young man, which he confides in.  It's like an inner voice that kept him company through his path of life.
10.  Siddhartha decide not to follow Buddha because he didn't want to reach the level of enlightenment by just "believing" in the what he was being taught.  He want it to understand, explore, and learn form his own experiences of the world through trial and error.  How can one say that they have learned from their mistakes when they haven't encounter that bumpy road to experience on their own.