Siddhartha: An Indian Tale (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Hermann Hesse

Author:Hermann Hesse [Hesse, Hermann]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 1998-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Among the Child People

Siddhartha went to the merchant Kamaswami. He was shown into a rich house. Servants led him over costly carpets to a room where he waited for the master of the house.

Kamaswami walked in, a swift and supple man with strongly graying hair, with very clever and cautious eyes, with a covetous mouth. Host and guest exchanged friendly greetings.

“I have been told,” the merchant began, “that you are a Brahmin, a scholar, but that you are seeking service with a merchant. Have you fallen on hard times, Brahmin, that you are looking for service?”

“No,” said Siddhartha, “I have not fallen on hard times and have never experienced hard times. You see, I come from the samanas, with whom I have lived for a long time.”

“If you come from the samanas, how could you not be experiencing hard times? Are not the samanas completely without property?”

“I own no property,” said Siddhartha, “if that is what you mean. True, I possess nothing. But that is voluntary, so I am not experiencing hard times.”

“But what do you wish to live on if you have no property?”

“I have never thought about it, sir. I have had no property for over three years and have never thought about what I am to live on.”

“Then you have lived from other people’s property.”

“Presumably. But after all, the merchant also lives off the goods of others.”

“Well put. But the merchant does not take from others for free; he gives them wares in exchange.”

“That seems to be the way of the world. Everyone takes, everyone gives, that is life.”

“But permit me: If you have no property, what can you give?”

“Each person gives what he has. The warrior gives strength, the merchant gives merchandise, the teacher teaching, the farmer rice, the fisherman fish.”

“Very good. And what is it that you have to give? What is it that you have learned how to do?”

“I can think. I can wait. I can fast.”

“That is all?”

“I believe it is all!”

“And what use is it? For example, fasting—what good does it do?”

“It is very good, sir. If a person has nothing to eat, then fasting is the wisest thing he can do. If, for instance, Siddhartha had not learned how to fast, he would have to accept any service today, whether with you or someone else, for hunger would force him to do so. But now Siddhartha can calmly wait, he knows no impatience, he knows no plight. He can stave off hunger for a long time and he can laugh at it. That, sir, is what fasting is good for.”

“You are right, samana. Wait a moment.”

Kamaswami left and came back with a scroll, which he handed to his guest, asking him, “Can you read this?”

Siddhartha peered at the scroll, on which a bill of sale was written, and he started to read the text aloud.

“Excellent,” said Kamaswami. “And would you write something on this sheet?”

He handed him the sheet and a pen, and Siddhartha wrote and returned the sheet.

Kamaswami read: “ ‘Writing is good, thinking is better.

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