Siddhartha: Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

The next day, Siddhartha meets Kamaswami in his big house. Kamaswami asks Siddhartha why he has left scholarship and philosophy for service. Has he fallen on hard times? Siddhartha says that he has never experienced hard times, because he has been living as a samana, and when hardship is voluntary, it is not real hardship. They debate about whose property Siddhartha has been living on without any of his own. Kamaswami wonders what Siddhartha can offer, if he has no property. Siddhartha replies that he can give what he has, which is fasting, thinking and waiting.

This doesn’t seem like much to Kamaswami, but Siddhartha explains that from fasting, he has learned to laugh at and rise above hunger. This makes more sense to Kamaswami. He tests Siddhartha’s reading and writing skills. Siddhartha writes Kamaswami a message – “Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.” The merchant is impressed and invites Siddhartha into his home, and showers him with rich things. Siddhartha remembers Kamala’s words and treats the merchant as a peer and does not submit to him or take the riches too seriously.

Soon Siddhartha is helping the merchant with his transactions, but he is focused on his pursuit of love with Kamala, and visits her every day, now able to present her with the gifts she requested. She teaches him how to make love, give and receive pleasure and be patient with a woman, and this becomes the purpose of his life, not the business activity of Kamaswami’s house.

Though Siddhartha is a peer in Kamaswami’s house and seems to have a lucky touch with business transactions, the merchant senses that Siddhartha is not putting his all into business and is never bothered by losses. The merchant’s friend advises him to test Siddhartha by making him deal with his own wages. But Siddhartha remains indifferent to profit or loss.

Siddhartha goes to make a transaction at a rice plantation, but misses the opportunity and spends the trip getting to know the rice workers and the local area. When Kamaswami scolds him for losing money, Siddhartha claims to have not wasted anything, that his experiences with the people at the rice fields have been very valuable. Kamaswami says that he should have been traveling on business, but Siddhartha insists he will always travel for pleasure, and with the pleasure he had with the community there, he will feel the rewards long after, and be invited back. He tells the merchant that he can send him away at any time, if he is unsatisfied but until then they should not waste their time with angry words.

Siddhartha continues to confuse and anger Kamaswami. He refuses to eat Kamaswami’s bread, never sympathizes with Kamaswami’s frustration over business, and when Kamaswami reminds him that he is dependent on the merchant for everything he has learned in business, Siddhartha belittles him, saying that Kamaswami has only taught him prices and interest rates and Kamaswami has more to learn from him.

As much as Kamaswami is dissatisfied by Siddhartha, Siddhartha also does not find any joy in business. He loves the lives of the people they transact with, but he feels separated from them by his past and his samana knowledge. He sees the people as childlike and watches them suffer from things that would hardly touch a samana.

Siddhartha invites every kind of company into the house, treating rich tradesmen and poor peddlers exactly the same. He listens to Kamaswami’s worries, but treats the whole thing like a game, sympathizing and cheating and trading just the right amount to keep ahead of this game. Soon, the game has become his life, just as the teachings of Brahma had become it. Every so often a sad inner voice calls to him, and he realizes how he is playing a game and real life seems to be passing him or existing elsewhere. When he hears this voice, he wishes that he might participate wholeheartedly in the childlike pursuits of the town’s people.

But Siddhartha keeps learning the art of love from Kamala, and her friendship warms him. She seems more akin to him than Govinda. Siddhartha one day tries to explain this kinship to Kamala. He tells her that she has an essential self much like he does. It is not about cleverness, he insists, it is about an inner sanctuary. Some people are like falling leaves and some are like stars with fixed paths, like the great Gautama. Kamala senses that Siddhartha is thinking of the samana life again.

They play love games – fighting and tricking each other in a battle-like display. Kamala admits that Siddhartha is the best lover she has known and that she wishes to have his child one day. But she knows that he remains something of a samana and does not love like other men do. Siddhartha thinks that may be true, but that she is the same way. It is only the child people that love completely.