Chapter 9
The Ferryman
Eddies (detail), NOAA
From the reading. . .
“But isn’t every life, isn’t every work beautiful?”
Ideas of Interest from “The Ferryman”
1. Siddhartha awkwardly offers the reason “I’ll have to learn first how to handle the boat” as a motive for being Vasudeva’s assistant. Since the reason offered is tautologous, what, in all probability, does Siddhartha genuinely seek?
2. Vasudeva intimates that he is holy when he says, “All I’m able to do is to listen and to be godly.” Interpret Vasudeva’s metaphor of the river with respect to holiness. When does a life become sacred?
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Chapter 9. The Ferryman
3. Account for Vasudeva’s acceptance of Siddhartha as an assistant. How did Vasudeva presage Siddhartha’s quest? He stated in the fifth chapter, “I have learned from the river: everything is coming back! You too, Samana will come back.”
4. In what manner could the crossing of the river be seen as just another goal of and not an obstacle for a traveler? Explain how there are no hindrances without expectations.
5. Explain the idea that there is no suffering without time. Is it possible that a person exists just as the river exits:
. . . this water ran and ran, incessantly it ran, and was nevertheless always there, was always at all times the same and yet new in every moment!
That is, you are not as you were when you are a child, and you are not as you are at this moment, and you are not as you will be when your life nears its end. Your life includes all of these times, but is not reducible to any one.
6. Can you interpret the metaphor of the river with respect to the aphorism,
“The more things change, the more things stay the same”?
7. Carefully explain the two “secrets” Vasudeva learned from the river. In what way are these insights integral to a centered life?
8. Why was Kamala’s seeing Siddhartha just as sacred a pilgrimage as seeing Gotama, the perfected one?
The Reading Selection from “The
Ferryman”
By this river I want to stay, thought Siddhartha, it is the same which I have crossed a long time ago on my way to the childlike people, a friendly ferryman had guided me then, he is the one I want to go to, starting out from his hut, my path had led me at that time into a new life, which had now grown old and is dead—my present path, my present new life, shall also take its start there!
Tenderly, he looked into the rushing water, into the transparent green, into the crystal lines of its drawing, so rich in secrets. Bright pearls he saw rising from the deep, quiet bubbles of air floating on the reflecting surface, the blue of the sky being depicted in it. With a thousand eyes, the river looked at him, with green ones, with white ones, with crystal ones, with sky-blue ones. How did he love this water, how did it delight him, how grateful was he to it! In Siddhartha: An Open-Source Text
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his heart he heard the voice talking, which was newly awaking, and it told him: Love this water! Stay near it! Learn from it! Oh yes, he wanted to learn from it, he wanted to listen to it. He who would understand this water and its secrets, so it seemed to him, would also understand many other things, many secrets, all secrets.
But out of all secrets of the river, he today only saw one, this one touched his soul. He saw this water ran and ran, incessantly it ran, and was nevertheless always there, was always at all times the same and yet new in every moment! Great be he who would grasp this, understand this! He understood and grasped it not, only felt some idea of it stirring, a distant memory, divine voices.
Siddhartha rose, the workings of hunger in his body became unbearable. In a daze he walked on, up the path by the bank, upriver, listened to the current, listened to the rumbling hunger in his body.
When he reached the ferry, the boat was just ready, and the same ferryman who had once transported the young Samana across the river, stood in the boat, Siddhartha recognised him, he had also aged very much.
“Would you like to ferry me over?” he asked.
The ferryman, being astonished to see such an elegant man walking along and on foot, took him into his boat and pushed it off the bank.
“It’s a beautiful life you have chosen for yourself,” the passenger spoke. “It must be beautiful to live by this water every day and to cruise on it.”
With a smile, the man at the oar moved from side to side, “It is beautiful, sir, it is as you say. But isn’t every life, isn’t every work beautiful?”
“This may be true. But I envy you for yours.”
“Ah, you would soon stop enjoying it. This is nothing for people wearing fine clothes.”
Siddhartha laughed. “Once before, I have been looked upon today because of my clothes, I have been looked upon with distrust. Wouldn’t you, ferryman, like to accept these clothes, which are a nuisance to me, from me? For you must know, I have no money to pay your fare.”
“You’re joking, sir,” the ferryman laughed.
“I’m not joking, friend. Behold, once before you have ferried me across this water in your boat for the immaterial reward of a good deed. Thus, do it today as well, and accept my clothes for it.”
“And do you, sir, intend to continue travelling without clothes?”
“Ah, most of all I wouldn’t want to continue travelling at all. Most of all I would like you, ferryman, to give me an old loincloth and keep me with you 88
