Listening To The River In Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

“‘All I am able to do is to listen and be godly, I have learned nothing else’” (73). This is Vasudeva talking to Siddhartha, after they first met, about what he learned from the river by listening. Vasudeva is also talking about how Siddhartha will be learning from the river by listening to it. Vasudeva is telling Siddhartha and the reader that that one can learn how to content by listening and learning from a river. We see that Vasudeva listens to the river when it says “[a]ll I am able to do is to listen and be godly, I have learned nothing else”. Listening to the river leads Vasudeva to a state of contentment because the river is a calming place. A calming place can help to lead one to a state of happiness and satisfaction, the definition of contentment, as Vasudeva, says he is a godly man that means that he is devoutly religious and a river or calming place can help him communicate with his religion.

Vasudeva is important for Siddhartha in learning this lesson from the river because Siddhartha can tell that Vasudeva is not trying to teach him just from books, but that Vasudeva has learned and is still learning from the river. This proves that one can learn how to be content by listening and learning from a river. Likewise, to how Vasudeva taught Siddhartha how to be content by listening and learning from a river, he also taught Siddhartha how to be silent. “Vasudeva was no friends of words; rarely, Siddhartha succeeded in persuading him to speak” (74). This takes place after Siddhartha had been with Vasudeva for a while. After learning from him and being with him (Vasudeva), Siddhartha is commenting on how rarely Vasudeva