What game do you win by losing?

In Siddhartha, I think the most complicated step to “diagnose” is the step of Temptation. In fact, I would argue that there is no “true” step of Temptation as Joseph Cambell describes it – a step that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest. At first, it seems like the 20 years Siddhartha spends “Among the People”, is a clear deviation from his path towards enlightenment and true inner peace. However, Joseph Campbell’s description of the step has a key caveat — the step of temptation must feel and be a step in the wrong direction if followed. 

However, while Siddhartha is with Kamala and Kamaswami, he clearly doesn’t think he is deviating from the path. Instead, he sees this embrace of materialism and carnal relationships as a necessary part of enlightenment. He says “He had known for a long time that his Self was Atman, of the same eternal nature as Brahman, but he has never really found his Self, because he had wanted to trap it in the net of thoughts”(47). To get in touch with his Self voice, he had to follow his inner voice, and it would inevitably lead him to a balance of intellectuality and entertainment. He remarked, “Both thought and the senses were fine things, behind both of them lay hidden the last meaning; it was worthwhile listening to them both, to play with both, neither to dispose nor overrate either of them, but to listen intently to both voices. He would only strive after whatever the inward voice commanded him, not tarry anywhere but where the voice advised him…Nothing else was necessary”(48). This inner monologue is the perfect characterization of Siddhartha’s understanding of his actions when he chooses to follow Kamaswami and Kamala. 

 

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Alas, I must concede with the doubters, that Siddhartha did eventually lose touch with this inner voice, and the balance he thought was the key to enlightenment was gradually lost, favoring materialism over intellectuality. But, according to Siddhartha himself, losing himself to materialism and to the Ego was necessary to truly renounce both those things. He could also never understand the truths of humanity and feel real empathy for the people around him, unless he had “sunken to their level” – for a lack of a better way of describing his fall from being a Brahmin and a Samana, and played the “game” of making and spending money. Therefore, it is possible that his experiences with Kamaswami and Kamala were a crucial part of embracing his journey. This fact also contradicts Joseph Campbell’s assertion that temptation must be avoided in order for the Hero to succeed on their journey. In Siddhartha’s case, he never could have succeeded without giving into this “temptation”, therefore, being with Kamala and Kamaswami fits more into the “Road of Trials” step. 

According to the handout, The 17 Stages of Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth, the Road of Trials Step is “a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests.” Indeed, Siddhartha did “fail” by succumbing to materialistic desires and this failure was crucial to his transformation. In fact, without the seductive lip icon for temptation and the word “material” in its description on the handout, I doubt many people in this class would believe that Kamala in particular was a temptress. In fact, one of our classmates came to a similar conclusion two class periods ago, when he said something along the lines of “Siddhartha actually met the Goddess by meeting the Temptress (Kamala)”. What he meant was that, by Kamala keeping Siddhartha in the life of a merchant, she allowed him to have the revelation that he was not fulfilled or approaching enlightenment in that life. What he said about her being the Goddess, I disagree with more. It may be true, but I am more inclined to think that she was just a replacement of Govinda. Govinda doesn’t symbolize any specific step in the Monomyth, and so Kamala and Govinda are both a unique quality Herman Hesse introduced to his book. After all, who can say Govinda is a “good” or a “bad” character in Siddhartha’s journey? Was he not just a companion, or a foil, for the audience to understand Siddhartha better? 

Many steps in the Joseph Campbell monomyth are illustrative, but we should make sure not to give into the temptation to make all parts of a story fit his Hero’s Journey mold. Trying to do so may lead us to miss out on a lot of nuance within the story. Those who believed Kamala was just a Temptress, missed out on the complexity of Siddhartha’s experiences among the people, and missed the whole point of The By the River chapter. All Hero’s Journeys, except perhaps Star Wars, have nuance that is worth examining apart from their significance is the Joseph Campbell's Hero’s Journey Arc.