“Do you hear,” Vasudeva’s gaze asked again.

Brightly, Vasudeva’s smile was shining, floating radiantly over all the wrinkles of his old face, as the Om was floating in the air over all the voices of the river.  Brightly his smile was shining, when he looked at his friend, and brightly the same smile was now starting to shine on Siddhartha’s face as well.  His wound blossomed, his suffering was shining, his self had flown into the oneness.

In this hour, Siddhartha stopped fighting his fate, stopped suffering.  On his face flourished the cheerfulness of a knowledge, which is no longer opposed by any will, which knows perfection, which is in agreement with the flow of events, with the current of life, full of sympathy for the pain of others, full of sympathy for the pleasure of others, devoted to the flow, belonging to the oneness.

When Vasudeva rose from the seat by the bank, when he looked into Siddhartha’s eyes and saw the cheerfulness of the knowledge shining in them, he softly touched his shoulder with his hand, in this careful and tender manner, and said:  “I’ve been waiting for this hour, my dear.  Now that it has come, let me leave.  For a long time, I’ve been waiting for this hour; for a long time, I’ve been Vasudeva the ferryman.  Now it’s enough.  Farewell, hut, farewell, river, farewell, Siddhartha!”

Siddhartha made a deep bow before him who bid his farewell.

“I’ve known it,” he said quietly.  “You’ll go into the forests?”

“I’m going into the forests, I’m going into the oneness,” spoke Vasudeva with a bright smile.

With a bright smile, he left; Siddhartha watched him leaving.  With deep joy, with deep solemnity he watched him leave, saw his steps full of peace, saw his head full of lustre, saw his body full of light.

GOVINDA

Together with other monks, Govinda used to spend the time of rest between pilgrimages in the pleasure-grove, which the courtesan Kamala had given to the followers of Gotama for a gift.  He heard talk of an old ferryman, who lived one day’s journey away by the river, and who was regarded as a wise man by many.  When Govinda went back on his way, he chose the path to the ferry, eager to see the ferryman.  Because, though he had lived his entire life by the rules, though he was also looked upon with veneration by the younger monks on account of his age and his modesty, the restlessness and the searching still had not perished from his heart.

He came to the river and asked the old man to ferry him over, and when they got off the boat on the other side, he said to the old man:  “You’re very good to us monks and pilgrims, you have already ferried many of us across the river.  Aren’t you too, ferryman, a searcher for the right path?”

Quoth Siddhartha, smiling from his old eyes:  “Do you call yourself a searcher, oh venerable one, though you are already of an old in years and are wearing the robe of Gotama’s monks?”