011. OM

Summary

• Siddhartha is filled with overwhelming despair and disillusionment after losing himself to the excesses of the worldly life, including lust and material riches, and decides to drown himself in a river.
• Just as he's about to follow through with his suicidal thoughts, he murmurs an "Om", the sacred mantra in Hinduism and Buddhism that signifies the essence of the universe, and it brings him back to his senses.
• He passes out from exhaustion by the riverbank and upon waking, he feels renewed and refreshed, seeing the world in a new light.
• He encounters an old friend, Govinda, who fails to recognize him initially given his material trappings. They discuss their differing paths since their shared youth, and Siddhartha admits he doesn't know what he will be tomorrow.
• After Govinda leaves, Siddhartha reflects on his life, taking delight in how he's started over again as a child, free from self-hatred and despair. He thinks about the pleasure of rediscovering joy in the simplest things and the importance of experience over merely accumulating knowledge.
• Siddhartha finds joy in himself and in the world around him, listening to the river and the nature around him. He acknowledges that he had to lose himself in worldly pleasures and excess in order to rediscover his awakened self.
• As Siddhartha embraces this new lease on life, he resolves to stay by the river that he had initially intended to use as a means of ending his misery, indicating a significant shift in his world view and mindset.