He then understood that the human mind is eternally alone, and thus must force through the journey of life alone. His first move as a solitary being is to embrace what he had previously denied -- the physical world. Through his meeting of Kamala, he begins to open himself up to allow the external world to influence him in ways he had never experienced before. He began to feel desirous of external wants, and thus breaks completely away from his previous understanding of spirituality. Yet despite understanding to his desire, he still shows restraint through controlling who he physically loves; thus showing how sex is important in exploring the physical external world.

He then connects himself further with the world of the average people, whom he would have never been able to connect with in his life in high society and the religious wanderers.

Yet this life also proves to bring Siddhartha distress. Eventually, he feels miserable and even considers committing suicide as he walks aimlessly through the country side. Neither succumbing to nor denying desires had brought him the inner peace he had been seeking....

As he is about to take his own life, he then sees an epiphany in the sacred word Om, and decides to continue on his quest with a new spiritual awakening. He then desires a life by the river and finds a relative peace until this is expounded with the birth of his son, which gives him a sense of duty within the world. This awakens a deep love, despite the boys defiance after Kamala's death. When at first Siddhartha forces his son to stay at the river, he then realizes what his own journey brought with him and thus he should allow his son to find his own path as well. Despite the loss as painful Siddhartha knows he must allow his son to find his own path. Through this, along with the awakening of his spiritual side, allows Siddhartha to find what he had been longing for so many years.
Herman Hess's tale proposes the idea that experience is the way to enlightenment, not necessarily blind scholarly devotion to another teacher. However, this enlightenment also proves to be within each one of us innately, despite our external quests for it. Through the experience of the self, this spiritual side is awakened and allowed to take hold.