“I thank you,” said Siddhartha, “I thank you and accept [the offer
to apprentice as a ferry boat operator]. I also thank you, Vasudeva, for listening so well. There are few people who know how to listen and I have not met anybody who can do so like you. I will also learn from you in this respect.”
“You will learn it,” said Vasudeva,” but not from me. The river has taught me to listen; you will learn from it, too. The river knows everything; one can learn everything from it. You have already learned from the river that it is good to strive downwards, to sink, to seek the depths. The rich and distinguished Siddhartha will become a rower; Siddhartha the learned Brahmin will become a ferryman. You have also learned this from the river. You will learn the other thing too.”
After a long pause, Siddhartha said: “What other thing, Vasudeva?”
Vasudeva rose. “It has grown late,” he said, “let us go to bed. I cannot tell you what the other thing is, my friend. You will find out, perhaps you already know. I am not a learned man; I do not know how to talk or
think. I only know how to listen and be devout; otherwise I have learned nothing. If I could talk and teach, I would perhaps be a teacher, but as it is I am only a ferryman and it is my task to take people across
the river. I have taken thousands of people across and to all of them my river has been nothing but a hindrance on their journey. They have
travelled for money and business, to weddings and on pilgrimages; the
river has been in their way and the ferryman was there to take them
quickly across the obstacle. However, amongst the thousands there have been a few, four or five, to whom the river was not an obstacle. They have heard its voice and listened to it, and the river has become holy to them, as it has to me. Let us now go to bed, Siddhartha.”
from Siddhartha
by Hermann Hesse