Quoth Govinda: “You say so, O friend, and yet you know that Siddhartha is no driver of an ox­cart and a Samana is no drunk­ard. It’s true that a drinker numbs his senses, it’s true that he briefly es­capes and rests, but he’ll re­turn from the de­lu­sion, finds everything to be un­changed, has not be­come wiser, has gathered no en­light­en­ment—has not risen sev­eral steps.”
And Siddhartha spoke with a smile: “I do not know, I’ve never been a drunk­ard. But that I, Siddhartha, find only a short numb­ing of the senses in my ex­er­cises and med­it­a­tions and that I am just as far re­moved from wis­dom, from sal­va­tion, as a child in the mother’s womb, this I know, O Govinda, this I know.”