The theme of love distinguishes Hesse's Siddhartha from traditional Buddhism. In 1931, Hesse noted, "The fact that my Siddhartha emphasizes love over cognition, rejects dogma, and centers on the experience of unity, might suggest a return to Christianity or even a truly Protestant faith." The story primarily follows Siddhartha's quest to love the world in its intricacies so he can ultimately transcend them. In the city, Siddhartha indulges in pleasures with Kamala. He admits to her, "I am like you. You cannot love either, otherwise, how could you practice love as an art? Perhaps people like us cannot love." Eventually, Kamala leaves her life of indulgence to follow the Buddha’s teachings. During her spiritual journey, she reunites with Siddhartha. As she looks into his eyes before dying, she finds peace. Siddhartha grieves deeply for Kamala’s death, but his heart is not burdened with sorrow. He realizes that life is eternal and, in a larger sense, Kamala has transitioned into a new form that is present in every flower and breeze around him. Kamala also leaves Siddhartha with their son, providing him with someone new to love. "He felt indeed that this love, this blind love for his son, was a very human passion, that it was Samsara, a troubled spring of deep water. At the same time, he felt that it was not worthless, that it was necessary, that it came from his own nature. This emotion, this pain, these follies also had to be experienced." Through Kamala and their son, Siddhartha learns to embrace the world. He tells Govinda, "I learned through my body and soul that it was necessary for me to sin, that I needed lust, that I had to strive for property, and experience nausea and the depths of despair in order to learn not to resist them, in order to learn to love the world, and no longer compare it with some kind of desired imaginary world, some imaginary vision of perfection, but to leave it as it is, to love it and be glad to belong to it."