The Hero, who has survived up to this point, will be tested and face their worst fear in Approach to the Inmost Cave. The Hero may prepare to approach the "cave," or approach the "cave" with no preparations. Approach the Inmost Cave reveals that the stakes have been heightened, eventually leading to the Hero's Ordeal.
Siddhartha has remained in the Test of Material Desires for numerous years, bringing him back into Samsara, and undoing the progress he has made in his effort to achieve enlightenment. Over this time "a weariness settled on Siddhartha, slowly, everyday, a little thicker... every year a little heavier."1 His new life of material wealth and sexual fulfillment also began to "become old."1 At this point, he becomes more ignorant, forgetting all he learned in the forest with the Samanas and Govinda. With the aid of Kamaswami, he becomes addicted to money, and gambling. These addictions and desires leads him to become more like the ordinary people who he looked down upon. Eventually, this cycle of Samsara, and his return to the world of material, brings him to his Ordeal.
Siddhartha has forgotten all the lessons he learned with the Samanas, and Govinda, making him succumb to his lustful and material desires, his idea of Self, amd ignorance. He remains at stream-enterer or below.
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