Enlightenment In Siddhartha

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse discusses the many paths of teaching that relate to Hinduism that Siddhartha followed on his journey through life and how each path helped him realize what he wanted with his life. Siddhartha follows many teachings or paths in which to reach his spiritual destination, which at the beginning was to reach Nirvana.

As with the Brahmins, Siddhartha’s experience with the Samanas is not a fulfilling one. Hesse writes, “he slipped out of his Self in a thousand different forms. He was animal, carcass, stone, wood, water, and each time he reawakened” (Pg-15). Siddhartha learned a great deal from the Samanas, yet he was still unable to reach enlightenment. During his time with the Samanas, Siddhartha never saw or heard of a single person achieving enlightenment. Feeling disillusioned with the teachings of others, Siddhartha decided to leave the Samanas, and seek out the venerable Buddha. Siddhartha seeks out the Buddha and hears his sermon, but he ultimately decides to seek his own path to enlightenment. In leaving the Buddha, Siddhartha begins to follow a Buddhist path. Siddhartha says, “But there is one thing that this clear, worthy instruction does not contain; it does not contain the secret of what the Illustrious One himself experienced he alone among hundreds of thousands" (Pg-34). In this part of his journey, Siddhartha realizes that no one can teach him how to achieve enlightenment. As Gautama did before him, Siddhartha heads out to find his own path to enlightenment.

Siddhartha becomes a rich man and soon loses his desire to search for Nirvana.  Along with Kamala, a man named Kamaswami influences Siddhartha.  He convinces Siddhartha that material possessions can "fill" his life.  Siddhartha takes the advice, and he begins to live his life for money.  He starts to gamble and to compromise his true beliefs for material pleasure. While living in the village, Siddhartha slips into a deep depression.  He feels that he has lost a part of his soul, and he attempts to commit suicide.  However, during this attempt, Siddhartha becomes reborn and longs once again for Nirvana (http://splavc.spjc.cc.fl.us/hooks/ew/SmithSidd.html).  At this time, Siddhartha meets a ferryman named Vasudeva.  Vasudeva fascinates Siddhartha the way Buddha did (Welch 71).  Vasudeva tells Siddhartha that the way to find inner peace is by listening to the river.  He also tells Siddhartha that the river will teach him two things; however, Siddhartha must learn these things on his own.  Siddhartha's relationship with the ferryman is the key for Siddhartha to reach Nirvana.  Eventually, Siddhartha takes the place of Vasudeva as ferryman, and he soon attains

From start to Finish, Siddhartha lived his life in search of one main facet; spiritual enlightenment. While in the process of his quest for enlightenment Siddhartha encountered the four noble truths of Buddhism. In the first part of the novel, Siddhartha is portrayed experiencing each of the noble truths.

Siddhartha comes to realize that he has discovered who he really is, he is Siddhartha. He knows himself more than any other teaching or religion. As he comes to self-realization, he comprehends he has been letting himself slip away, he has been running away from himself.

Siddhartha resolved that he would first go to the Samanas, ascetics that hard lives of self-denial of all comforts and pleasures in order to rid themselves of desire and those emotions that would hinder them on the journey to discovering Atman. Although joining these extremist monks was a high ambition, Siddhartha knew that he would succeed as a Samana, for he believed that the path of the ascetic would aid him on his journey of self-discovery. As his time with the Samanas lengthened, Siddhartha began to take pride in the knowledge that he was not blinded by the material world like everybody else was; he saw the world for what it truly was -- bitter lies and misery. Despite the fact that Siddhartha was becoming a great Samana, revered by even the older monks, he felt that what he had learned from them he could have learned on his own and in less time. Once again, he was not satisfied with the path that he was on and aspired to achieve even greater heights by parting from the Samanas. This ambition is plainly displayed when Siddhartha’s friend Govinda, who had become a Samana as well, proclaimed that Siddhartha would have learned to walk on water had he stayed with the ascetics. Siddhartha simply says that he would “let old

1. On page 7, Siddhartha‘s father said to him, “If you find salvation in the forest come and teach me salvation.” Siddhartha’s father has clearly not found true bliss as a Brahman. If he had already found true bliss and salvation as a Brahman, he would not have told Siddhartha to come back and teach him the salvation that Siddhartha had found.

In the departure phase of his journey, Siddhartha completely shuns both internal and external desires and lives a more than humble life. During Siddhartha’s conversation with his father about leaving home, Siddhartha’s father, “returned again after an hour and again after two hours, looked through the window and saw Siddhartha standing there in the moonlight, in the starlight, in the dark” (11). Hermann Hesse’s use of dark and light imagery, emphasizes Siddhartha’s stubbornness for his desire to go with the Samanas, whose religious ideals are severe self discipline and restraint of all indulgence; he is adamant about leaving home, as his father checked on him countlessly and Siddhartha stood there unwavering despite the many hours and change of daylight so he could earn his father’s blessing to live the lifestyle of an ascetic. Furthermore, Siddhartha travels to the Samanas with Govinda to destroy Self and the multitudinous amount of desire by quelling each desire and all together Self even though he knows it is a difficult goal to achieve, “Although Siddhartha fled from Self a thousand times, dwelt in nothing, dwelt in animal and stone, the return was inevitable” (16). The effect of Siddhartha’s multiple attempted destructions of Self as a consequence of living as a Samana are failure in his attempt to discover Nirvana. Moreover, Siddhartha travels with Govinda to the Buddha after leaving the

     Siddhartha’s dream throughout the entire novel consisted of finding his own self, and to be united within the great Gods. "One must find the source within one’s Self, one must possess it.” (Hesse, pg.5)

It seemed to him as if the river had something special to tell him, something which he did not know, something which still awaited him... The new Siddhartha a deep love for for this flowing water…” (Hesse 100). From this one can infer that if Siddhartha were to kill himself, he would not have a second chance to follow the path to find nirvana. He continued because of the sacred word

SIDDHARTHA’S QUEST The story of Siddhartha[ The e-text of Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse from: http://www.abacci.com. ] is marked by the theme of individuality, which comes to the fore starting with the very first chapter. He leaves his family and the group of Brahmans, for although they continually perform religious services to gods, they do it unquestioningly, blind to the fact that gods, too, are created by Atman who is “the only one”. In contrast Siddhartha, (even in his mistaken decisions in the future) actively uses his reasoning power: “Where can Atman be found other than in one’s innermost self?” To overcome the weakness of bodily senses, therefore, and to be close to his innermost self, he joins the ascetic Samanas; but, to his disappointment,

When he is a young boy, Siddhartha is troubled by the fact that he is not satisfied by the teachings of others and feels that the Brahmins have not reached enlightenment. Siddhartha is “not a source of joy for himself” and “dreams and restless thoughts came into his mind” (10). Therefore, Siddhartha decides that he must leave his father and his village to join in the Samanas, who starve themselves and beg for food because they believe the asceticism is the key to enlightenment. After realizing that the path of the Samanas is not right for him, Siddhartha goes to the river, and thus begins the next part of his journey.

In the beginning, Siddhartha was loved by many and was a learned man. However, Siddhartha realized “his vessel...was not full, his

When Siddhartha completes his time as a Samana he discovers and then tells everyone he encounters, “I can think, I can wait, I can fast” (Hesse 52). Knowing that these traits were important, but not enough to get him where he needed to go, Siddhartha turned to the life of an ascetic. “Siddhartha had learned how to transact business affairs, to exercise power over people, to amuse himself with women; he had learned to wear fine clothes, to command servants, to bathe in sweet-smelling waters…” (Hesse 61) and he still was unhappy. He was unhappy because he had only been able to conquer material things

During Samsara, it is concluding that Siddhartha has became very successful in the business world. Siddhartha later realizes in By the River that being successful in the real world means nothing. He contemplates suicide, but withholds himself and falls asleep beside the river. When Siddhartha awakes, he realizes that Govinda is next to him and begins to talk about what has happened in both of their lives. Then in The Ferryman, it is told that they go their separate ways once again and Siddhartha receives enlightenment finally from Vasudeva, the ferryman. Lastly, it is revealed in Govinda, that Govinda reunites with Siddhartha once more and Siddhartha tries to get Govinda to enlightenment.