Search For The Right Way Of Life In Herman Hesse's Siddhartha

The book opens with the title character's decision to leave his traditional Hindu community and upbringing to seek Atman through asceticism. Siddhartha and his friend, Govinda, adopt the life of the Samanas. Siddhartha thinks, waits, and fasts. He struggles to free himself from The Self: the materialistic, mortal part of him. But he is anxious to attain a state of bliss. As a young Brahmin, he was always the strongest, the cleverest, the fastest. He expects to find the most efficient way to Atman, just as he excelled in every other area of his life. The ascetic life disappoints him.

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.

Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse, is the story of a young man searching for enlightenment. Through his journey, Siddhartha follows several Buddhist and Hindu paths to achieve his ultimate goal of enlightenment. Siddhartha follows the path of the Brahmin, the Samana, the materialistic gambler, and eventually the Buddhist middle path. Being the son of a Brahmin, Siddhartha leads a privileged life, but this isn’t enough for him. Siddhartha had an insatiable appetite for knowledge, and after a time, he leaves his father to find his own path to Nirvana. Although Siddhartha was raised in a strict Hindu society, his path to Nirvana was a combination of Buddhism, and Hinduism.

In the first chapter we can clearly see how siddhartha experiences the first noble truth, the truth of suffering. We start off with the author, Hesse portraying Siddhartha with a sort of ultimate experience having a loving father caring for him and is excelling greatly ahead of his peers spiritual practices, almost having a perfectly put together life. Yet,Siddhartha wanted something different, a change. A detour from his father’s past. He didn’t want to be another sheep in a large herd .Set on his journey for nirvana, Siddhartha felt that he was not progressing in his search for enlightenment as a young Brahmin; to him “the spirit was not content, the soul was not calm, the heart was not satisfied.” At this stage of the novel is where we are able to clearly connect the puzzle pieces and conclude that Siddhartha’s suffrage is the presence of dissatisfaction due to not yet reaching spiritual enlightenment.

At the beginning of the novel we see foreshadowing of Siddhartha’s constant tangle with conformity when it states “Govinda knew that he would not become an ordinary Brahmin… or just a stupid sheep amongst a large herd” (Hesse 4). This relates to the fact that Siddhartha doesn’t want to go through the motions of what the Brahmin’s are trying to teach. Rather he wants to find his self-fulfillment which he can only do by not conforming to ways that make him who he is not. The first instance of this is shown when Siddhartha confronts his father about leaving the house saying “With your permission, Father, I have come to tell you that I wish to leave your house tomorrow and join the ascetics.” (Hesse 10). At first his father rejects his son’s notion to leave, but after time has passed and Siddhartha remained where his father rejected him in

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.

“He looked around him as if seeing the world for the first time. The world was beautiful, strange and mysterious . . . and in the midst of it all, he, Siddhartha, the awakened one, on the way to himself” (Hesse 32). Siddhartha, written by Hermann Hesse in 1922, focuses on the awakening of the titular character, who is on a path to find himself. The novel focuses on his pursuit of attaining enlightenment through finding Nirvana, the balance between asceticism and hedonism. He experiences the extremes of both asceticism and hedonism in order to find balance between the two. Throughout Siddhartha’s spiritual journey, he comes across multiple teachers, including the Samanas, Kamala, Young Siddhartha, Vasudeva, and the river, who teach him

In the novel Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, the titular character, Siddhartha, goes on a journey to find his Self. Born as a Brahmin’s son, Siddhartha grows up knowing the teachings of Hinduism. He begins to “feel the seeds of discontent” (Hesse 5) and decides that he needs to leave home. He leaves everything he has ever known, including his family and friends, with the exception of his best friend, Govinda. He tries many paths to find his way

Gautama Buddha, a teacher of Buddhism, a religion based off the spiritual founding of the powerful, philosophical, wise Buddha, once said, “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” In Herman Hesse’s “Siddhartha”, the main character , Siddhartha, travels his own path, trying to find what his purpose in life is. Throughout the story, a common motif is shown of a personal journey to find inner peace and one’s true calling. To help explain this journey, Hesse incorporates many symbols such as: the ferryman, the river, and the path Siddhartha travels upon to find himself. Siddhartha goes through very different stages in his life, all in attempt to be a person of true meaning. Whether this be through

In Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, the main character Siddhartha tries to reach freedom of suffering, known as Nirvana. In order to do so, Siddhartha encounters a journey with following Samanas, a group of people who believe denying one’s self can lead to happiness. At one point, he also completely breaks away from Buddhism. He was trying to let his Atman be happy. “Atman means eternal self” (Flood 1). However, Siddhartha had focused either too much or too little on his Atman, making his path to Nirvana difficult.

In the beginning of the novel, Hesse artfully defines Siddhartha as the most intelligent, dashing young man of his village. The untouchable Siddhartha, however, is unsatisfied with his life. Instead, he is possessed by an unquenchable thirst for enlightenment. He rejects his father’s dreams, he rejects his teachers, and he even rejects the honorable teachings of Buddha because he honestly believes that they cannot help him in his journey to enlightenment.

Siddhartha is afraid that if he continues to stay and follow in his father’s religion, he will not find love, happiness, or spiritual satisfaction for himself. He believes that despite the love his parents have for him—despite the love Govinda has for him—he would not be satisfied. 4. In the novel, the wise men explain that the Self cannot be found in the body physically or mentally, but rather spiritually. The Self is found deep within oneself and is characterized to be “the whole world.”

In the world, there are different forms that water could take place. They could be referred to in different manners but it is undeniable that it is simply water.In similar fashion, all religions boil down to a simple truth as well, the meaning of life. Every religion puts a different spin on how, what, and why you should strive to attain this sense of life. In the book, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, the protagonist of the novel struggles to find meaning through his experiences. He explores different beliefs and philosophy until he is truly satisfied with who he is and what will become of him. Throughout the novel, there are principles of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity that influence the themes of the book.

From the onset of the novel, the character of Siddhartha seeks to leave his old traditions set by his family and society in search of his own path that will provide a good life. Upon leaving his home and family, he immediately defies the societal expectations set forth for him as he is expected to follow in his father’s path and to become a Brahmin. Instead of settling for this expected life, he searches for his own good life leaving his village likely disappointed. In joining the Samanas, Siddhartha and Govinda show their own personal growth and strength in finding their own life paths. However, through each phase in searching for his good life, he must decide to leave one society and its beliefs in trade for another.

The two readings that I have chosen to compare are “This is Water” and the character Siddhartha from the book Siddhartha. In modern day America we grow up watching the rich and famous dance around in their elaborately wealthy lifestyles and we are told that they are what it means to be happy. I can’t even begin to imagine how many times I have been told to “stay in school” or to get good grades to become a doctor or lawyer. Is it a coincidence that both of these jobs are very high paying? Happiness has been broken down into having a lot of money but after reading Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha and “This is Water” make this theory seem so fake and transparent. Pleasure and happiness from afar may seem to be the same but after reading both “This is Water” and the trails of Siddhartha in Herman Hesse’s book Siddhartha, it can be seen with a second closer look that instead of being interchangeable they are independent of each other and the difference between living the good life and searching for it.