Siddhartha
In the novel Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, the main character experiences many ups and downs while on his journey to inner peace. First, he decides to live his life as a Samana. Later he abandons that life in return for a life as a rich man. In the end he decides that his rich life is unsatisfying and he begins the simple life of a ferryman. Herman Hesse writes about what it takes to obtain inner peace through his character Siddhartha.
Siddhartha decides the way to obtain peace is by living like a Samana.
" 'Tomorrow at daybreak I will begin the life of the Samanas.' " (Pg 10) Siddhartha rids his life of all the things he doesn't need. Then he learns how to control his inner self, but is unable to gain inner
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Later Siddhartha learns that none of these things are helping him gain peace and he no longer wants to be a Samana.
Then Siddhartha begins to gamble and he gets rich. He becomes addicted to gambling and begins to put his life in danger. When he gambles, he gains many of the finer things in life like a garden, rich clothes and a lot of money. The only problem is, none of these things make him happy. He tries to buy his happiness, but it doesn't work. "He staked high and unsparingly, hating himself, mocking himself. He won thousands, he threw thousands away, lost money . . . " (Pg 29) Siddhartha even considers suicide because he is very unhappy. These problems are making him very old and sick. Siddhartha decides this life also doesn't make him happy so he decides to move on.
This time around Siddhartha decides to become a ferryman. He gets rid of all the things that he doesn't need just like when he was becoming a Samana. He learns a lot through his new friend Vasudeva. Vasudeva guides Siddhartha and tells him to listen to what the river tells him. " 'The River has taught me to listen; you will learn from it too.' " (Pg 105) Siddhartha learns a lot from listening to the river. Then Kamala comes back to him with his new son, but then Kamala dies because she gets bitten by a snake. This brings down Siddhartha's morale. When he runs into Govinda after many years of not seeing him, he becomes happy
Their journey as samanas and students in the stages of life leads them to questioning the path that they were following. Although, Siddhartha did learn and become much more knowledgeable after knowing the teachings from the samanas, he didn’t quite agree with their beliefs in retaining enlightenment. "[Siddhartha] is drawn by his goal, for he does not allow anything to enter his mind which opposes his goal. That is what Siddhartha learned from the Samanas. It is what fools call magic and what they think is caused by demons...there are no demons...everyone can reach his goal if he can think, wait, and fast." With this new found attitude Siddhartha sets out once again, with many new experiences and lessons waiting ahead for him.
Siddhartha parted from Govinda to leave behind the childhood memories and with that decision, he felt at peace, he had renounced friendship too. He was no longer going to leave himself behind and begin his day with the thinking of Atman. Atman is the subject of knowledge (Smart 203). His identity was plain and simple, Siddhartha, the awakened one, not his father’s son and not a Brahmin. (Hesse 38).
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
There have been many teachers in one’s lifetime, some more important than others. These teachers and instructors affect different people in different ways, and lessons are learned that are important to prepare for real life situations. In the book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, a young Brahmin named Siddhartha is not content with his current spiritual self. Siddhartha is directed to spiritual enlightenment and Nirvana because of his guidance and teaching from Kamala, Kamaswami, and Vasudeva.
But, Siddhartha would always have a part of the Samana in him, and this is relayed by Kamala when she says, “She was not surprised when she learned that Siddhartha had disappeared […] Was he not a Samana, without a home, a pilgrim? She had felt it more than ever at their last meeting, and in the midst of her pain
“What could I say to you that would be of value except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.” (113) Siddhartha, a book written by Hermann Hesse, is about this young boy who throughout the book grows to an old man who, throughout his journey, seeks to attain enlightenment. He comes from a Brahmin family and later decides to become a samana and lives in the woods with his “shadow”,Govinda. Siddhartha is distracted with obstacles throughout his life and ultimately finds a way to conquer them.
Here Siddhartha is demonstrating that he is the only one that matters when it comes to thoughts of who he is, and only his opinion of himself matters. Acceptance and the ability to look into himself will lead to that road of happiness. Also, to be minimalistic as to if there is nothing to be needed then it is not. This is something many people should take into consideration as to stay away from being materialistic.
When you hit rock bottom, it becomes extremely difficult to get back up. The moment you do get up though, your life changes forever. In the novel Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, the protagonist Siddhartha finds himself contemplating suicide after experiencing a series of unfortunate events. He has to dig deep to get himself out of the situation and afterwards he gets caught within deep, remorseful thoughts. He finds a river and is reminded of what his original goal was and because he was on a journey to enlightenment he was able to be reminded of the spiritual muttering “om.” This moment is pivotal because Siddhartha is finally able to find his Self again.
During this period-the realm of the mind, Siddhartha actively sets about letting the self die, escaping his Self.
Siddhartha, written by Herman Hesse is a thought provoking narrative that tells the story of Siddhartha’s life as he journeys in search of answers. His pursuit leads him many places and introduces him to many people until after many long years he has a revelation by a river. In the early days of his quest he and Govinda, his childhood friend, go to the woods in which they become samanas who practice self deprivation. These samanas are men who deprive themselves from every possible delight as well as necessities. They live in utmost poverty and by subjecting themselves to these things they strive to strip themselves of their egos. Over the course of five days, I practice a mild form of self deprivation
Then, Kamala becomes his lover and began to teach him about the world of love. Siddhartha after years became a rich man that enjoys life in the material world. Soon he enters a cycle of unhappiness and tries to escape it. Siddhartha had a dream about Kamala’s songbird dead in its cage, and then he makes a resolve and leaves it all behind without notifying anyone. He went to the river to seek the ferryman, who name is Vasudeva and ask to learn from the river to obtain enlightenment. Kamala appears one day with her son to cross but she was bitten by a snake. She tells Siddhartha about his son before she died. Siddhartha tries to make it up to him but his son ran away in the morning. After that, he continues learning from the river and finally achieves enlightenment, this is the climax. The resolution is that Siddhartha meet Govinda and helps him obtain enlightenment. Flashback shows how the event or situation happens. Foreshadowing predicts what happen later in the novel. Both in the beginning and end, Siddhartha and Govinda are together. In the beginning, they don’t have enlightenment while in the
Siddhartha is a young man on a long quest in search of the ultimate answer to the enigma of a man's role on this earth. Through his travels, he finds love, friendship, pain, and identity. He finds the true meaning behind them the hard way, but that is the best way to learn them.
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 by Hermann Hesse is about a man's journey to find inner peace and happiness. He first decides to try to seek peace by following the Samanas, holy men. Then he seeks happiness through material things and pleasures of the body. After this path fails to provide him with the peace for which he searches, he follows Buddha but soon realizes that Buddha's teaching will not lead him to his goal. Siddhartha finally finds peace when Vasudeva, the ferryman, teaches him to listen to the river.