Siddhartha Quotes

Siddhartha and Govinda’s routes to discover enlightenment vary greatly. Siddhartha believes that one must find their own enlightenment. Siddhartha begins to believe that enlightenment cannot be taught early in his life. While he is still a boy living with his father, Siddhartha, “Had begun to suspect that his worthy father and his other teachers, the wise Brahmins, had already passed on to him the bulk and best of their wisdom…his intellect was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace” (5). Siddhartha doesn’t think that the teachers can teach him anything more and he is still a young boy. Later, Siddhartha leaves his friend to progress his life. After they meet the Gotama, Siddhartha says, “Always, oh

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).

After leaving Gautama, Siddhartha decides to experience the world of ordinary living. Siddhartha sees a beautiful young courtesan, Kamala, and begs her to teach him the art of love. She tells Siddhartha that he

Siddhartha was a proactive, self-sufficient young man. He quickly absorbed the Brahmin’s doctrine and decided he wanted to learn even more; he had to become a Samana. Of course, in order to make such a step he needed his father’s permission. When he first requested, his father rejected the idea and said

Siddhartha is first taught by Kamala, who is a famous courtesan in the town he came across, and he immediately thinks she is a beautiful woman. She is not easy though, and makes Siddhartha become wealthier, and makes him wear better clothes. Siddhartha goes on to approach Kamala because she is beautiful and believes she can show him the art of physical love, “I have come to tell you this and to thank you because you are so beautiful. And if it does not displease you, Kamala, I would like to ask you to be my friend and teacher. . .” (Hesse 44).

This change in character, though it is more dominant towards the end of the novel, is also seen in the second part of Siddhartha’s journey when he meets Kamala for the first time. It is very surprising when Siddhartha asks Kamala to be his teacher, especially after he relays to Govinda that he was not satisfied with the teachings of the Samanas. But even so, Siddhartha follows through and is a good student, “He visited the beautiful Kamala regularly, learned the art of love in which, more than anything else, giving and taking become one. He talked to her, learned from her, gave her advice, received advice. She understood him better than Govinda had once done. She was more like him” (Hesse 58). This shows that Siddhartha has made a much deeper connection with Kamala than he has anyone before. These connections then show us that Siddhartha has learned about attachment, something that he did not have as a Samana.

Siddhartha begins to deviate from his holy walk in life when he meets Kamala. In Siddhartha Kamala is a pleasure woman who owns a beautiful grove outside of a larger town. “Siddhartha saw how beautiful she was

Siddhartha & Govinda left to join the Samanas to set themselves free for enlightenment. The Samanas put out the idea that you must eliminate “the self” so one can achieve spiritual fulfillment one day.

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

These two quotes express how important the river is to Siddhartha, and to the whole book. The river is the tipping point, it brings Siddhartha out of his previous mindset of many, suicide and hopelessness and awakens him to a stage of curiosity, and is back on his path to

He then decided for him to answers his questions he must change his lifestyle from a luxurious one to a more humble one just as a samana. However he did not find nirvana and on the contrary he discovered how the oldest samana was sixty and had not yet reached Nirvana. This led him to move again and look for Buddha. When he found Buddha he then again found fault in this teachings. He explained how Buddha reached nirvana through his own experiences. He, nonetheless, persisted he couldn’t reach nirvana through teaching causing him to yet again move. Ending him to leave his loyal friend, Govinda, yet taking Buddhas adive of not beng too clever. All through the story Siddhartha depicts how through the changes he decided to make took him a step closer to Nirvana and to answer his questions of what the good life is. He does through the willingness to changing his teachers and surrounding to learn

one side to the other. He too has learnt a lot from the river. He

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

With Vasudeva, Siddhartha begins spiritually as a child. By destroying his old Self, Siddhartha is no longer hindered by "too much knowledge...too much doing and striving." (99) Thus, as a child Siddhartha begins to hear the river, and learn from it. In his education, the concept of time repeatedly arises. The river is seen as always flowing and changing, just as the world does. Siddhartha comes to understand that life is transitory, a cycle that is eternally repeating. Looking at the river, it is made of water, water from the rains. Before that, the water was in the clouds, the air, evaporated from the river. Travelling from sky to earth, brook to river, the river is always present. The only change is how it is reflected in the ephemeral life. The continual flow from one to another illustrates the principle of timelessness.