Siddhartha's Spiritual Journey Essay examples

The four stages of life choices, which favor both renunciation and world upholding, are 1) student 2) householder 3) forest hermit and 4) wandering ascetic (Ghose, 1/18/01). In the book, Siddhartha participated in each of these lifestyles for a significant amount of time. Unlike his father, Siddhartha did not want to be a Brahmin. He thought his calling

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.

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.

Subsequently, he ventures out into the world and explores his senses in a desperate attempt to investigate his spiritual needs. He greets love openly and rests satisfied by the splendors his lover Kamalah. Siddhartha's contentment is terminated as he is presented with a controversial dream. He dreams that Kamala's beloved bird is found dead: " The bird, which usually sang in the morning, became mute and as this surprised him, he went up to the cage and looked inside/ The little bird was dead" (82). Siddhartha's freedom from religion and promiscuous behaviors cease along with the birds death, " he felt horror and death in his heart/ He sat and felt himself dying, withering, finishing" (82). He recognizes the materialistic things including love itself, were insufficient: "Then Siddhartha knew that the game was finished, that he could play it no longer...he smiled wearily, shook his head and said goodbye to all these things" (84).  Siddhartha's perpetual search for security and internal happiness ventures on.

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.

Suddenly “a small black snake, which had bitten her had crawled away”. (91) The snake was poisonous and Kamala died moments later leaving Siddhartha’s son in his own care. Siddhartha’s son was accustomed to riches, commanding servants, and other worldly desires. He did not want to live in a hut with two old banana eaters. Little Siddhartha wanted to return to the city from which he came. Siddhartha was troubled by this and asked his dear friend Vasudeva for guidance. One important thing Vasudeva told him was “Water will go to water, youth to youth”. (97) One day little Siddhartha was gone with the raft on the other side of the river. Siddhartha went after his son “And when he felt the wound smarting, he whispered the word Om” (103) Vasudeva came for Siddhartha and they both went back to their hut and “Neither spoke of what had happened”. (104)

        The stage of transcendence was when the inner voice that has guided Siddhartha thus far surges out and becomes boldly manifest in this river, which, far more than simply water, is the voice of life itself.  In the river, Siddhartha sees images come together, just as he hears voices come together.  Here, "He saw that the water continually flowed and flowed and yet it was always there, it was always the same and yet every moment it was new."  The river can be everywhere at the same time.  Only the present means anything to the river, not the past or the

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’s life was more of a journey, a journey filled with whimsical decisions and many questions; Siddhartha simply did as he pleased. After living this capricious lifestyle, he noticed that he felt empty inside. He wondered why he felt this way for a long time and decided to leave his current life. He abandoned all possessions and left his father in a quest to seek peace with the shramanas. Soon the cycle of the nature of Siddhartha was formed. Siddhartha would seek something and pursue that something blindly and by abandoning his previous lifestyle. It was not until he was an old man did he finally reach peace through the guidance of a river. Siddhartha’s life had changed immensely numerous amounts of times by the time he was old, but the change he experienced was not necessarily caused by of outside influences. He experienced change, but every change originated inside of him; of what he wanted to follow next. Of course, this still required Siddhartha to change to his new surroundings in every instance he obeyed new lifestyle. When he followed the shramanas, he left everything he had previously known and owned. When he left for the city, he completely changed his demeanor and became rich. Once again, when he lived by the river, he abandoned all possessions and former values. I believe that Siddhartha

His next destination is a city near the river, once inside he is seduced by an elegant courtesan, Kamala, but she refuses to have relations with him until he becomes a rich man. Kamala introduced Siddhartha to a Kamaswami, a wealthy businessman, who teaches him the ways of the business world. Siddhartha is quick to become successful and in return Kamala teaches him about love. Gradually Siddhartha falls under the spell of worldly possessions and loses the spiritual voice inside of him. He realizes that in order to achieve enlightenment he needs to leave his city life behind. Siddhartha then wanders into the countryside and once again meets the ferryman, Vasudeva. He asks is he can live beside Vasudeva and be taught the ways of the river. Kamala reappears in his life once more when she is crossing the river with her son, she is bitten by a snake and dies but is able to tell Siddartha that he is the father of her son. Siddhartha’s son stays with him for a while but then runs away because the simple life that Siddhartha leads is not enough for the son, who grew up surrounded by material goods. Siddhartha meditates for many days on the loss of his son, he finds comfort in the river and talks to Vasudeva about his revelations. After listening to the river together Siddhartha finds enlightenment and the ferryman claims he has been waiting for this moment then departs into the forest. The novel ends with Govinda

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.

When Siddhartha reaches the third level, he experiences totality and peace.   Siddhartha is the only hero in Hesse's novels to reach "the level of simultaneity and totality" (Ziolkowski 58) and actually maintain it at the end of the novel.

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.

Born as the Brahmins Son, Siddhartha was surrounded by the luxuries and privileges of someone that has a supreme role in the caste system. The concept of Siddhartha's life is represented by the river comes into motion as we see the river being implemented in the early stages of the book as Herman Hesse describes Siddhartha’s childhood. Different actions, his childhood revolved around the river that Siddhartha grew up in but most importantly he performs his rituals and his holy offerings. “ Suntanned

Siddhartha first starts out as a Brahmin, yet he feels a need for change. He then converts to a Samana, then shortly a follower of Gotama. After he denies learning from a teacher, he meets Kamala, who he wishes to learn from directly. From Kamala, he brings himself to learn from Kamaswami, which eventually fails as well. These unsuccessful attempts at happiness bring Siddhartha desolation and lethargy. Hesse illustrates Siddhartha at this time in his life, “His face was still wiser and more spiritual than others, but it seldom laughed and it took on, one after another, those features found so often in the faces of the rich, those features of discontent, sickliness, sulkiness, sluggishness, lovelessness. Slowly he was stricken with the spiritual illness of the rich” (69). Even though his heart was beating and he was undergoing pleasurable times, he did not feel like he was truly living. Rather than ending his life, Siddhartha takes one last effort to reach enlightenment from Vasudeva, the ferryman. At last, Siddhartha inadvertently finds his happiness from his long-lost son. Through his constant journey, Siddhartha does not reach enlightenment until he stops looking for it, which expresses that one cannot search and find happiness, but rather it needs to come naturally. On the other hand, Dorian Gray begins as an ideal man with great beauty and youth,