Siddharthha Essays : The Spiritual Journey Of Sidddhartha

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.

When Siddhartha leaves and joins the Samanas we begin to understand the origin of where his suffering is coming from; which is all seen as the second noble truth. In his search for enlightenment Siddhartha hoped that by joining the samanas that he would be liberated from

Kamala soon becomes Siddhartha’s lover, and she helps him learn the ways of the city, leaving his ascetic life as a Samana behind. She then has a child that is from Siddhartha, whom Siddhartha had never met. Kamala does not have a very spiritual life, and Siddhartha influences her to seek a more spiritual lifestyle to better herself. She becomes tired of being a courtesan and realizes she can be a better person. The author brings Kamala back into the story when the news of Gotama’s advancement towards death breaks out into the villages; “One day, when very many people were making a pilgrimage to the dying Buddha, Kamala, once the most beautiful of the courtesans, was also on her way. She had long retired from her previous way of life, had presented her garden to Gotama’s monks, taking refuge in his teachings. . .” (Hesse 90). Kamala is one of the most important characters in the book because she is able to teach Siddhartha about physical love, and lead him to spiritual enlightenment.

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, written by Herman Heese, is a book about a man’s journey to find his inner self beginning when he is young and ending when he is of old age. Siddhartha, while on this quest, searched for different mentors to teach him what they know, hoping to find truth and balance in and of the universe. At the end of the novel, Siddhartha reaches the enlightenment through many teachings.

        Siddhartha reaches a town and is moved by the beauty of the courtesan Kamala as she enters her grove in a sedan.  This starts Siddhartha stage of the flesh.  He asks her to be his teacher in the arts of love, but Kamala laughs and says that she receives only those young men who approach her in fine clothes and shoes, with scent in their hair and money in their purses. When she learns that Siddhartha can read and write, she conducts him to the businessman Kamaswami, who will help him to acquire the tokens necessary for entrance into her garden of pleasure.  Kamala gives him a kiss in exchange for a good poem, and the amount of knowledge in that kiss amazes Siddhartha.

Siddhartha faces challenges in the city such as overcoming desires and maintaining peace of mind through the cruel city environment. During his tests, Siddhartha meets Kamala, who quickly becomes his friend, lover, and mentor. Kamala supports Siddhartha throughout his tests and trials that he faces while in the city.

In the novel Siddhartha, the main character's life is changed greatly through the journey he embarks and the teachers whom he encounters. Many of the people that Siddhartha meets throughout the novel teach him important lessons that shape him into the person that he becomes at the end of the novel. He has his father, a respected brahmin and strong figure in Siddhartha’s childhood who teaches him everything he knows about religious doctrine. He has Vasudeva, the ferryman he meets on his travels who teaches Siddhartha a great deal about soul searching and patience. He also has Kamala as a teacher, who taught him sex and that the material world isn’t made for siddhartha.

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

The first teacher Siddhartha meets along his journey is Kamala. She taught him one of the most important things: how to love and love back. Kamala put Siddhartha through a major, and difficult task: a relationship with a woman. Siddhartha was happy that Kamala taught him how to love and what love means. Siddhartha “visited the beautiful Kamala regularly, learned the art of love in … giving and taking become one” (71) Siddhartha constantly spoke to her, learned from her and received advice. She taught him how to love others, but also realized that she is the only woman he had ever loved. Kamala changed Siddhartha into a someone who appreciated pleasure and wealth: "He had learned to wear fine clothes,

Siddhartha joined the Samanas and assumed the life of an ascetic hoping to attain Nirvana. He believed that by denying his body, his soul would flourish. To become empty of all things- thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure, and sorrow- was the only way to become empty and let the Self die. “He ate only once a day and never cooked food. He fasted for fourteen days. He fasted for twenty-eight days. The flesh disappeared from his legs and cheeks. Strange dreams were reflected in his enlarged eyes. The nails grew long on his thin fingers and a dry, bristly beard appeared on his chin. His glance became icy when he encountered women; his lips curled with

In the novel, Siddhartha, there is a concoction between teachings and his own experiences found in his concept of attaining wisdom. The Brahmins taught Siddhartha every religious aspect of their culture, including all the rituals, mantras, and holy books. Although he gained a significant amount of religious wisdom, he believed this was not enough to become enlightened. As a result, Siddhartha decides to join the Samanas with the goal to reach Nirvana. He became a wanderer with no possessions, in order to stop the body’s desires. From the samanas he learned how to fast and meditate, but this was not enough. Siddhartha says, “What I have learned so far among the samanas, O Govinda, I could have learned more quickly and more simply” (Hesse 16) . In other words, Siddhartha is explaining to Govinda that his transformation to a samana has had no significant effect in his life. He believes fasting and meditating is not his ultimate goal. As a result, Siddhartha leaves the samanas with Govinda to meet Gautama. Siddhartha believes he has not gained the true wisdom needed to reach the state of nirvana or enlightenment; he has only learned how to run away and suppress situation, without really being able to dispel of them.

In the book Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse we are given the life of a young Brahmin named Siddhartha and his journey to enlightenment. Through trial and error, we discover that enlightenment does not need to be reached through the act of self denial but through love, patience, and listening. All these qualities are things that in today’s modern society, most of our lifestyles lack. Siddhartha’s valuable life lessons are some that we can learn from and apply to ourselves.