The Meaning Of Life In Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

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.

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.

With every experience, there is a lesson learned. In Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, as the main character Siddhartha journeys through life, each experience he encounters teaches him a different aspect of the value of life. Through his relationship with Kamala he learns the importance of love, when he tries to commit suicide he realizes the beauty of life, and when he lives with the ferryman he is taught to listen and ultimately achieve the end goal to life, Nirvana.

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

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.

“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.

Siddhartha is saying. that the practices of the samana are just a way of leaving life and its problems temporarily by making their bodies undergo these hardships. They eventually become numb with the pain and by doing so, the samana are able to leave their worries of the real world temporarily.

Although he was still very aware of his mistakes, Siddhartha was able to use them as lessons. He learned to never again participate or become involved in situations like gambling or getting caught in the “ordinary” way of life. He now had new experiences under his belt and became more wise because of that. According to the Samsara cycle you have to go through the death stage of an experience in order to go through the process of rebirth. This is what happened to Siddhartha. He had to hit rock bottom before he could go on with his journey.

Siddhartha follows his journey through various changes in pace and mood, as he enters the samsara as a samana or one without possessions, he believes he can “think, wait, and fast”(64). Yet Siddhartha’s previous upbringing as a Brahmin and a samana, he refuses to accept the materialistic wealth “his heart was not in business”. (69) Yet his need to please Kamala, his love teacher, he needs to earn money therefore, by earning money he pleases Kamala “It (business) was useful in order to bring him money for

The two boys leave the town to join the Samanas, a group of people who believe that spiritual enlightenment comes with the rejection of body and all other needs. The boys quickly realize that their ideas of the group are very different, Govinda loves the way that improvements that he has gained spiritually and morally. While Siddhartha has yet to reach the spiritual enlightenment that he wishes to achieve. “Siddhartha learned a great deal from the Samanas; he learned many ways of losing the Self. He traveled along the path of self-denial through pain, through voluntary suffering and conquering of pain, through hunger, thirst and fatigue. He traveled the way of self-denial through meditation, through the emptying of the mind through all images. Along these and other paths did he learn to travel. He lost his Self a thousand

Every teenager and young adult wants, at least to some degree, to go out and discover themselves. For some people, that means going on extreme adventures of self-discovery. Two such men that go on these types of adventures are Siddhartha and Chris McCandless (aka Alexander Supertramp). While one is fictional and one entirely real, their stories are both very eye opening when it comes to the topic of really living and finding yourself, and the way that these two men did so was both very different, yet very much alike. They are very similar in the way that nature had a very, very important role in both of their lives, as well as in the way that both of their emotional/mental states were not always one hundred percent stable. However, the fact that McCandless had a very inadequate upbringing and had a negative reaction to social life compared to urban life, while Siddhartha had a very commendable upbringing and did not hate society with a burning passion, really shows how different these two men really were.

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

The right ecstasy Siddhartha shares with Govinda is enlightenment, what Govinda had been seeking for on his whole journey. Govinda

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

The first Noble Truth “Life means suffering” is shown throughout Siddhartha’s journey to reach enlightenment. Siddhartha experiences suffering both physically and mentally. Siddhartha suffers physically when he decides to join the Samanas and must neglect his body in order to eliminate himself. He also experiences suffering when his son does not obey him, and he decides to leave the river and go to the city. For this first Noble Truth, I believe that life is suffering and change, and they are the only constants in life. Both happiness and sadness exist in the world, but you can’t have one and not the other and that’s the reality of human life because it isn’t perfect. Therefore, after reading of Siddhartha’s physical and mental struggles, I felt that I could really relate to them as a college freshman. There are so many temptations surrounding me including drinking and partying, but by partaking in these activities, I won’t feel happy permanently. I may feel happy temporarily and then I will likely suffer after when I have studying or I don’t feel well.