Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
Introduction
Siddhartha is a short novel by Herman Hesse. Under many times it has been referred to as a work of reverse missionary activity, which helps to bring a typically Eastern story fulfillment and spiritual searching to the West. The questions posed by the novel on the conventional resolutions are deceitful according to the episodic tale on how title characters progress in it. If we emphasize Siddhartha’s self-assertive individuality, there are Eastern and Western intellectual traditions that Hesse makes understandable in his novel. Generally, the novel is based on Buddha’s early life, and it was published in 1922 in German.
What inspired Hesse to write this novel was his visit to India before World War 1. The central theme of the novel revolves around self-realization by Siddhartha, who is a young Brahman. The novel helps to elaborate on the contradictions of what he has been brought to know and the reality. His ultimate goal is to search a serenity in which he will be able to overcome fear and have an equanimity experience with the contrast of life, which encompasses death and life, sorrow, and joy, among others. This paper is going to explore various concepts as used by the author in the novel.
Enlightenment
At the beginning of the novel, Siddhartha is highly praised with proper names, but he can be noted to have seeds of discontentment. He is not comfortable with the pleasure in his family, and he wants to see things happening by himself. He wants to look for truth and get enlightened about his life alone. The decision to leave his family and home is ultimately to understand the real knowledge of life. He is determined to leave his home, and from his perception of the world as full of painful experience, he starts to suffer thirst, hunger, and fatigue. The knowledge being noted in the novel is the knowledge for understanding the truth about life. His choice was driven by the realization that the liberation teaching of Buddha is from suffering and meant that his goal ha been achieved from the way he suffered. He understands that what he has already attained can’t in any way be taught but can only be experienced and found on one’s own. This is a point that makes the author lack the zeal in continuing writing about the characters’ voyage about the quest for enlightenment.
The other aspect that can lead us in understanding his quest for enlightenment is his desire to get salvation. He has a lot of thirst for knowledge about salvation, and he wants to experience it by himself. In as much as the character is on his journey to redemption, he is tied to the bondage of life. For instance, he is seeing falling in love with the beautiful woman Kamala, and at long last, they end up enjoying the fruits of love. On the same note, he follows the woman’s advice and goes ahead to a merchant to obtain money. On his journey, he meets many people who teach him about knowledge of life and death through experience. For instance, he is informed about the river and the flow of life by the ferryman. His understanding of love and its ability to form a spiritual foundation is experienced through his interaction with Kamala, the beautiful woman. His knowledge about materialism is also through his encounter with the Kamaswami businessman. All these teaching, which are from different people, expand his understanding of life.
The suffering of Siddhartha did not end and again with his encounter with Kamala. She had taught him about love and eventually ended having a son. This love for the son and his journey to truth are seen to pose challenges and suffering to him. His earlier simple life is interrupted by the responsibility of the child. The enlightenment that Siddhartha is looking for is unveiled by a series of events in his life. This event is the ones that refreshed and awakened and enlightened him about his life. It is from this state of tried life full of experiences that he heard a sound. As soon as he attempted to drown himself in the river, the holy ‘OM’ enlightened his soul. It is established from the author that the sound came from the character’s past experiences, which means that he would not be enlightened of the Brahman, of the indestructibleness life. By the fact that he came to his encounter with the river, he realized that his sins had allowed him to start again. In the way, he encountered Atman in himself through losing his power to think, indicated that his inner direction in truth gave him the green light towards peace.
Understanding and the experience of individuation
It has been established from the novel that; Siddhartha had to undergo all the stages of individuation to understand the true nature of life in the manner his attitudes change. His family’s religious teachings, which he got as a scholarship, made him know the ephemeral world nature of pleasures. He is made to understand that the instructions from ascetic life with too much knowledge and self-denial can’t offer him his goal of enlightenment.
His adventurous act in knowing the sense of pleasure life makes Siddhartha aware of the uselessness of sensuous experience to the fullest. The decision he made to cross the river helps him enjoy the living process and gives him a chance to unfold his hidden perspectives about his own life. This would help him to understand himself. Siddhartha’s experiences with the two sides of life drive him to another world of the river, which serves to unite both the worlds. This is the third phase of life in which he finds himself feeling ashamed of his misdeeds and deeds at the river bank. From the feeling of meaningless and despair, he finds himself with the decision to commit suicide.
In attempting suicide, he immediately hears OM’s call from the sense of his mind. This reveals that Siddhartha’s self is experienced in the form of OM at a moment when he is psychologically disturbed and weak. The sound of OM is noted to be appearing almost at the end and start of prayers done by Brahmin. Narsimhaiah claims that OM is always available to every human being but cannot be listened to with the ordinary year. He continues to say that it is the origin and end of everything.
After pronouncing the term OM, he falls deep asleep, and upon waking up, he recognizes a change in him. This is a principle of transition that is taking place in his body. Everything in Siddhartha happened in transitory. His recitation of the OM helped to understand the reality that his suffering and life are dependent on the superficial layers of consciousness and existence. He is made to realize that consciousness is not the sole mode of experience. It is because of this enlightenment that it gives him the power and zeal to realize his goal. The dead life of Siddhartha is rejuvenated by the holy word OM. The term makes him comprehend his comprehensive identity in his larger self. Siddhartha is now able to follow his inner voice while on the voyage to self-realization.
His interaction with the river patiently makes him understand the bond between all living things. He enters in the third realm, where Vasudeva helps him and directs him in enlightenment path. The quest for liberation is also realized by Siddhartha while at the river. From the perspective of a merchant persona, he can encounter his shadows of personality, which was concealed out of him. At the riverbank, he can understand that the world is a mixture of many things. The flowing water makes him reflect many things, for example, his son, parents, and Kamal. His vision in the river is mixed and entails a universal joy, universal suffering, and different voices. He can understand his individuation from the pool of different voices from various things of the universe. His son is noted to bring trouble to him after the death of his mother, Kamala. Siddhartha understands that to attain maturity in life; an individual must experience the above aspects of life.
Love
Siddhartha is a protagonist who is established to experience love in two ways. The first one can be termed as familial love. He leaves his family because of the quest for enlightenment. The relationship between and his family is platonic. He had many people around him who loved him very much. His presence would describe him as intelligent and a person who had good looks and acquainted with leadership skills for his community. Furthermore, he was also loved very much by Govinda. He loved his walk, sweet voice, and also his movements, which portrayed perfect decency. He demonstrates his love for Siddhartha by following him even though he would be taken for granted.
It is a character that he has because he just assumes everybody, even his fraternal family. He is established to have discontentment in himself and felt that this love for family and the closest friend would not bring him joy. It is his discontentment and quest to face the reality that alienates him from his family. Another type of love is that of Kamal, which is described as physical and also spiritual. The love is noted to be very much involving and involved intimacy and sensuousness. This love comes with many lessons as he is made to understand how to make money in exchange for real love. It is out of the spiritual enlightenment that he sees himself been superior to other people more so in matters of love. He also confirms to Kamala that he doesn’t even know how to love. He thinks that he has gone beyond their possessive love.
The author has also presented other forms of love in his novel. The first one is the material aspect of love, while the other is described as the desire to be alone. In the material love, he comes across Kamaswami, a merchant who taught how to do trade. Siddhartha discovers how to make money and do business. In the second love, he is seen following and acting as per the voice of Vasudeva and appears to choose to live near the river to hear the voice. All the above aspects had various lessons to Siddhartha. He establishes that the love for his immediate family is selfless. His love for Kamala shows his great desire for survival. On the other hand, his love of being lonely and urban life leads him to a turning point and communicates with nature. At the end of it all, he establishes that love is the most vital thing that a human being can have.
Friendship
Friendship can as well be viewed as a theme in the novel. This theme can be analyzed by looking at the influence of various characters towards Siddhartha in his mission to enlightenment. The first character to explore is the protagonist Siddhartha and the way he influenced his life. He has a strong relationship with his heart and listens to his self-better than any other person. In his quest for enlightenment, he sets out a mission to discover and learn the religious philosophies he comes across. He has a character that is unique among many in the novel of the desire of transcendent. This involves the spiritual knowledge and understanding of himself and the world. He is seen been devoted to himself even if the path is challenging.
Vasudeva is another character who has shown friendship with the protagonist. He is a ferryman who leads Siddhartha to his quest for the understanding of the universe and himself. He has been discovered to be a flawless man who has a spiritual heart to assist genuine seekers of enlightenment wisdom. He is knowledgeable of the river’s ways and helps Siddhartha understand how to listen to its secrets. It is only the relationship between Vasudeva that makes him achieve his enlightenment. Govinda is another friend to Siddhartha and, at other times, is his follower. He also devotes to look for understanding and enlightenment. He has a relationship with wanting to discover the ways of living but does it independently. He has a relationship with other people and teachers who are mutually assisting him to enlightenment. Kamala is a beautiful wife who has both physical and spiritual love and friendship to Siddhartha. She is critical to him again in teaching him about the city’s ways and leaves his ascetic life. She also confirms to Siddhartha to be the father of her son after her death.
Peace
Siddhartha is established to have performed all the religious practices and rituals to have peace and happiness, but he feels something is lacking. He believes that his father has already done what he could for the community, but they’re something extra that Siddhartha had to do. His quest for enlightenment is established to be the path that Siddhartha believes will bring peace to his mind. He discovers mechanisms of freeing himself out of the trapping of traditional life and moves on to find the truth in life.
He has self-denial, which leads to a lack of peace within himself. He encounters a lot until he comes to meet the river. At this time, he was sick in heart, and no peace existed at all and considering drowning himself in the river. He was depressed as Govinda confirms to have observed him having changed. Vasudeva plays a significant role in the life of Siddhartha by radiating an inner peace in him. He teaches him how to learn the spiritual enlightenment from the river out of his experience. It is this time he understands that sorrow and joy, life and death, and good and evil form the timeless unity. The river is significant to peace that Siddhartha experiences.
Fulfillment
This is the aspect of attaining a particular goal or promise. When the author identifies Buddha with Siddhartha, we are made to believe that the story he is telling is an original fiction work. It is critical to note that the name Siddhartha is just a name given to a person who came to be referred to as Buddha. The series of events in the life of the protagonists are parallel to what we understand about Buddha. It Is also essential to figure out whether the protagonist’s search for enlightenment is driven under the discontentment of his vision of where he is heading. There are also other encounters that Siddhartha fulfills not to lead him to happiness but intellectual prowess, for example, the teachings of Brahmins. The Samanas asceticism is established just to create stoic perseverance but fulfills nothing more than that. Through the movement of Siddhartha from extreme experiences, he finally fulfills his dream of peace and enlightenment.
Comfort
The novel’s central theme can be established to be the self-realization or identity by Siddhartha, a young Brahman. He has got no comfort due to the contradicting views and teachings about reality and what he has been taught already. It because of these contradictions which make him leave his perceived comfortable life to look for self-enlightenment. He is towards realizing the serenity, which will comfortably enable him to defeat the fear and face the contrasts of life, including life and death, as well as joy and sorrow.
The likes of ascetism, which comprise fasting, do not ascertain his satisfaction. Without finding his fulfillment, he eventually arrives at the river, where he finds comfort for his desires in life. He is taught how to listen to the river and achieves the wholeness of life. Initially, he had everything as a son from a family where he had all the privileges. His desires in life are contrary to what has been offered by his family and community to choose to move on and find that which comforts his heart. This is the quest for meaning and truth in a world that is full of suffering and sorrow. Therefore, it is right that we should seek to go for the reality of every moment, which can be perceived as alive, new, and always changing.
Safety
This is a virtue in a character that enables him or her to see the dangers in advance of a particular decision or situation. Siddhartha has the potential to realize that ascetism does not lead him to enlightenment since it has a dead end. He discovers the sense to follow his self in the quest for enlightenment. Given Kamala, we can find that she can understand the dangers in the city and save Siddhartha. She observes that the protagonist assumes the town with a perception of the Samanas, and his loss of spiritual detachment is very high.
Detaching himself from the material world would be the only way to secure his feelings and act as an impartial observer. This is not the expected safety because the more he learns the material world, the more he would become part of it. The protagonist dreams of the dead songbird, which signifies loss of safety in his current path, and therefore he had to change. This is the time he starts to experience an awakening from the dream. The river also gave him the experience to understand that the past is unnecessary, and he was safe to move on for his search. The encounter with the ferryman shows his safety in the path towards enlightenment. The ferryman has a greater understanding of what Siddhartha is after and offers him a good time to stay with him.
Wellbeing
Siddhartha is established to wander in the forest, hoping that he is nearing his end. He has not arrived at his wellness yet. He longs for something to happen, which he predicts to be death by examining his experiences at the river before the sound of OM. He realizes how close to end he was and visualizes the holiness he had forgotten. He falls asleep, and after waking up, he feels the beauty of the river. This is a king of wellbeing and comfort that the antagonist feels. He starts to visualize how the word OM had come and saved him. He realizes that he has gone through many twists of life and learned a lot.
Conclusion
The novel revolves around the search for self-realization by Siddhartha, who is a young brahman. The author has used his art to keep the reader in the close follow-up of Siddhartha’s search for meaning and truth in a world full of suffering and sorrow. Considering the two teachings of Buddha and Hinduism teaching, Siddhartha can explore the tensions between the doctrines and the promptings of his soul.