The novel Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse follows the life of a man who goes on a spiritual journey that begins in his youth and ends in old age. Siddhartha grows up the son of a Brahmin, and he masters all the doctrine and rituals of his Hindu religion at a young age. Even though he practices Om so perfectly, he feels something is missing and not connecting. He leaves home to find true enlightenment – Nirvana – which he feels that the religious leaders of his village cannot teach him. He follows many teachers, including the Samanas, Gautama the Buddha and his lover Kamala, but he is no closer to what he seeks. In the moment of his greatest despair when he attempts to drown himself in the river, Siddhartha is reconnected with Om, but this time he fully comprehends the significance of the holy word. By the end of his long journey, Siddhartha realizes through listening to the river that no one could have ever truly taught him the wisdom of enlightenment; it had to come from within himself.
Siddhartha’s initial discontent begins when he questions whether there was anything else to learn from his father and teachers, “they had already poured the sum total into his waiting vessel; and the vessel was not full, his intellect was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace, his heart was not still”(5). Siddhartha knew the holy books, debated and discussed the sacred teachings, practiced meditation, made ritual sacrifices, performed his daily ablutions in the river, and knew how to silently say the Om and to be at one with the universe. But this was not enough; it brought him no closer to Nirvana.
When young Siddhartha decides to join a group of Samanas that passed through his village, his father is not supportive at first. He does not want his son to go, but Siddhartha waits stubbornly until his father reluctantly gives his consent. “You will go, go to the forest and be a Samana. If you find bliss in the forest, come and teach it to me. If you find disappointment, return to me…” (11). In fact, Siddhartha will never return home, and his father loses his son the same way Siddhartha will someday lose his own son.
Siddhartha begins his spiritual quest accompanied by his faithful friend, Govinda. They live the life of self-denial, without possessions, suffering hunger and pain in an effort to let the Self die. Eventually Siddhartha finds he is no closer to enlightenment and tells his friend, “I am suffering from thirst, Govinda, and upon this long Samana Path I have found nothing to slake it” (17). Govinda tries to assure Siddhartha that they are learning a great deal from the Samanas, and he must not give up. But Siddhartha has become bitter “What is meditation? What is leaving the body? What is fasting?...It is all an escape from Self… a brief numbing of the pain and senselessness of life” (15).
The two friends eventually leave the Samanas to seek out a great man they have heard about, Gautama the Buddha, who is said to have attained Nirvana. Siddhartha is curious about the Buddha, and is deeply impressed when he sees him, but he has little interest in his teachings. He has heard most of the Buddha’s doctrine through other sources, and finds it to be flawed. He knows that they are good, wholesome teachings, but there is nothing in them that will tell the follower how exactly to reach enlightenment. Siddhartha realizes that there is nothing he can learn from the Buddha, or any other religious teacher, to help him find salvation. He leaves Govinda behind, and sets out on his own path.
On his own for the first time – without the guidance of the Brahmin, the Samanas, the Buddha, or his dear friend Govinda – Siddhartha experiences elation. He rejects all teachings and decides to follow his heart. He begins a new life as if he has been re-born. But he also feels a great loneliness since he will not be returning home as his father, “I am no longer a priest…What would I do at home with my father, study? Sacrifice?...All these things are now over; they no longer lie along my path” (36).
Siddhartha goes to the city where he embraces the Self and wants to experience the physical pleasures that he had previously denied himself. He meets Kamala, the beautiful courtesan, who becomes his lover and friend. He becomes a successful businessman under the tutorage of the merchant Kamaswami. Over the years, Siddhartha attains wealth and some measure of satisfaction, however, he has a nagging feeling at times that he is not following the right path. After a dream about a dead bird which he carelessly tossed in the road, Siddhartha comes to understand that he had likewise thrown away everything he valued in himself. He becomes very depressed and leaves the city without telling anyone goodbye, and without knowing Kamala is carrying his child.
Full of despair, Siddhartha returns to the river that will play such an important part in the rest of his life. He decides to commit suicide, but as he sinks into water he hears the holy word Om. Suddenly Siddhartha remembers the significance of this word, learned so long ago in his Brahmin training, and realizes that the Self is something that cannot be destroyed. He pronounces Om, the word he had mastered in his youth, but this time his whole being truly comprehends the oneness of the universe. He realizes what a horrible mistake he had almost made in trying to take his own life. He is now a step closer to enlightenment, even though this time he was not actively seeking it.
The most important thing Siddhartha understands through hearing the Om again is the folly of his own arrogance “…knowledge had hindered him, too many holy verses, too many rules for the sacrifices…He had been full of pride – always the cleverest, always the most eager, always a step ahead of all the others…” (83). It was Siddhartha’s pride in his own intellect that was keeping him from finding true wisdom. He reflects that he has made many mistakes on his journey, but knows that they were all worthwhile. He now feels a special connection to the river, “It seemed to him that the river had something special to say to him, something he did not yet know, something still awaiting him” (84).
Siddhartha is befriended by the ferryman, Vasudeva, who invites Siddhartha to work with him alongside the river. He settles into a contented existence until one day Kamala re-appears in his life. When she dies suddenly, leaving their child in his care, Siddhartha is at first pleased to learn that he has a son. He tries in vain to win over the spoiled and sullen boy, but young Siddhartha rejects his father and his simple life. The boy runs away, breaking old Siddhartha’s heart the way he now realizes he must have broken his own father’s when he turned his back on the Brahmin so many years ago.
It is through this pain that Siddhartha finally attains Nirvana. Wise old Vasudeva encourages him to listen to the river, and Siddhartha hears many voices, but the longer he listens, the more he hears. When he gives himself over totally to listening, not thinking, all the voices join together to become a single word: Om. His pain is healed and he experiences the true enlightenment he has sought for so long.
In this hour Siddhartha ceased to do battle with fate, ceased to suffer.
Upon his face blossomed the gaiety of knowledge that is no longer
opposed by any will, that knows perfection, that is in agreement with the
river of occurrences, with the current of life, full of empathy, full of fellow
feeling, given over to the current, part of the Oneness (114).
When Siddhartha is a very old man, he once again encounters his friend Govinda, who had remained a follower of the Buddha, but is still seeking wisdom. Siddhartha explains to him, “When a person seeks…it can easily happen that his eye sees only the thing he is seeking...Seeking means having a goal. Finding means being free, being open, having no goal” (117). At the end of his long spiritual journey, old Siddhartha is able to share with his friend that true wisdom is something that cannot be taught or learned through any doctrine. Om is just a word, Nirvana is just a word. Through a kiss, Siddhartha makes Govinda understand everything he is not able to tell him; Govinda finally reaches enlightenment.
Work Cited
Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha. 1922. New York: Random House, 2008. Print.
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