Siddhartha
Mikhail Fedyszyn
Siddhartha is a wonderously strange and alien tale by Hermann Hesse of a man’s search for enlightenment. Unlike our own world, where we are more concerned of our worldly possessions than thoughts and visions, our young Siddhartha, Govinda, and countless others take a pilgrimage from his homeland to find some sign of spiritual enlightenment. Without the guidance of his father or his friends, Siddhartha ventures further from his homeland, finding strange cultures and characters he wishes to experiment with in order to find what he wished for his entire life; spiritual enlightenment.
We first meet our hero, Siddhartha, in his youth, accompanied by his life long friend, Govinda. Technically insanity, Siddhartha realizes what fate may lie in store for him if he were to stay home and continue his spiritual practices with his father; nothing. He learned that he would simply be going in circles; he who sought to escape the circle. A group of gentlemen calling themselves the Samanas, all dressed in mere rags and groomed to the most miniscule senses of the word, arrive in Siddhartha’s town through their travels. Seeing these men, how they practice what they practice, how they carry themselves, now yearns to follow them and learn their methods of destroying one’s self. His father disagrees, and our hero rebels by deciding to not sleep, but to watch his father over the night until he were to change his mind. “I will die,” Siddhartha states. “I will grow tired, I will not fall asleep” and, “I will die.” Unshaken in his endeavors to prove to his father that this is what he truly wishes, he eventually gives and gives his son one final wish: “You will go into the forest and become a Samana. If you find bliss in the forest, come back and teach it to me. If you find disillusionment, come back, and we shall again offer sacrifices to the gods together.” Heeding this, he leaves his home for the last time, finding his dearest friend, Govinda, following close behind in their now joint effort in finding and ridding of their ultimate goal of one’s self.
Time passes, and our courageous heroes continue in their search for spiritual enlightenment. They grow weak but sturdy, complacent but ignorant, and peaceful, but still yearning for their spirits to finally be at rest within themselves. Govinda comes across the holiest of men, the model for how peaceful a man in this life-time can be: the Buddha, in the flesh, standing and preaching his teachings before her. Ecstatic, he presents his performance to his traveling partner, Siddhartha, in hope that he too may feel moved through his words. Indeed, he was, though not in the way he would expect. Siddhartha decides to, against a majority of the teachings of the Buddha, to go out on his own, to search for himself by himself, leaving Govinda at a monastery of brothers and sisters so that he may learn from the Buddha without interruption. Along his path, after many months of travel, he is forced to cross a river, a river significant enough to merit a follower of it’s quiet teachings, who shall be referred to as the Ferryman. “Yes,” stated the Ferryman, “it is a beautiful river. I love it above everything. I have often listened to it, gazed at it, and I have learned everything from it. One can learn much from a river.” After receiving the tip from the Ferryman about the river’s teachings, Siddhartha leaves, promising to return later with payment for his hospitality and services of venturing across the river. Our hero eventually comes across a bustling city of commerce, also meeting with a wonderfully lustful woman known as Kamilla. She offers him a kiss, and in this kiss, a commitment is forced upon our Siddhartha, a need for more of this kiss, and a need for more of Kamilla. She instructs him to learn the ways of the normal city person, to climb the social ladder through their methods of joy and excitement. Learning the trade of the merchant from Kamaswami, Siddhartha slowly falls into a vortex of despair, years passing before he pushes himself towards suicide in the very river he crossed to reach a sinful hellhole such as this.
However, a voice whispers to him. A voice that he had not heard in many, many years. The Om. The Om, the bow, that shoots the arrow known as the soul to the goal of Brahman, of which he aimed for his entire life. For years, he had been confused and scared, off the beaten path that had been laid for him by his ancestors and elders, and for that he had been loosely rewarded with the knowledge few other Brahman had. Knowledge of the corruption one must avoid, and the lust one must conquer in order to rid one’s self of distraction towards the ultimate goal of enlightenment. The Ferryman, who reveals himself as Vasudeva, takes him across the river, where hs is offered Siddhartha’s fine clothing in an attempt to become his apprentice, his assistant, his disciple. Vasudeva takes the former samana in for a night of discussion over why he has grown tired of his fine clothes and where he had ventured from.After a long discussion of Siddhartha’s story, of his past learnings and experiences, the ferryman accepts our hero’s request to stay at the river, to learn from it as he had. Years pass, and we near the end of Siddhartha’s journey. He meets, unbenounced to her, Govinda, at the very place she had stayed all of these years; the temple where the Buddha taught his lessons to those who dared practice the way he had. The former wealthy man lies across a bench, only to be awoken by the feeling of somebody close by: a sound Govinda, sleeping soundly near him. He awakes to explain that he had been watching over him as the monks did he, keeping him safe from the horrors of nightfall. He nods before striking up a conversation with his old friend, eventually revealing himself as Siddhartha, leading to an exchange in their stories. As time passes, our hero is heat broken and begins feeling extreme, actual human pain, in the form of several events. For one, his beloved Kammila is dead, ripping the only love of our hero from his already loose grip, where he then later learns that his son despises him, not only as an intellectual, but as a father. These events push our Siddhartha to the edge, though, through his training, he feels something he must experience in order to reach enlightenment: human pain, human suffering, true destruction of a single human being.
Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, in short, details the long and laborious journey of our hero, Siddhartha Guatama, as he strives for spiritual enlightenment and self worth. Praised by many as a true testament to the earthly struggle to find some method of true self discovery, the book extends it’s command of literary superiority to detail in a near perfect manner what trials a single man must endure to scratch the surface of the mystery of life. The author repeats words, further enhancing their meaning and creating an impression upon the reader (Or at least a reader who finds any interest in the matter) that leaves them with another understanding with more accompanying questions, all of which I can not detail in a single paragraph. In one final sentence, this is a great read for anyone willing to learn anything about finding one’s self, especially through the eyes of one who puts themselves through such trials.
Mikhail Fedyszyn
Siddhartha is a wonderously strange and alien tale by Hermann Hesse of a man’s search for enlightenment. Unlike our own world, where we are more concerned of our worldly possessions than thoughts and visions, our young Siddhartha, Govinda, and countless others take a pilgrimage from his homeland to find some sign of spiritual enlightenment. Without the guidance of his father or his friends, Siddhartha ventures further from his homeland, finding strange cultures and characters he wishes to experiment with in order to find what he wished for his entire life; spiritual enlightenment.
We first meet our hero, Siddhartha, in his youth, accompanied by his life long friend, Govinda. Technically insanity, Siddhartha realizes what fate may lie in store for him if he were to stay home and continue his spiritual practices with his father; nothing. He learned that he would simply be going in circles; he who sought to escape the circle. A group of gentlemen calling themselves the Samanas, all dressed in mere rags and groomed to the most miniscule senses of the word, arrive in Siddhartha’s town through their travels. Seeing these men, how they practice what they practice, how they carry themselves, now yearns to follow them and learn their methods of destroying one’s self. His father disagrees, and our hero rebels by deciding to not sleep, but to watch his father over the night until he were to change his mind. “I will die,” Siddhartha states. “I will grow tired, I will not fall asleep” and, “I will die.” Unshaken in his endeavors to prove to his father that this is what he truly wishes, he eventually gives and gives his son one final wish: “You will go into the forest and become a Samana. If you find bliss in the forest, come back and teach it to me. If you find disillusionment, come back, and we shall again offer sacrifices to the gods together.” Heeding this, he leaves his home for the last time, finding his dearest friend, Govinda, following close behind in their now joint effort in finding and ridding of their ultimate goal of one’s self.
Time passes, and our courageous heroes continue in their search for spiritual enlightenment. They grow weak but sturdy, complacent but ignorant, and peaceful, but still yearning for their spirits to finally be at rest within themselves. Govinda comes across the holiest of men, the model for how peaceful a man in this life-time can be: the Buddha, in the flesh, standing and preaching his teachings before her. Ecstatic, he presents his performance to his traveling partner, Siddhartha, in hope that he too may feel moved through his words. Indeed, he was, though not in the way he would expect. Siddhartha decides to, against a majority of the teachings of the Buddha, to go out on his own, to search for himself by himself, leaving Govinda at a monastery of brothers and sisters so that he may learn from the Buddha without interruption. Along his path, after many months of travel, he is forced to cross a river, a river significant enough to merit a follower of it’s quiet teachings, who shall be referred to as the Ferryman. “Yes,” stated the Ferryman, “it is a beautiful river. I love it above everything. I have often listened to it, gazed at it, and I have learned everything from it. One can learn much from a river.” After receiving the tip from the Ferryman about the river’s teachings, Siddhartha leaves, promising to return later with payment for his hospitality and services of venturing across the river. Our hero eventually comes across a bustling city of commerce, also meeting with a wonderfully lustful woman known as Kamilla. She offers him a kiss, and in this kiss, a commitment is forced upon our Siddhartha, a need for more of this kiss, and a need for more of Kamilla. She instructs him to learn the ways of the normal city person, to climb the social ladder through their methods of joy and excitement. Learning the trade of the merchant from Kamaswami, Siddhartha slowly falls into a vortex of despair, years passing before he pushes himself towards suicide in the very river he crossed to reach a sinful hellhole such as this.
However, a voice whispers to him. A voice that he had not heard in many, many years. The Om. The Om, the bow, that shoots the arrow known as the soul to the goal of Brahman, of which he aimed for his entire life. For years, he had been confused and scared, off the beaten path that had been laid for him by his ancestors and elders, and for that he had been loosely rewarded with the knowledge few other Brahman had. Knowledge of the corruption one must avoid, and the lust one must conquer in order to rid one’s self of distraction towards the ultimate goal of enlightenment. The Ferryman, who reveals himself as Vasudeva, takes him across the river, where hs is offered Siddhartha’s fine clothing in an attempt to become his apprentice, his assistant, his disciple. Vasudeva takes the former samana in for a night of discussion over why he has grown tired of his fine clothes and where he had ventured from.After a long discussion of Siddhartha’s story, of his past learnings and experiences, the ferryman accepts our hero’s request to stay at the river, to learn from it as he had. Years pass, and we near the end of Siddhartha’s journey. He meets, unbenounced to her, Govinda, at the very place she had stayed all of these years; the temple where the Buddha taught his lessons to those who dared practice the way he had. The former wealthy man lies across a bench, only to be awoken by the feeling of somebody close by: a sound Govinda, sleeping soundly near him. He awakes to explain that he had been watching over him as the monks did he, keeping him safe from the horrors of nightfall. He nods before striking up a conversation with his old friend, eventually revealing himself as Siddhartha, leading to an exchange in their stories. As time passes, our hero is heat broken and begins feeling extreme, actual human pain, in the form of several events. For one, his beloved Kammila is dead, ripping the only love of our hero from his already loose grip, where he then later learns that his son despises him, not only as an intellectual, but as a father. These events push our Siddhartha to the edge, though, through his training, he feels something he must experience in order to reach enlightenment: human pain, human suffering, true destruction of a single human being.
Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, in short, details the long and laborious journey of our hero, Siddhartha Guatama, as he strives for spiritual enlightenment and self worth. Praised by many as a true testament to the earthly struggle to find some method of true self discovery, the book extends it’s command of literary superiority to detail in a near perfect manner what trials a single man must endure to scratch the surface of the mystery of life. The author repeats words, further enhancing their meaning and creating an impression upon the reader (Or at least a reader who finds any interest in the matter) that leaves them with another understanding with more accompanying questions, all of which I can not detail in a single paragraph. In one final sentence, this is a great read for anyone willing to learn anything about finding one’s self, especially through the eyes of one who puts themselves through such trials.