Review - Siddhartha _ Herman Hesse!

 

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What is our purpose in life? What is it that we are searching for? Why is it that people, whether rich or poor, handsome or ugly, tall or short, intellectual or shallow, cannot find peace within themselves? Why we do what we do? And so on, these questions never end until there is life in the universe. And we are all searching for answers; we are never completely satisfied with the answer we get. Like us, Siddhartha was also tormented by these questions haunting upon his mind day and night. He was Brahman and devote of the religious scriptures and rituals. He had a friend, Govinda, which he loved very much, and with whom he shared his dilemma over existence. But, neither his father, neither his teachers, nor those holy books could answer his questions to his satisfaction.

They had to forsake their family, and live among the samanas in the search of answers. Still, curios and unanswered, they heard about Gotama i.e. Buddha, and longed to see him, listed to his teachings. When they did, Govinda got intrigued and decided to live among the monks and learn from Buddha. However, Siddhartha learned that no one can teach him, he must find the answers himself.

……….Out of this moment, when the world melted away all around him, when he stood alone like a star in the sky, out of this moment of a cold and despair, Siddhartha emerged, more a self than before, more firmly concentrated. He felt: This had been the last tremor of the awakening, the last struggle of this birth. And it was not long until he walked again in long strides, started to proceed swiftly and impatiently, heading no longer for home, no longer to his father, no longer back……………

Then, he parted with his beloved friend, and reached a city. Where he lived the life of the riches; full of possessions, wealth, love, girls, music, wine, dance, and so on. He forgot himself and his purpose. After being fed up of the life of possession he’s living, he decided to walk away from all those possession. He was about to give his life – by drowning in the river – he was stopped by his inner voice. Then he lived with the ferryman, by the river. He learned a lot from river, the ferryman, about the simplicity of life, and the practice of thinking, loving, and being kind to everyone and everything. Here, he found his peace.

Siddhartha told a courtesan; his love, Kamala, that the skill he has learned in those years of being samana is that, he could think, he could wait, and he could fast. He had a point for it – as he explained eloquently later to a rich merchant about it. Life is a circle, it revolves around it: this hard truth, he realized while he was agonizing after his son had abandoned him. River had taught his a great deal of things, and the sound of the river is not a singular – it makes thousands of sounds, and we must listen to it, really listen to it to fully comprehend what it’s telling us.

….….Slowly blossomed, slowly ripened in Siddhartha the realization, the knowledge, what wisdom actually was, what the goal of his long search was. It was nothing but a readiness of the soul, the ability, a secret art, to think every moment, while living his life, the thought of oneness, to be able to feel and inhale the oneness. Slowly this blossomed in him, was shining back at him from Vasudeva's old, childlike face: harmony, knowledge of the eternal perfection of the world, smiling, oneness……

…….They listened. Softly sounded the river, singing in many voices. Siddhartha looked into the water, and images appeared to him in the moving water: his father appeared, lonely, mourning for his son; he himself appeared, lonely, he also being tied with the bondage of yearning to his distant son; his son appeared, lonely as well, the boy, greedily rushing along the burning course of his young wishes, each one heading for his goal, each one obsessed by the goal, each one suffering. The river sang with a voice of suffering, longingly it sang, longingly, it flowed towards its goal, lamentingly its voice sang……..

Perhaps, the wisdom can’t be taught, it must be realized by everyone on their own. Perhaps the self realization actually comes through the self – effort rather than the intellectual knowledge sharing. Nevertheless, the book written by Herman Hesse, talks a lot about the teaching of Buddha, and the cold fact that end of suffering will only come when one goes in finding oneself, realizing that we are one – the bird, the river, the stone, the women, the men, and everything – we are one.

A short, crisply written book is one of those books which has a power to change one’s life; if not at least rattle his thinking, shake his perspective. Hence, I highly recommend the book to anyone who is on the path in search of some meaning, some coherence of life we are leading. We don’t have to fully accept what it tells, us we can digest anything we like and throw away anything we don’t – because, the book has a lot to offer us, and nothing it offers harms us in any way.

Rating: 5/5