Siddhartha is a beautiful philosophical novel by Hermann
Hesse, a German Nobel Prize winner. It’s a story of a young Indian Brahmin’s
pursuit of enlightenment. The setting is the time period of Gautama Buddha. The
story is rich with philosophy, but the language is so lyrical and the narration
so vivid that it is difficult to separate the poetry and the deep philosophy.
One flows with the story as if flowing with a peaceful river.
The author seems to conclude that no amount of second-hand
knowledge and learning can give you the real sense of peace or happiness unless
it is enlivened by real first-hand experience.
Siddhartha, a Brahmin boy, is brought up in a devout and
learned family, but he is restless and full of doubt about the routine of
sacrifice, chanting, and meditation. So he leaves home and spends time with the
ascetics who believe in hard renunciation and numbing of all bodily senses.
But this route does not bring the salvation Siddhartha
seeks. So, he goes and meets with Gautama Buddha to hear his teachings. He realizes
that what he is seeking is the state Buddha has achieved for himself, but his
teaching does not satisfy him. So, he decides to live an ordinary earthly life
and try to discover his true “self”.
A long time passes in the world of birds and flowers,
sensuous pleasures and pains, and money and vices. Initially, Siddhartha
participates in ordinary people’s activities as if they were just games, and
views ordinary people as children and laughs at their childish intensity in
their material obsessions. He is able at will to return to the inward mental
sanctuary of Siddhartha the ascetic and not be bothered by anything for too
long. But sure enough he soon gets drawn into the whirlpool of Sansara and all
but forgets his real pursuit.
Eventually though, a bad dream awakens him and he returns to
the river of his childhood and youth utterly shaken and bewildered. He is saved
from suicidal thoughts, and then he becomes the assistant of a wise old
ferryman who has learnt the art of listening to the river and learning life’s
secrets.
Here, finally, Siddhartha achieves peace (although there is
a brief period of torment when he experiences what it is to be a father). He
realizes that life is like a river – timeless, present everywhere at the same
time, with no past and present, and when one conquers the unreality of time,
one is happy and at peace. He realizes that the wisdom is in accepting things
as they are.
