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Siddhartha
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Siddhartha (1922) (edit title/settings)

by Hermann Hesse (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

A young Indian mystic, a contemporary of Buddha, sacrifices everything to search for the true meaning of life.

Summary edit see section history

It starts as Siddhartha, the son of a Brahmin, leaves his home to join the ascetics with his companion Govinda. The two set out in the search of enlightenment.

Siddhartha goes from asceticism, to a very worldly life as a trader with a lover, and back to asceticism as he attempts to... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

It starts as Siddhartha, the son of a Brahmin, leaves his home to join the ascetics with his companion Govinda. The two set out in the search of enlightenment.

Siddhartha goes from asceticism, to a very worldly life as a trader with a lover, and back to asceticism as he attempts to achieve this goal.

The story takes place in ancient India around the time of Gautama Buddha (likely between the fourth and seventh centuries BC.

Experience is the aggregate of conscious events experienced by a human in life – it connotes participation, learning and knowledge. Understanding is comprehension and internalization. In Hesse’s novel Siddhartha, experience is shown as the best way to approach understanding of reality and attain enlightenment – Hesse’s crafting of Siddhartha’s journey shows that understanding is attained not through scholastic, mind-dependent methods, nor through immersing oneself in the carnal pleasures of the world and the accompanying pain of samsara; however, it is the totality of these experiences that allow Siddhartha to attain understanding.

Thus, the individual events are meaningless when considered by themselves—Siddhartha’s stay with the samanas and his immersion in the worlds of love and business do not lead to nirvana, yet they cannot be considered distractions, for every action and event that is undertaken and happens to Siddhartha helps him to achieve understanding. The sum of these events is thus experience.

For example, Siddhartha’s passionate and pained love for his son is an experience that teaches him empathy; he is able to understand childlike people after this experience. Previously, though he was immersed in samsara, he could not comprehend childlike people’s motivations and lives. And while samsara clung to him and made him ill and sick of it, he was unable to understand the nature of samsara. Experience of samsara at this point did not lead to understanding; perhaps it even hindered him. In contrast to this, Siddhartha’s experience with his son allows him to love, something he has not managed to do before; once again, the love itself does not lead to understanding.

The novel ends with Siddhartha being a ferryman, learning from a river, and at long last at peace and capturing the essence of his journey:

Slower, he walked along in his thoughts and asked himself: “But what is this, what you have sought to learn from teachings and from teachers, and what they, who have taught you much, were still unable to teach you?” And he found: “It was the self, the purpose and essence of which I sought to learn. It was the self, I wanted to free myself from, which I sought to overcome. But I was not able to overcome it, could only deceive it, could only flee from it, only hide from it. Truly, no thing in this world has kept my thoughts thus busy, as this my very own self, this mystery of me being alive, of me being one and being separated and isolated from all others, of me being Siddhartha! And there is no thing in this world I know less about than about me, about Siddhartha!”

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Siddhartha: The protagonist who is searching for enlightenment.
  • Govinda: Siddhartha's best friend.
  • Kamala: Siddhartha's lover.
  • Samana: Wandering ascetics who maintain a very strict code of living and penance.
  • Kamaswami: The Merchant.
  • Vasudeva: A ferryman. Through silence and no dogma or teaching, just listening to the water he became Siddhartha's only teacher.
  • Brahman: Indian God.
  • Buddha: Gautam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.
  • Brahmin: Upper caste priestly person.
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “When someone is seeking, it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking...”
  • “To whom else should one sacrifice, to whom else was veneration due but to him, the Only One, Atman? And where was Atman to be found, where did he dwell, where did his eternal heart beat if not in one’s own self, in the innermost, in the indestructible essence that every person bore within? But where, where was this self, this innermost, this ultimate? It was not flesh and blood, it was not thinking or consciousness—that was what the wisest teach. But then where, where was it? To pierce there, to the self, to myself, to Atman—was there any other path worth seeking?”
    Siddharta
  • “Her clever red lips taught him a lot. Her tender, supple hand taught him a lot. In regard to love, he was still a boy, and he tended to plunge into pleasure blindly, endlessly, insatiably. So she thoroughly taught him that one cannot take pleasure without giving pleasure, and that every gesture, every caress, every touch, every glance, every last bit of the body has its secret, which brings happiness to the person who knows how to wake it.”
  • “She taught him that after a celebration of love the lovers should not part without admiring each other, without being conquered or having conquered, so that neither is bleak or glutted or has the bad feeling of having misused or been misused.”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

First Sentence edit see section history

SIDDHARTHA, the handsome son of the Brahmin, the young falcon, grew up together with his friend Govinda, the Brahmin's son, in the shadow of the house, in the sun of the riverbank near the boats, in the shadow of the sala forest, and in the shadow of the fig trees.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Siddhartha: Part one
1. The Brahmin's Son
2. With the Samanas
3. Gotama
4. Awakening

Part Two:
5. Kamala
6. Amongst the People
7. Samsara
8. By the River
9. The Ferryman
10. The Son
11. Om
12. Govinda

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 717 of 1271 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Jacob's Room, and followed by The Glimpses of the Moon.

This is book 137 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)

Preceded by Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and followed by Uglies.

This is book 153 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Golden Compass, and followed by Dear John.

This book is in Penguin Modern Classics. (edition-based publisher list)
This is book 157 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)

Preceded by Angela's Ashes, and followed by Lolita.

This is book 148 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)

Preceded by Angela's Ashes, and followed by The Namesake.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Hermann Hesse (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Sherab Chödzin
  2. Susan Bernofsky (Translator)
  3. Joachim Neugroschel (Translator)
  4. Amir Fereydoon Gorgani (Translator)
  5. Hilda Rosner (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: German
Publisher: S. Fischer Verlag
Country: Germany
Publication Date: 1922
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 152

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PT2617.E85 S52
  • Dewey: 833.912

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

Although a child could understand the story-line, it would be really hard to comprehend the underlying meaning. So wait till high school.

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