Siddhartha

One of those books that makes u think, but not in a way that blows your mind. It’s the kind of story that explores the whole “search for meaning” vibe, following Siddharta’s journey to find enlightenment. But if you’re into deep, spiritual stuff and don’t mind a slower pace, it’s worth a read. 🤍

not explaining, but my favorite book. i felt seen and not alone whith siddharta, i hold this book near to my heart

wrote 3+ essays and socratic seminared every sentence of the book. still dont know what its about

Siddartha is an allegory; a story wrapped around the ultimate premise 'Happiness for Dummies'. Okay, maybe not so simplistic, but it deals with the attainment and nature of happiness nonetheless. Premise Like its eponymous protagonist, the novel breaks down in several milestones or turning points that signal the development of the story and the growth of the character, marking the changes that have been wrought at each stage by happenstance or when the central character experiences, what they generally call, 'awakening.' Now, I have generally never been fond of that word; I look upon it with slightly cynical eyes that have been tainted long ago with the endless and ubiquitous New Age slogans and advertising jingles and other such byproducts of a spiritually-hungry-but-commercially-eager-to-cash-on-in-that-hunger culture that is so pervasive. For that reason, any word (especially buzzwords like awakening, purpose, destiny, soul - to name just a few, which must surely count as eternal favourites of those who specialise in Spiritual Quests) - any word bearing resemblance or connection to this New Age school of thought immediately props up red flags in my mind and, in response to that, my mind reciprocates my sentiments with a certain two-syllable word, namely, 'bullshit'. However, being as wary of this as I am, I am compelled to acknowledge that Siddhartha does not bear resemblance to those works proffering liberation and claiming to offer answers to your spiritual questions, at least, not in the typical sense. Hesse is not trying to sell you happiness in a How-To-Guide book form wrapped with a ribbon on top. Hesse isn't trying to sell you anything. What he is doing, though, is telling a story that puts this search, this spiritual hunger in an allegory form and examines the ways it comes about and the way it is resolved. A historical perspective We must put Siddhartha in its historical context to achieve a full perspective towards understanding this work. Herman Hesse was a German writer who, aside from being a pretty depressive kid and showing signs of serious depression even in childhood, was also the winner of Nobel Prize in literature. Bam. His parents had served as Christian missionaries in India. His exposure to the work of Arthur Schopenhauer, the German philosopher, renewed his interest in Indian culture. Hesse's work is informed with tenets of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy and, in the case of Siddartha, forms the setting of the story itself. Siddhartha is important because, published in 1922, way before the Beat movement and the hippiedom of the 60s, it was the first major work dealing in Eastern philosophy and thought written in the West. What many of the world now knows or may appreciate as Buddhist/Zen philosophy as a school of thought, Siddhartha put forward first. Hesse influenced the work of Jack Kerouac, and many others of the Beat Generation ahead of its time. It witnessed a resurgence in the counter-culture movements of the sixties. Underlying themes and meaning Hesse examines the search for spiritual fulfillment by having his characters embody aspects of personality and living that are unified, at various stages, by the protagonist Siddhartha himself. Govinda, like Siddhartha, is a seeker and then a Samana, or an ascetic who has renounced all wordly possesions. Kamala, the woman who instructs Siddhartha in the art of physical love and later, the mother of his child, embodies hedonism and sensuality. Kamaswami, the merchant, signifies the chief example of the 'child people', the materialist. The ferryman, Vasudeva, exemplifies quiet understanding and wisdom, just like the Gautama Buddha, the Sublime One. At various stages of his life, Siddhartha experiences the different aspects of these different personalities himself; he changes and grows as a person by becoming and unbecoming these traits. He is first and foremost, a seeker, who leaves his home to become a Samana, an ascetic giving up the ways of 'the child people'. He is then the lover, basking in the pleasures of love and sex. Then he is the trader, the materialist, consumed by worldly woes. He is the gambler, giver and taker of riches, losing sight of what he was before. Then he is the suicidal depressive who has reached a breaking point, a crises in life, realised that the journey he traced out until this point left him empty, hollow, broken. Then he is the awakened, the conscious, the curious. He is the child, born-again, who laughs to himself realising that he has been given a blank slate to begin anew. Siddhartha's journey is one of trial and error. He sets of with the one goal of escaping the 'ego', the vanquishing of the Self to achieve oneness with the universe, the Brahman. Yes, that sounds a bunch of wish-washy terms strung together to sound fancy. Admittedly, they wouldn't look that great on a resume, or seem out of place in daily conversation. 'What do you want to do with your life?' 'Oh, you know, just vanquish the Ego and stuff...and become one with the Universe. Can you pass the ice-cream, please?' Yup. However, let's give the Brahmin kid a break. To that end, he traces out a path that wavers between two extremes - two opposite paths that might lead to one destination that is his goal. The first path, of course, is the one of renouncing of the worldly wealth, the path of the Samanas, the path of hermits, one of patience and fasting and suffering and simple living to overcome material wants and excesses. The second path, which he embarks upon after meeting Kamala, is directly opposite to his former one: instead of giving up pleasures and possessions, it encourages him to pursue them with active desire. When it turns out that this was not working either, Siddhartha runs away from it too and reaches that dreaded dead-end, suicide. This breakdown is the culmination of another lesson, heralding a new beginning, a clean start. Siddhartha's mistakes are numerous and his teachers many; from his Samanas, the Buddha, Kamala, Kamaswami, the ferryman, and ultimately the river. His loves, much like his paths and means to the journey of fullfilment, know many faces and forms. At one point in the novel, Siddhartha asserts to Kamala: 'Maybe people like us cannot love,' and yet in time he himself comes to experience the many aspects of love. He knows platonic love, in relation to his best friend Govinda, brotherly love suffused with profound respect to Vasudeva, romantic love to Kamala, and familial, fatherly but unrequited love to his son. Conclusion Compared to other books tackling existential angst such as the likes of The Stranger by Albert Camus, or Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Siddhartha is different in that it is uplifting and somberly optimistic in tone. Hesse's prose is languid and well-written, with a tendency to become simple at times, but not simplistic. The central message of the novel is exemplified in the final meeting of Siddhartha and Govinda, fraught with the difficulty of Govinda seeking to glean understanding from the learning of Siddhartha, and Siddhartha asserting its impossibility: Wisdom cannot be taught. Knowledge can be passed on, but wisdom cannot. That Siddhartha spent his entire life trying to learn it himself, and made many mistakes along the way, but fumbling and falling, made it through, underlies this claim. Different people will interpret novel differently. Some might think it is trite, some might think it changed their life. It didn't change mine. But it gave me some nice things to think about.

This was constantly referred to me as something along the lines of That Buddhism Novel but really it's so Christian it's not even funny.

"Arama bir amaci olmak demektir.Bulmaksa,ozgur olmak,disa acik bulunmak,hicbir amaci olmamak" hayatin tamamina farkli bir pencereden bakan bir eser.

read this in a gasping gulp, so well written & so profound. here to learn & love, truly 🪻

An incredible read... love is the most important thing

LIFE CHANGING BOOK

Probably 1.5 stars, but we round up in my family. Just not my cup of tea.

The book is written in many long, but poetic, proses. It did take me some time to adjust to Hesse's writing style, but once I did, I couldn't help but love the way he wrote.

no words will ever be able to describe how beautiful and meaningful this book is

A short book that says so much. I will definitely read it again in a few years

Wederom een groots boek van Herman Hesse. Het boek is vrij kort maar met veel inhoud. Het is ook moeilijk om te beschrijven wat het boek nu zegt, want het zegt heel veel. Het boek gaat ook over jezelf vinden en loslaten van dingen. Dit is zeker een aanrader

Recommended by Greg.

This book is one of the books I feel like everyone should read. Similar to Pualo Coelho's Alchemist, but much more profound, this book artistically tells the story of enlightenment. The punchline here is that many lessons in life are only derived through experience, despite what you may have learned without experience. After reading, I feel as though that just may be the key to life, to live it.

Can't quite get over how good this is.

"But one cannot love words. Therefore teachings are if no use to me; they have no hardness, no softness, no colours, no corners, no smell, no taste - they have nothing but words. Perhaps that is what prevents you from finding peace, perhaps there are too many words [...]" Slightly ironic, given this is a book. But - not really ironic. A man's journey to nirvana and the spiritual insights he has along the way. And yet it isn't an epic; he doesn't travel very far, there aren't exciting extreme circumstances - rather it is a careful process of psychological and spiritual development. There're probably debates over its literary or intellectual merits, but what I can say, and why the quote isn't really ironic is: it touched something in me. Perhaps that's why I read, to experience, for a ephemeral moment, of something beyond "my reality". A thirst for finding that "something" that Siddhartha starts off with, and eventually finds; but that perhaps the rest of us will spend our lives, and may never achieve. This book leaves much for me to think about, but also the contradictory point that thinking is not the way to things; knowing not just with intellect (here I admit I am often tired of thinking; because my thoughts eat themselves up, a negation, exaggerate and yet extinguish everything)- "finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal." "And if time is not real, then the dividing line that seems to lie between the world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion [...] his future is already there [...] to leave [the world] as it is, to love it, and to be glad to belong to it."

An incredible piece of fiction about a man who sets out on a spiritual journey to discover a higher state of being. I originally left this book on hold, but after giving it another go, I couldn’t put it down. The last few chapters were thought-provoking, particularly when it touches on misaligned values and fate. It’s beautifully written, the poetic style and imagery made it easy to appreciate.

"The purpose and essential properties were not somewhere behind the things, they were in them, in everything."

Interesting read, but not life-changing. Spurred a bit of thought in the realm of what internal happiness is. It's clear that Hesse derived from his eastern endeavors, and then melded it with western philosophy (stoicism mostly), so this was a cool read to understand that landscape.

(audiobook)

Akhirnya bisa nyelesain buku ini setelah 2 bulan lebih belum sempat baca lagi. Well,, Siddhartha menceritakan perjalanan hidup Siddhartha muda mencari OM (Kesempurnaan : arti harfifah di bukunya). Dalam perjalanan awalnya dia di temani sahabatnya govindha mengikuti hidup para samana, akhirnya di tinggal govindha yang bertemu dengan Gauttama,, orang yang dianggap suci dan memiliki ajaran kebenaran,, diperjalanan selanjutnya siddhartha mengalami banyak pergolakan sampai dia mendapat arti OM itu sendiri. Ini merupakan karya Hermann Hesse pertama kali ku baca. Plot cerita yang lambat dan narasi yang panjang khas karya-karya classic pada umumnya kadang membuat baca agak lama dan bosen di tengah cerita. Cerita nya sendiri berisi banyak petuah dan filsafat hidup yang berapa banyak ada di kehidupan sehari-hari, namun masih sulit untuk dimengerti. Overall, aku kasih 3,5 bintang buat ceritanya yang sarat makna dan banyak kutipan-kutipanya membangun. Recomen buat pembaca yang mencari bacaan spritual yang tak berkesan menggurui (In my opinion). "Tak ada satu pun ajaran yang bisa diterima seseorang yang benar-benar mencari, yang benar-benar menemukan. Tetapi dia yang sudah menemukan ia bisa menyetujui ajaran apapun, semua jalan, semua tujuan".

Rtc