Siddhartha - By Hermann Hesse
(Siddhartha and Vasudeva - courtesy ChatGPT)
"Siddhartha" is a short novel by Hermann Hesse. It is the story of a Brahman Samana who leaves his home in search of knowledge and liberation. Being a Samana teaches him patience, discipline, and detachment, and transforms him into a humble seeker. While his ultimate search, along with his friend Govinda, is liberation, he learns early in the journey the value of self-experience over and above the teachings of Gurus.
“Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom,” Siddhartha says to his friend Govinda. How profound and insightful this single sentence is. The statement summarizes the entire story, yet the story is engaging and evokes emotions in ways Hermann Hesse may not have intended. When Siddhartha has the chance to meet the Buddha, the enlightened one, he humbly submits that he cannot follow the path of teachings, for he wants to experience for himself what Gautama experienced under the Bodhi tree. What happened in the hour of enlightenment is something that language can never articulate properly, for thoughts and words have their own limitations. Nevertheless, Siddhartha holds Buddha, the venerable one, in the highest regard. Siddhartha must choose his path, his own path.
It reminded me of my father’s friend, who once, with good intentions, asked me to pursue a particular career. I was 18 and hadn’t seen the world, was not capable of articulating insightful answers or engaging in the debate of lived life experience versus potential life experiments. But I told him, “Sir, while your intentions are good, and your words are insightful and come from experience, however noble they are, they are not mine. And how can I decide to invest the rest of my life based on something that is never my own?” I don’t know what made me answer that way. I also felt I was being disobedient and careless, and they were surprised by my audacity. The last 10 years have made me realize it was worth it.
While Siddhartha refuses teachings and doctrines, he nevertheless wants to learn the skills of love, trading, and being a rich merchant, among other things, by associating with Kamala, the courtesan, Kamaswami, the rich merchant, and Vasudeva, the ferryman. The Samana, who has left his family and identity to be a monk, learns from a courtesan how to love, how to present himself well, and how to earn money. Kamala is a great teacher, who herself aspires to follow the path of Buddha, the enlightened one.
By observing and working with the rich merchant Kamaswami, Siddhartha learns to trade and engage with the Samsara. Kamaswami envies that Siddhartha is untouched by the troubles of trade and the riches of the city. But with time, Siddhartha also gets entangled in the pleasures of Samsara and is deeply entrapped in money, wine, and courtesans.
How does Siddhartha, who had been like a lotus flower untouched by water, become immersed in it? It is the play of body and mind, the senses that take over the mind and obscure all wisdom. Unlike Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (where lower needs must be met before higher ones), Siddhartha starts at the top, chasing self-actualization before securing basic needs. This phase shows Siddhartha experimenting with fulfilling conventional needs, but ultimately, he finds them empty. The heartbreak of fatherhood teaches him compassion and makes him more human, bringing him closer to enlightenment than abstract philosophy ever did. The death of Kamala and the rejection of his son connect him with humanity and lead to a deeper understanding. He realises the pain he caused his own father and sees the foolishness in his attempts to care for his son.
You see, had he completely rejected basic needs, he might never have reached the ultimate understanding. They say one is not non-violent when one is incapable of violence and therefore does no violence, but one is non-violent when one is capable of violence but chooses otherwise. The ability to say no to sensual pleasures, not in the absence of options, but in the presence of multiple sources, is the control that one gains through experience and observation of the transitoriness of the world.
The constant changing yet seemingly unchanging nature is the true reality of the world. Observing the river, alone and with Vasudeva, Siddhartha sees the profound wisdom that comes without words and thoughts. Siddhartha learns to listen like the river, to observe life, and to understand that everything is interconnected. Time, suffering, joy, and peace all flow into one another, one leads to another, and ultimately nothing is permanent; the river keeps flowing, the water never being the same. You can never step into the same river twice.
The Siddhartha who was a young Samana, the rich merchant, the ferryman, and the one who realized ultimate wisdom were all different people in the same human body, interconnected yet different. The body, following its own nature and principles, continued to transform from a young man to an old, wrinkled one. The young Samana who adopted the path of extremes realized in old age that true peace lies in balance, not in denial or excess.
I recently met my father’s friend, who had advised me to take a job and live a comfortable life. Over the years, both of us have transformed into different people. So we all continue to change, yet seem to remain the same.
If you can spare some time, I highly recommend you read the book, "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse.
Until we meet again.
Dungar
