It is strange to think that one of the most famous books of Eastern philosophy of our time would be written by a middle aged German man, but it was. Siddhartha, a novel about a young Indian man, was written by Herman Hesse and first published in 1922. Since then, it has been translated from Hesse’s natural German into several languages, including English. The novel tells the story of Siddhartha, a young Brahmin’s son on a quest to simultaneously find and lose his Self, a concept expounded on in great detail during the course of the novel.
Siddhartha begins his journey in an attempt to loose the Self, as he believes that loosing the Self is the path to spiritual enlightenment. Eventually, he realizes that the Self is essential to being, and without it, one cannot truly be. Siddhartha went through many intense personal experiences that culminate in his eventual spiritual realization. These experiences range from traveling with the Samanas of the forest to living with a wise, yet uneducated, hermit by the river. As he travels from place to place, becoming a different person each time, each person and place he encounters teaches him something new about life. By traveling with the Samanas of the forest, he learns to lose the Self through denial of wordly possessions. After he leaves the Samanas, he becomes a merchant and looses his Self again, this time through an excess of worldly possessions. But only when he lives a life of moderation, learning lessons from not only the ferryman, Vasudeva, but the river itself, can he reach the spiritual path he has been seeking all along.
Critical Article
Hans Berman, in his literary criticism, “Herman Hesse and the ‘Bhagavad-Gita,’ “ argues that Siddhartha follows the teachings of the traditional Hindu text, the Bhagavad-Gita. Hesse was not a fan of many Western ideas, and developed an attraction for Eastern idealism and philosophy. Siddhartha, the most out of any of his works, shows this affinity. The tale of Siddhartha not only paralells the life of the Buddha himself, it also exemplifies the teachings of many traditional Hindu works, especially the Bhagavad-Gita. The Gita teaches that “the vital force of life is devotion or love... It is the easiest road to salvation, to encounter the personal God... [Action] per se is not condemned, provided that work is done in the right frame of mind.” He recounts the story of Siddhartha’s journeys, concluding in the end that Siddhartha’s eventual “peace and self-realization in a quiet, contemplative existance” follows the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita. The Bhagavad-Gita also teaches that, “[Human] action, to be effective, has to be free from all traces of duality (notions of good and evil)...” Siddhartha, in all of his experiences leading up to his life by the river, fails to do this. He fails to seperate himself from notions of good and evil, rather, he assigns these notions to his life. He decides that what he is doing is either good or evil, and these decisions blind him to the real purpose of his actions.
When he was living as a Samana of the forest, he was so caught up in self-denial and abstract contemplation on life, that he failed to pay any attention to those other than himself. Once he deemed this path as unworthy of his following, he took a path in the opposite direction, one of greed and self-indulgence. Though he was happy in the beginning, he once again became blinded to the plight of others. His greed was such that he eventually overdosed himself on it, and was suddenly aware of how disgusting and miserable his existance had become. He fled to the river, which had comforted him once before. Upon reaching the river, he was able to reach a happy medium, finally abandoning his notions of good and evil, and attainging peace of mind.
Style
Siddhartha has been compared to the Bible, not only in its message, but in its stylistic simplicity. Hesse does not make use of complex sentences, but prefers to keep them short, though not choppy. The simplicity can be deceptive, though, and it does not always carry over to the meaning behind the sentences. They are often descriptive and stylized, though simple in their structure. He makes use of both the first and third person in his dialogue, and characters will often alternate between the two in the span of a few lines. For example, when Siddhartha is speaking to Govinda about his decision to join the Samanas, he say, “Tomorrow morning, my friend, Siddhartha is going to join the Samanas. He is going to become a Samana.” However, once Govinda has replied to this statement, he switches back, and says, “Tomorrow at daybreak I will begin the life of the Samanas. Let us not discuss it again.”
Hesse also makes use of repetition and paralellism, as demonstrated in the scene where Siddhartha confronts his father about his choice to join the Samanas.
“ ‘Will you go on standing and waiting until it is day, noon, evening?’
‘I will stand and wait.’
‘You will grow tired, Siddhartha.’
‘I will grow tired.’
‘You will fall asleep, Siddhartha.’
‘I will not fall asleep.’
‘You will die, Siddhartha.’
‘I will die.’
‘And would you rather die than obey your father?’
‘Siddhartha has always obeyed his father.’ “
This sort of iteration of words and ideas occurs throughout the book. Many important scenes invoke repetition, perhaps to pound the themes of the novel more soundly into the reader’s head.
Any English analysis of Siddhartha cannot be entirely fair, as it is not being read in the original German. Obviously, it is up to the translator to decide what elements of style in the text. Generally, the translation will try and stay as close to the original work as possible, but even so, some elements of style cannot be judged completely.
Theme
Every move that Siddhartha makes during the course of the novel is related to the Self, and his search for identity. This theme that runs throughout the novel becomes obvious within the first few pages, as Siddhartha begins to “feel the seeds of discontent within him.” He doubts the values and lessons on which he has been raised. He ponders the teachings of the Brahmins and their holy books, and finds himself continually dissapointed by their concepts of the world, the Self, and how to reach enlightenment. When the Samanas of the forest pass through his town, Siddhartha decides to begin his journey by, much to his father’s dissapointment, joining them. They teach him many things, like how to think, to wait, and to fast. These techiniques to loose the Self do not, as he had thought they would, help him attain Nirvana, and Siddhartha once again begins to doubt the teachings of those around him. When the Samanas enter the town where Gotama, the Buddha, the Illustrious One dwells, and they hear him preach, Siddhartha realizes that the path he has been following has not been one that will help him achieve his goal. However, the path of the Buddha is not one that will help him either, nor is any other religious path, so he is left with only one option - to go out into the world on his own.
Siddhartha comes to a town, where he decides to settle. During his time there, he metamorphoses into a separate being altogether. In reality, he is obtaining the same end result as he had during his time with the Samanas, the loss of the Self. He is no closer to his goal of attaining Nirvana and finding his own true identity than he was when he first left his home. He leads a life of pleasure and indulgence, never realizing what is happening to him, until one day, he is struck by a vision of a small songbird in a golden cage, dead. It occurs to him the the songbird of his vision is representative of the Self, and that the life he has been leading is slowly killing the Self. Once Siddhartha accepts that self-denial and self-indulgence, though they are opposites, both destroy the Self, and neither has brought him Nirvana and enlightenment, he is able to leave the life that has destroyed his Self. He goes to the river that he had passed on his way to the town that he has just left. There, he accepts that the Self is a part of procuring enlightenment, and learns much from the wise boatman who lives there, as well as the river itself. His travels and the people he met along the way taught him many things, but the simple life he eventually settles into teach him the most. All of Siddhartha’s exploits have led up to this point, the final realization of the Self. When he listens “attentively to this river, to this song of a thousand voices; when he did not bind his soul to any one particular voice and absorb it in his Self, but heard them all, the whole, the unity,” he is finally able to find what had been missing in his life, and “the great song of a thousand voices [consisting] of one word: Om - perfection.”
Conclusion
Siddhartha is a novel that can be viewed on many levels. It can be a simple tale of a young Indian man searching for his identity, or it can be a deeper study of traditional Indian philosophy. Siddhartha’s experiences serve to teach a lesson to, not only Siddhartha and those around him, but also to the reader. Hesse presents those reading with the same choices that are presented to Siddhartha. As the reader waits anxiously to see what actions Siddhartha will take, they are making their own decisions along with him. Hesse’s use of simple sentence structure helps to achieve this goal of pulling the reader into the Siddhartha’s reality. As the novel progresses, Siddhartha moves from place to place, Siddhartha grows as a person, and becomes closer to reaching his goals. Though his journey from the discontented Brahmin’s son to the spiritually fufilled man by the river is not an easy one, it is a well-written, poignant, and captivating one.