Siddhartha: Book Summary
Siddhartha is a philosophical fiction novel originally written in German by Hermann Hesse. Set in ancient India, it tells the story of a man named Siddhartha during the time of Gotama Buddha. About his journey in search of self-discovery, nirvana, the meaning of life.
Siddhartha, the son of a Brahmin, the handsome son, grows up learning, worshipping and meditating. The perfect Brahmin boy destined for greatness. Govinda, his beloved friend, his big fan, nurses the desire to be his follower. Siddhartha is everyone’s love and joy. But he, himself, is restless and discontent due to the thirst for wisdom. This feeling of not being able to fill his thirst for knowledge and enlightenment, meaning, to find Atman, takes him on a long and bumpy journey.
Because Siddhartha does not get what he is searching for, he decides to move out of his Brahmin life to join the Samanas — the ascetics who believe that a life of deprivation and wandering is the path to self-actualization. Govinda follows him.
After living with the Samanas, practicing their ways and becoming one of their best, he realizes that he is not going to reach his goal as a Samana. He and Govinda decide to leave the Samanas and embark on a journey to the enlightened teacher Gotama, the Buddha.
They are instantly mesmerized by Gotama’s words, teachings, manners and actions. Govinda decides to be his disciple. But Siddhartha decides not to, to Govinda’s pain and shock. Leaving Govinda in grief, he moves on. He understands that Gotama is truly enlightened, but also realizes that wisdom cannot be passed on by a teacher, and that he himself should learn it through his journey and personal experiences. This, he tells the enlightened Gotama in a direct conversation.
Alone and ready for vast personal experiences, he lets himself loose. He learns to enjoy and savour the beauties and joys of the world. The things he had abstained from. He feels it was foolish to have denied himself these joys, and his ways were wrong.
From that point begins his journey on a wild roller coaster. Starting with the ferryman who ferries him across a river, he travels through the forest to a city, and is enchanted by the beauty of Kamala, the courtesan. For her and her beauty, he transforms into a wealthy man, working as the partner of Kamaswami, a businessman.
Everything seems to be trivial to him except his love for Kamala. So many times, his superior knowledge leads him to look at other people’s lives and emotions with a mocking eye. The things that people do for silly things like money amuses him. He feels that they are all child-like and he cannot have those kinds of emotions. But with time and money, he loses the voice of his knowledge and becomes just like one of them. As years pass, lust, riches, luxury, servants, wine, meat and gambling become his ways. Till it all reaches a tipping point and he goes back to the forest and the river, leaving everything behind.
So disgusted he feels with what he had become, that he decides to fall into the river and end his life. The sound of ‘Om’ brings him back to sanity. Exhausted, he falls asleep by the river bank. His beloved friend from the past, Govinda, now a Budhist monk, finds him lying and guards him. Govinda does not recognize Siddhartha though. Once awake, Siddhartha thanks him and reveals his identity. Govinda, though delighted to see his friend, is confused by his rich clothes, finds it hard to trust in his words and moves on. Siddhartha falls in love with the beautiful river and stays at its banks at the ferryman’s hut.
The river and the ferryman Vasudeva bring a sense of calm to Siddhartha’s life and teach him many valuable lessons. His life is peaceful until Kamala re-enters, with her son, young Siddhartha. On her way to seeing Gotama, she is bitten by a snake. She is ferried to the hut by Vasudeva, where she reveals that the boy is Siddhartha’s son and dies.
Siddhartha falls in love with his son, who, pampered by his mother and spoiled by luxury, hates and despises Siddhartha. This culminates in the boy running away to the city after stealing their money. Despite Vasudeva’s advice to let him be, Siddhartha goes to the city hoping to find him. Vasudeva follows and brings him back.
As days and months pass, Siddhartha misses his son terribly. He envies people with children, who love them and are loved in return. Once, he decides to go back to the city in the hope of seeing his son. But, when he looks at his reflection on the surface of the river, he sees his father’s face. He realizes that his father went through the same pain and suffering for him and he must suffer the same fate.
Siddhartha reveals all his thoughts and fears to the now old Vasudeva. Vasudeva takes him to the river. Here, Siddhartha finds peace and enlightenment looking at and listening to the river. He understands the oneness of everything, of people, of lives, of emotions and that time is not real. He discovers that Vasudeva knew this already, he was enlightened, he was God. Vasudeva then leaves for the forest into oneness.
Years pass and the old Siddhartha ferries old Govinda, who stays for a night in the hut. He asks Siddhartha about what he has learnt. Siddhartha says it can’t be taught or put into words. It comes from calmness, compassion, and regarding all things as being of value.
Govinda confesses that he has still not found peace. Siddhartha tells him that wisdom cannot be passed on, and it only comes from within. He talks about the deception of time. All things are in the state of nirvana and this is not possible to understand because of the illusion of time. Govinda can’t grasp the meaning of those words, but is desperate for enlightenment. Siddhartha asks him to kiss his forehead. As he bends near Siddhartha’s face, Govinda sees a wide range of images, visions, ranging from animals to God, simultaneously, all entangled and one. He feels enchanted and at peace with the experience, the vision under the surface of the exalted Siddhartha’s face.
Throughout the book, Siddhartha goes through a see-saw of emotions and perspectives. At one point, giving up all worldly possessions seems right to him. Later, he comes to enjoy all its beauties and joys. At one point, the behaviour, greed of humans seems trivial and their goals meaningless and shallow. Later, it all makes sense to him and he too behaves in the same way.
The philosophies in the book are debatable. Most people will find some of them agreeable and some others not. When Siddhartha explains that a stone is always everything including Budha and that it is not obvious because of the illusion of time, Govinda does not find sense in it. In fact, Siddhartha himself says that it will sound silly and foolish, because one person’s wisdom sounds like foolishness to another person. But Govinda also sees that Siddhartha’s manners and actions align with Gotama’s who is known to have attained nirvana. Yet, their teachings are different including their opinion on love. This could also mean that enlightenment and nirvana are just illusions. And Siddhartha and Gotama found peace with their own versions of it. While others were still searching.
