How Did Siddhartha Achieve Enlightenment

As with the Brahmins, Siddhartha’s experience with the Samanas is not a fulfilling one. Hesse writes, “he slipped out of his Self in a thousand different forms. He was animal, carcass, stone, wood, water, and each time he reawakened” (Pg-15). Siddhartha learned a great deal from the Samanas, yet he was still unable to reach enlightenment. During his time with the Samanas, Siddhartha never saw or heard of a single person achieving enlightenment. Feeling disillusioned with the teachings of others, Siddhartha decided to leave the Samanas, and seek out the venerable Buddha. Siddhartha seeks out the Buddha and hears his sermon, but he ultimately decides to seek his own path to enlightenment. In leaving the Buddha, Siddhartha begins to follow a Buddhist path. Siddhartha says, “But there is one thing that this clear, worthy instruction does not contain; it does not contain the secret of what the Illustrious One himself experienced he alone among hundreds of thousands" (Pg-34). In this part of his journey, Siddhartha realizes that no one can teach him how to achieve enlightenment. As Gautama did before him, Siddhartha heads out to find his own path to enlightenment.

In the novel, Siddhartha, there is a concoction between teachings and his own experiences found in his concept of attaining wisdom. The Brahmins taught Siddhartha every religious aspect of their culture, including all the rituals, mantras, and holy books. Although he gained a significant amount of religious wisdom, he believed this was not enough to become enlightened. As a result, Siddhartha decides to join the Samanas with the goal to reach Nirvana. He became a wanderer with no possessions, in order to stop the body’s desires. From the samanas he learned how to fast and meditate, but this was not enough. Siddhartha says, “What I have learned so far among the samanas, O Govinda, I could have learned more quickly and more simply” (Hesse 16) . In other words, Siddhartha is explaining to Govinda that his transformation to a samana has had no significant effect in his life. He believes fasting and meditating is not his ultimate goal. As a result, Siddhartha leaves the samanas with Govinda to meet Gautama. Siddhartha believes he has not gained the true wisdom needed to reach the state of nirvana or enlightenment; he has only learned how to run away and suppress situation, without really being able to dispel of them.

Govinda is Siddhartha’s childhood friend , and his loyal companion. Siddhartha and Govinda devote their life on a quest for enlightenment and understanding. Govinda benefits from religious community and doctrine and seeks instruction from individuals who have achieved enlightenment. He relies on others to help him determine when he is on the right path. Ultimately Govinda attain enlightenment, showing us that enlightenment has different paths. The similarities between the two characters demonstrate that determination, persistence, and patience are necessary traits for achieving a spiritual awakening.

In order to find an answer he would look elsewhere. This is what led him to discover the samanas a group he felt he needed to follow. When denied by his father Siddhartha for the first time defied him and stood with his arms crossed in a battle of wills. Siddhartha joined the samanas with his demands met by his father but his journey proved fruitless “But though the paths led away from the ego, in the end they always led back to the ego. (Hesse 15).” Siddhartha wanted the knowledge of the samanas so he could find his own peace. This proved to be inadvertently ironic as the acquirement of knowledge through the samana teachings led to the flourishing of his ego which he was trying to rid himself of. This perpetuation was not helped by the vastness of knowledge he had as a Brahmin. This circular path led him nowhere and Siddhartha soon left the samanas to see a Buddha. The leader of the samanas did not want him to leave for he did not believe the rumors of the wise Buddha. Then “The old man went mute, his eyes glazed over, his will was paralyzed , his arms dangled: he was helpless, overpowered by Siddhartha’s enchantment (Hesse 22)”. The samanas wish to lose the self (ego) but their leader was selfish. Ironically he did not live up to his own doctrine of life. The leader's behavior reveals that Siddhartha would of never have found peace through them if the leader couldn’t. Siddhartha did not learn nirvana from

Siddhartha resolved that he would first go to the Samanas, ascetics that hard lives of self-denial of all comforts and pleasures in order to rid themselves of desire and those emotions that would hinder them on the journey to discovering Atman. Although joining these extremist monks was a high ambition, Siddhartha knew that he would succeed as a Samana, for he believed that the path of the ascetic would aid him on his journey of self-discovery. As his time with the Samanas lengthened, Siddhartha began to take pride in the knowledge that he was not blinded by the material world like everybody else was; he saw the world for what it truly was -- bitter lies and misery. Despite the fact that Siddhartha was becoming a great Samana, revered by even the older monks, he felt that what he had learned from them he could have learned on his own and in less time. Once again, he was not satisfied with the path that he was on and aspired to achieve even greater heights by parting from the Samanas. This ambition is plainly displayed when Siddhartha’s friend Govinda, who had become a Samana as well, proclaimed that Siddhartha would have learned to walk on water had he stayed with the ascetics. Siddhartha simply says that he would “let old

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse is a classic novel and gives some insight to those seeking enlightenment or even just the spiritual understanding of a Buddhist. Siddhartha, the protagonist of this novel, is in search for enlightenment and does so with his friend, Govinda. Along his path to enlightenment, he learns many important lessons varying from guidance and distractions to love. All of these played a key role in his pursuit of enlightenment.

Siddhartha, written by Herman Heese, is a book about a man’s journey to find his inner self beginning when he is young and ending when he is of old age. Siddhartha, while on this quest, searched for different mentors to teach him what they know, hoping to find truth and balance in and of the universe. At the end of the novel, Siddhartha reaches the enlightenment through many teachings.

He states how there is no reason “to seek another and better doctrine, for [he] know[s] there is none, but to leave all doctrines and all teachers and to reach [his] goal alone—or die” (Hesse 34). He knows he can reach his goal of attaining enlightenment and Nirvana only by focusing on himself. Finding enlightenment had nothing to deal with scriptures nor faith, and for this reason Siddhartha gets rid of all excess, useless knowledge about tradition and

As one matures through life he gets wiser and more knowledgeable. As Siddhartha’s long life journey was coming to a close, he too was becoming wiser and more knowledgeable. Siddhartha learned that if you search your whole life for wisdom you will miss many steps along the way. Siddhartha’s revelation between the difference of wisdom and knowledge corresponds with his other discovery which is the difference between finding and seeking. This has been the guide for his way of life. These differences he has discovered are the main reasons for having several teachers and a radical lifestyle. Furthermore, this revelation has made a distinct separation between Siddhartha and Govinda. It highlights the major difference between Govinda and Buddhism

Their journey as samanas and students in the stages of life leads them to questioning the path that they were following. Although, Siddhartha did learn and become much more knowledgeable after knowing the teachings from the samanas, he didn’t quite agree with their beliefs in retaining enlightenment. "[Siddhartha] is drawn by his goal, for he does not allow anything to enter his mind which opposes his goal. That is what Siddhartha learned from the Samanas. It is what fools call magic and what they think is caused by demons...there are no demons...everyone can reach his goal if he can think, wait, and fast." With this new found attitude Siddhartha sets out once again, with many new experiences and lessons waiting ahead for him.

Siddhartha loved his father and the teachings that were provided to him by his father, but he began to notice that the teachings were not bringing joy into his life at all. As the novel states, “He had begun to feel that the love of his father...would not always make him happy,...” (Hesse, 3), showed how Siddhartha searched for Enlightenment through his dad’s teachings but fell into realization that he could not find Enlightenment with his father. Therefore, he begged his father to let him leave the teachings and search elsewhere. His father agreed, and this restarted Siddhartha’s journey to search for Enlightenment by joining groups such as the Samana and the Buddha. Also, when Siddhartha decided to leave his father, he was also accompanied by his childhood friend, Govinda. Siddhartha decides to the leave the group that him and Govinda were a part and by doing this, he had to leave his childhood friend, Govinda,

No matter how enlightenment is reached, either through sufferings, teachings, or sacrifices, enlightenment has to be reached by one’s self. Enlightenment can’t be explained or taught which Siddhartha mentions to Gotama (29). And although enlightenment can’t be taught, the biggest factor for Siddhartha though to reach that state was teachings from Vasudeva and the river. But the realization that allowed him to get there was from himself. How Siddhartha reached enlightenment wasn’t instant, it took many years for him to attain that peace which Siddhartha’s many changes through life actually helped him. When Siddhartha says “and everything together, all the voices, … all the suffering, all the desire, everything good and evil, everything all together was the world” (106) it represents how you can’t truly comprehend what life is without going through highs and lows, poor and rich, and happy and sad, all that was necessary for enlightenment.

At the beginning of the story Siddhartha is learning the way of the Brahmin. Then he realizes that the Brahmins have never actually lived the life they teach. After that Siddhartha decides to start living the way the Brahmins have only talked about by becoming a Samana [wandering ascetics(a person who practices severe self-discipline and abstention) from ancient India]. By taking up this new teaching he gives all his possessions away to the poor until he is only wearing a loin cloth. The first thing he learned was life is pain and all were doomed to decay, so he rid himself of thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure, and sorrow.

Siddhartha and Govinda’s routes to discover enlightenment vary greatly. Siddhartha believes that one must find their own enlightenment. Siddhartha begins to believe that enlightenment cannot be taught early in his life. While he is still a boy living with his father, Siddhartha, “Had begun to suspect that his worthy father and his other teachers, the wise Brahmins, had already passed on to him the bulk and best of their wisdom…his intellect was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace” (5). Siddhartha doesn’t think that the teachers can teach him anything more and he is still a young boy. Later, Siddhartha leaves his friend to progress his life. After they meet the Gotama, Siddhartha says, “Always, oh

In the beginning of the novel, Siddhartha carries a self-absorbed attitude with him. This is shown first when referring to his father and the other Brahmins, “... the wise Brahmins, had already passed on to him the bulk and best of their wisdom, that they had already poured the sum total of their knowledge unto his (Siddhartha’s) waiting vessel”(5). Siddhartha believes that he can no longer learn from the Brahmins, and has grown discontent with staying with them, and even though he is involved in religion, he believes that the Brahmins, the people he is supposed to respect, have nothing left to teach him. Siddhartha’s attitude develops from self-centered to egotistical when he meets with the Buddha, Gotama, and says, “...so I think, O Illustrious One, that nobody fines salvations though teachings.