The Importance Of Religion In Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

     Siddhartha first tries to follow the path of the Brahmins.  His father thinks of him as "a prince among Brahmins" (Hesse 4).  Siddhartha washes "in the daily bath of atonement" (Hesse 5) so that his soul might be cleansed of guilt in order to merge with the all-perfect being (Archie 60).  He also offers sacrifices to the gods.  The Brahmins teach him that Atman created the world and that this great god can be found by men only when they sleep (Hesse 7).  Despite the love and

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.

At the beginning of the novel we see foreshadowing of Siddhartha’s constant tangle with conformity when it states “Govinda knew that he would not become an ordinary Brahmin… or just a stupid sheep amongst a large herd” (Hesse 4). This relates to the fact that Siddhartha doesn’t want to go through the motions of what the Brahmin’s are trying to teach. Rather he wants to find his self-fulfillment which he can only do by not conforming to ways that make him who he is not. The first instance of this is shown when Siddhartha confronts his father about leaving the house saying “With your permission, Father, I have come to tell you that I wish to leave your house tomorrow and join the ascetics.” (Hesse 10). At first his father rejects his son’s notion to leave, but after time has passed and Siddhartha remained where his father rejected him in

In the first chapter, Siddhartha had been born into a Hindus family of the ruling caste. He was surrounded by the ruling of Braham and priests. His dad, King Sudhodana, was very forceful into controlling what his future determined to be and longed for his son to carry on his legacy as being the ruler of

In the first chapter we can clearly see how siddhartha experiences the first noble truth, the truth of suffering. We start off with the author, Hesse portraying Siddhartha with a sort of ultimate experience having a loving father caring for him and is excelling greatly ahead of his peers spiritual practices, almost having a perfectly put together life. Yet,Siddhartha wanted something different, a change. A detour from his father’s past. He didn’t want to be another sheep in a large herd .Set on his journey for nirvana, Siddhartha felt that he was not progressing in his search for enlightenment as a young Brahmin; to him “the spirit was not content, the soul was not calm, the heart was not satisfied.” At this stage of the novel is where we are able to clearly connect the puzzle pieces and conclude that Siddhartha’s suffrage is the presence of dissatisfaction due to not yet reaching spiritual enlightenment.

In the book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, many similarities and differences are displayed between Hinduism and Buddhism. Siddhartha, a Buddhist, seeks to find find complete peace within himself, also known as enlightenment. Siddhartha's father who is a Brahmin, is opposed to his son leaving the family and finding his own path to the ultimate goal of Nirvana. Throughout the novel, Hinduism and Buddhism are the same because both religions seek complete peace, called enlightenment, and they both have an emphasis on meditation, however, Hinduism believes in the caste system while Buddhism does not.

Buddha was a Hindu prince. He had many difficulties with the Hindu culture. One of them was the caste system. Hindus believe that everyone has a standing different for others. They believed that there are people who are better than others and live in higher caste levels. In Siddhartha's case, when he was born in the Hindu culture, he was born in the Kshatriya caste. He was a part of the Sahkya clan and he was born in the Gautama family. However, after Buddha was enlightened, he stopped believing in that because he believes that everyone and everything is equally important to make a whole. This means that everything in reality and everyone is a part of something important and we should all treat each other equally. He fought for the same ethical

Siddhartha is going his own way; his destiny was beginning to unfold itself, and with his destiny, his own” (9). He wants to become enlightened and Siddhartha thinks that the Brahmins have already given all of their knowledge to Siddhartha, but he wants more so he decides to follow the Samanas in order to gain the amount of knowledge he desires. Siddhartha is talking to the Buddha about why he disagrees with his idealism. Siddhartha thinks that no one else will be able to teach him, since the

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.

Unlike many people he treated business as a game and did not stress over his failures and did not praise his success. As a result, Siddhartha was able to go from “rags to riches.” Over time however, Hesse writes, “Gradually, along with his growing riches, Siddhartha himself acquired some of the characteristics of the ordinary people, some of their childishness and some of their anxiety” (77). Though Siddhartha envied them for the one thing he lacked, the sense of importance with which they lived their lives.

“...if a disciple still clings to the arbitrary illusions of form or phenomena such as an ego, a personality, a self, a separate person, or a universal self existing eternally, then that person is not an authentic disciple” (Buddha, The Diamond Sutra). According to the Buddha, in order for a disciple to become an authentic disciple, or enlightened, they must detach themselves from the concept of the self and of others and of reality . In the coming of age novel, Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha spends his life searching for enlightenment; however, he rejects the teachings of the Buddha, realizes he is incapable of love, and suffers the feeling of abandonment from his son before he comes close to finding what he wants. Throughout his

Siddhartha was a proactive, self-sufficient young man. He quickly absorbed the Brahmin’s doctrine and decided he wanted to learn even more; he had to become a Samana. Of course, in order to make such a step he needed his father’s permission. When he first requested, his father rejected the idea and said

Despite excelling in all of the rituals Brahmins do, Siddhartha is unsatisfied and longs for more knowledge and wisdom, believing that although the Brahmins did possess some keys to achieve total spiritual enlightenment, they could not teach him everything he needed to obtain total spiritual enlightenment

According to Albert Einstein, “wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” In Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse utilizes the reoccurring theme that knowledge and wisdom are different to show the readers how to actually learn and become more complete in life. This theme can be proven at multiple points throughout the novel such as when Siddhartha is young and leaves home, when he meets Gotama and his followers, and when he advises Govinda at the end of his journey.