Siddhartha: Book Report
In some way or another, we’re all on this quest to find the meaning of our life.
Review
I usually push myself to learn more from non fiction, while fiction passes by me leisurely. But Siddhartha by Herman Hesse is a piece of fiction that evokes so much introspection that reading the book is thinking about life and learning about oneself.
I read the book in one sitting fairly quickly, but I know that I’ll revisit this book and these thoughts many times in the future. I highly recommend this 10/10 story to everyone because it ultimately is relevant to everyone. If you follow this journey you will be experiencing some part of your life, in the past, present, or future.
Summarize
Siddhartha follows the life of a young man in search for enlightenment. An echo of Buddha, Siddhartha is the intelligent and handsome son of a Brahmin with a comfortable upperclass life and a charted path to success. Yet, Siddhartha is unsatisfied and determines that this defined path will not lead him to enlightenment. And so he embarks on his own journey to discover the meaning of life and reach enlightenment.
He and his loyal friend Govinda leave home to become ascetics who practice fasting and meditation. Eventually, the two meet Buddha. Govinda becomes a devotee of the Illustrious One, committed to follow his proposed path to enlightenment. Siddhartha, on the other hand, hears the teachings of Buddha but decides to seek enlightenment his own way.
Siddhartha re-enters life, falling in love with a courtesan and working as a merchant. The lust and greed of civilian life drive him astray from his quest for enlightenment and yet again he becomes depressed. He runs away from this life with a new resolve to achieve enlightenment, the same way he did years before.
Analyze
The main purpose of the book is clear — how does one go about finding meaning in their life?
The Quest for Enlightenment
Everyone wants this pure relationship with the world. Buddha experienced enlightenment and teaches others how to reach it. Siddhartha argues that these teachings, while wise, cannot emulate the Buddha’s experience. Simply following teachings is not enough.
But there is one thing which these so clear, these so venerable teachings do not contain: they do not contain the mystery of what the exalted one has experienced for himself, he alone among hundreds of thousands. This is what I have thought and realized, when I have heard the teachings. This is why I am continuing my travels — not to seek other, better teachings, for I know there are none, but to depart from all teachings and all teachers and to reach my goal by myself or to die
Govinda has always been a follower. He follows the Brahmin teachings, then he follows Siddhartha as a Samana, then he follows Buddha. On the other hand, Siddhartha experiences life and all it has to offer before understanding what enlightenment means to him. He experienced failure to find the Self as a Samana, depression in the empty life of a gambler, and even the pain of losing a son that did not understand him. Each of these experiences brought him closer to his goal in a way that teachings could not.
“When someone is searching,” said Siddhartha, “then it might easily happen that the only thing his eyes still see is that what he searches for, that he is unable to find anything, to let anything enter his mind, because he always thinks of nothing but the object of his search, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed by the goal. Searching means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.
The reason I keep bringing up the journey to enlightenment, rather than the enlightenment itself, is that a blind pursuit of a goal will leave you empty, even if you achieve it. By embarking on his own journey, Siddhartha uses enlightenment as a guidepost rather than a blind goal. Meanwhile, Govinda stays on course with the Buddha’s teachings. Essentially, Siddhartha is an applied researcher, seeing the fruits of his experiments, while Govinda lost himself in the theory.
Siddhartha said nothing and looked at him with the ever unchanged, quiet smile. Govinda stared at his face, with fear, with yearning, suffering, and the eternal search was visible in his look, eternal not-finding.
Throughout the story, the only characters mentioned to smile are those who achieve enlightenment. In this final interaction between Siddhartha and Govinda, decades after they diverged on two separate paths, Siddhartha smiles and Govinda remains puzzled.
On a relatively niche note, this reminds me of the manga One Piece (one of my favorite journeys ever). In One Piece, people with the fabled ‘Will of D.’ are a clan characterized by the pursuit of freedom. One of the unique traits of a ‘D’ is that when they die, it is with a smile on their face. I can’t help but think the author of One Piece, Oda, was following Siddhartha when he created that element of his story.
Reflect
What paths have I elected to take? I’ve moved around because my parents moved around. I went to school because that’s the thing to do. College was never an if, but a where? When I did not know what to study in college the default of Computer Science was selected for me.
I’m nearing a phase of life where I’ve done what was expected. I pondered this a lot before I read this book, and even more now that Siddhartha put it to words so well: for the first time in life there is no defined next step…so now what?
I struggle to act without a goal and embrace the journey. In fact, reading this book was nothing but a piece in a challenge to read 20 books. But still, I remain conscious that this journey and its experiences are what will determine whether I reach enlightenment, whatever that may be for me.
