Siddhartha
Ratings668
Average rating3.9
I was always curious as to why I was named so - my mother tells me that my father started reading this book two to three months before I was born. He finished it a week before my birth - and it made such an impression that I was named Siddhartha after the book's central character. This book, for this reason, has a permanent place in our bookshelf. I picked it up on a whim, and was absolutely blown away. This book is truly timeless - Hesse expresses simple and pure ideas with magnificent elegance.
In Buddhist mythology, Siddhartha Gautama is a man who realises that the world is meaningless, if lived either fully in desire or asceticism - after achieving enlightenment, he becomes the Buddha, and spreads the concept of a ‘middle path'. Hesse takes this concept even further, and separates Siddhartha and Gautama - in his work, Siddhartha is the son of a Brahmin who longs to rise above his mortal shell, and Gautama (stylized as Goutama) is the Buddha, who has already achieved enlightenment by the time Siddhartha steps to find out meaning in his life.
The journey of Siddhartha never stops - whether sinning, repenting or at peace with himself, Siddhartha never ceases to be static. And yet he would not trade these experiences for anything in the world - because they are what has moulded him. Learning that money, love, cowardice and avarice exist - and learning to experience them, while rising above them, is what Siddhartha learns through the course of the novel.
In a sense, Siddhartha is the ultimate existentialist. He loves everyone and everything, warts and all, simply because they are - thus freeing himself from both human and material attachments, and achieving enlightenment. He can be easily dismissed as something to be read about, absorbed and dismissed, because of his philosophy's seeming naïveté.
However, the central theme of Siddhartha is not the protagonist's teachings per se, but his unwavering belief that introspection and self-taught lessons are always better than what a teacher may impart, because secondhand knowledge can be dangerous. And that is a belief that is as valid in a utopia, as it is in ours. This, and other such concepts scattered around the work, makes the book stay with you long after you've read it.
Su belleza erradica en su sencillez y a la vez en su gran profundidad. Es uno de los libros que mas me ha hecho reflexionar. Es sencillamente bello.
I will reread ‘Siddhartha' anytime and at any point of life. Also I would recommend this book as starter for spiritual journey.
Forced to read it in HN Lit. I don't completely hate it but I can't say I like it either. It was just really boring and had a stupid ending.
a beautiful book if youre planning to go on a spiritual journey, im not at that point yet in my life, but ill come back once im needing enlightenment. great read, great storytelling, stable pace.
Was an okay read. Not the best one I have read this year and I can see why people were influenced by this but it was a bit of a drag tbh.
Not familiar with the religious blabber in the novel, but I suppose only a gist is required for an adequate understanding. Couldn't care less about the main character. One could tell how his life would transpire after a certain point, which should mostly comprise the “rites of passage” (I don't mind whether the reader finds this a nonsensical usage of the phrase or not) in the plot. Hence, I spent much time of my reading threading upon the miscellaneous occurrences that the novel so embellishes itself upon, a trait of it I find slightly endearing. But I still mostly found myself only groping space I'm already accustomed with (again, not a surprise considering the fact that I was rightly speculative of the gist of it, a passage of thought that would soon be verified later in the not-so-prose-heavy novel). The experiences of Siddharta do soothe themselves into me - very much only slightly - but it is that mere slightness that engenders me to only sufficient satisfaction not much reflective of the prose until I've probed upon it after resolution. Only after my read do I bother attempting to care due to its apparent reflective qualities, but I still require a proper experience during my read.
Something different than what i read usually, but quite interesting and well written.
Completed this during a 3.5 hour flight to Trivandrum. I was literally and metaphorically high!
I originally thought it was about the story of Gotama Budhha himself, but the story is about another man who lived at the same time as the Buddha. It is an interesting journey of this man, where he lives many different experiences and his learnings / insights keep on evolving through the places he travels, emotions he feels, people he meets. I loved it, his thirst to learn and unlearn. I often felt the journey was similar to mine and how my beliefs have evolved and also changed over the course of time.
This one insight is worthy enough to be mentioned: Some people are searching for something, some people are finding something. There's such a gentle and beautiful difference. I would definitely recommend this. Would have given 4.5 stars if I could. I'm definitely re-reading this in the future.
Weirdly I feel like I am behaving and talking like a monk now hahaha, all calm and wise. I've landed now (birthday surfing week!!) But I still feel a little high.
Horrible. Where should I start.
Vague descriptions of the setting. Clay houses, dense mango groves, green blue river. It is as if an unsocial person leaves his 21st century abode and marvels at roads and malls and telecom tower.
But what angered me was the blatant misuse of Hindu(?) words which don't even make sense. Words like Samana, Atma, Om are just thrown around here and there without any sense or context. Infact even the people who indulge themselves in spiritual materialism would not appreciate it.
Hermann Hesse did 0 homework when he decided to write this book. At all his flaws and instances of cultural appropriation, this could at best been an essay or a short story.
What's more, even with desparate attempts, the book is painfully shallow and is not even about Buddhism or the founder of Buddhism- Siddhartha.
Siddhartha wanders, becoming a seeker after truth, a poor contemplative, a rich man who looks for the sensual pleasures of life, a father trying to teach his son, and, finally, a man of wisdom.
This is one of the most profound books I've ever read. I'd love to read this again, and I'd love to find a group to read this and discuss this with.
Some quotes from this book:
“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”
“I have had to experience so much stupidity, so many vices, so much error, so much nausea, disillusionment and sorrow, just in order to become a child again and begin anew. I had to experience despair, I had to sink to the greatest mental depths, to thoughts of suicide, in order to experience grace.”
“It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect.”
“And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life.”
“And here is a doctrine at which you will laugh. It seems to me, Govinda, that love is the most important thing in the world.”
I think it's a book about how wisdom can't be taught, and comes only from experience, from trying things, from getting outside of your comfort zone. But then clearly doesn't take its central premise too seriously, because the only reason to write such a book would be to try and impart wisdom. In fact, the last chapter is the main character espousing his philosophy to his friend, whom we are told finally sees the narrator as a wise, holy man.
But that's a little dour. There are things to like about this book, and among them the thing I liked the best was in fact that we shouldn't go chasing people who claim to have figured it all out. At one point, Siddhartha meets a (the?) Buddha, and flat out tells Buddha that he's disinterested in any teachings. There's something nice there about being your own person.
Another theme of the book is that you can learn from anybody, and the book parades a series of unlikable characters at us, from whom Siddhartha presumably learns things. These relationships aren't particularly fleshed out, and we are told that Siddhartha learns things, but we are never shown. It feels as though Hesse wanted the main character to learn to become a complete human, but didn't himself know what that would look like, so he sorta just waves his hands and hopefully distracts us. Among these characters are a childhood friend, a wandering ascetic, a courtesan and a BUSINESS MAN. The courtesan is presented as the love of Siddhartha's life, but as best I can tell, the two of them just have a lot of sex and like to wear fancy clothes.
Maybe it's a generational thing?
However, the last third of the book has Siddhartha living with an old ferryman, with whom he becomes great friends (and maybe lovers?) This is the only relationship in the book with any sense of verisimilitude, just two old men living and working together, having lost the people in their lives who meant the most to them.
And also they have a daily chat with the river about the meaning of life. And the river teaches them a lot of things. It's silly, but I guess you need some sort of narrative device SOMEWHERE.
The ending is disappointing. Our narrator has become holy and wise, and he talks a lot about how the world just /is/, and we should accept it as it is, without trying to change it, or without striving for anything but inner peace. I've said it before and I'll say it again — this is a fucking terrible moral. NO, the world isn't perfect, and we should strive to make it better. If you can make it a little bit better, you have made it a little bit better TIMES ALL HUMANS WHO WILL EVER COME AFTER YOU. This whole “accept the world as it is” shit is awful, and one of the most insidiously evil ideas there has ever been.
All in all, I think I would have loved this book (minus the ending) if I had read it a decade sooner, in my impressionable earlier years. There are some good insights here, but they're the sorts of things that you'll learn with age anyway — and if you accept the premise of the book, can't learn any other way.
A young man journeys to find knowledge and the meaning of life. A philosophical gem.
Mainstream book that I wanted to read from a long time. Good pearls of wisdom scattered throughout this. Story gets a little slow sometimes, but worth the read.
Mi-a adus aminte de Batranul si marea, o calatorie de gasire pe sine, foarte scurta, scrisa de un maestru al literaturii, doar ca de data asta mi-a pasat de calatoria lui Siddhartha si nu s-a simtit lungita (ce-i drept, Batranul si marea se intampla intr-o barca si nu prea ai ce face inafara de monologuri).
Probably 1.5 stars, but we round up in my family.
Just not my cup of tea.
A little but profound book about a boy's journey to self discovery and meaning, seeing him living through different phases of life all the way to old age. What I learned from Siddhartha is this: Whatever I'm going through life, in every situation, in every suffering, there's always something to learn, as long as I stay open and present. Also, an old and known truism driven home, riches and luxuries don't bring meaning to our lives. However, I think sometimes we have to toil, suffer, despair and make mistakes in order to clearly see this. Another thing, maybe we need to stop looking so much in order to see that what we look for is staring us in the face.
One great thing about my Great Books book club is that we read things I always mean to read, but would never actually get to.
A very inspiring and insightful story of a young man, who wanted to know the Truth of existence.
Siddhartha was a son of Brahman, but haven't found the Truth in following his father's teachings and doing rituals.
Then he became a Samana but discovered that living as an ascetic doesn't mean much. The Truth was not found in asceticism.
After that, he became a merchant, a gambler, a lover, a father and played many other roles, that he thought was necessary to go through after talking with Gautama the Buddha when he was still a Samana wandering through the world with his friend Govinda. He got lost in the content of his materialistic life and lost the connection with Being, that he developed in his early years of living.
He was desperate until he started living with the ferryman Vasudeva, which symbolizes a possibility of finding out the Absolute Truth without teachings, rituals, gurus, etc.
Finally, with the help of the old ferryman, Siddharta realized what he was searching his entire life. It was the Truth of Om. Om was the sound of the river. It was the only thing that there was. The river taught him that everything was perfect as it was. The stone was worth loving not because it had a potential of becoming an animal, a person, or the Buddha, but because it already was everything. It already contained every possible thing in it.
Love, according to Siddharta, was above all the words, thoughts and teachings. It was the foundation of all the things. The ability to love everything equally was the ability that was gained after his Enlightenment.
I think that with the story of Siddharta, the author wanted to tell us that searching for the Truth can't be done with books, teachings, or even communicating with the realized beings. The path can be long and full of traps and obstacles, but from the absolute perspective, as Siddharta told to Govinda in the end, there really is no path, there isn't even a Nirvana because passing the gateless gate, as Zen people like to say, reveals the Oneness of all the dualities...
It's Buddhist fan fiction and like all the best fan fiction it updates, reorientates, and makes the story feel new.
For me the highlight was reading this while watching The Bear and seeing the book get a mention, what are the odds?Enjoyed it enough to read some more about this buddhism thing, turns out buddhism is pretty good.technically the odds are pretty high since I'm always reading something so at some point whatever book I was currently reading would be mentioned by whatever I happened to be watching, but also, maybe karma?
Herman Hesse is one brilliant. Period. This book is barely one 100 pages and its a masterpiece. At the end you get a beautiful description of wisdom by Siddhartha.