Siddhartha

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...