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• Internet Archive - "Siddhartha"
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Siddhartha , novel by Hermann Hesse based on the early life of Buddha , published in German in 1922. It was inspired by the author’s visit to Sri Lanka and Indonesia before World War I . Illness prevented him from visiting India itself as he had planned, but Hesse returned from his visit to South Asia with an idealized view of an India grounded in spirituality and religious devotion that remained with him for the rest of his life.

The theme of the novel is the search for self-realization by a young Brahman , Siddhartha. Realizing the contradictions between reality and what he has been taught, he abandons his comfortable life to wander. His goal is to find the serenity that will enable him to defeat fear and to experience with equanimity the contrasts of life, including joy and sorrow, life and death. Asceticism , including fasting , does not prove satisfying, nor do wealth, sensuality, and the attentions of a lovely courtesan. Despairing of finding fulfillment, he goes to the river and there learns simply to listen. He discovers within himself a spirit of love and learns to accept human separateness. In the end, Siddhartha grasps the wholeness of life and achieves a state of bliss and highest wisdom.

As the son of a Brahmin, Siddhartha enjoys comfort and privilege while sequestered in his home village. However, as he grows older, his heart is moved by a burning desire to acquire wisdom and new experiences. Telling his father his intentions, Siddhartha and his childhood friend, Govinda, leave the safety of home to join the Samanas, a group of wandering ascetics .

As Hermann Hesse’s novel unfolds, we follow Siddhartha in his search for meaning and truth in a world of sorrow and suffering. Drawing on both Hindu and Buddhist teachings, Siddhartha expertly explores the tension between the doctrinal dictates of organized religion and the inner promptings of the soul. As Siddhartha grows older, a fundamental truth gradually becomes apparent both to him and to us: there is no single path to self-growth, no one formula for how to live life. Hesse challenges our ideas of what it means to lead a spiritual life, to strive after and to achieve meaningful self-growth through blind adherence to a religion, philosophy , or indeed any system of belief.

We should, rather, seek to seize hold of the reality of each moment, which is always new, alive, and forever changing. Hesse uses the potent symbol of a river to convey this sense of vibrancy and flux. The particular brilliance of this novel is the way in which its profound message is delivered through a prose that flows as naturally and shimmeringly as the surface of the river beside which Siddhartha spends the final years of his life.

Siddhartha did not make much of an impression when it was first published in German, but, issued in English in 1951 by New Directions, a publishing house associated with literary modernism and the first stirrings of the literature of the Beat movement , the book was enthusiastically adopted by young readers seeking spiritual enlightenment. A canonical text of the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, it remains a popular book today. As of its hundredth anniversary in 2022, it had sold more than four million copies in the United States alone.

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Siddhartha is born and raised in ancient India by Brahmins, learning spiritual practices of meditation and thought. He excels at everything. He is accompanied through childhood by his friend Govinda , who loves Siddhartha dearly, as does everyone else. But Siddhartha is ill at ease. He does not think he can learn anything more from the Brahmin teaching and so decides to begin a pilgrimage with the samanas, a group of wandering ascetics. His father very reluctantly lets him go but Govinda follows.

Siddhartha and Govinda learn the life of the samanas, fasting and suffering. Siddhartha sometimes doubts whether they are really approaching any higher knowledge. Then, one day, a rumor reaches them that the Sublime Buddha, Gautama , is among them. Siddhartha is dubious of teaching, but agrees to hear the Buddha’s sermon, so the pair journey with many others to Gautama’s grove. Here, they spot the man himself, impeccably calm and with a perfect smile . They know he has reached enlightenment. Govinda decides to take refuge in the teaching. This is the first decision he has made for his own path. But Siddhartha tells Gautama that he does not think accepting teaching from another is the way to find one’s own deliverance.

Siddhartha goes into the forest and has an awakening, seeing all the river’s colors as if for the first time . He wants to learn from the world of ‘things’. He stays with a kind ferryman , then he goes to town and notices a beautiful courtesan, Kamala , and requests that she teach him in the art of love. She will only teach him if he brings her rich gifts, so she refers him to a merchant, Kamaswami , who takes him into service. Here he becomes a rich man, gambling and trading. Years pass and Siddhartha’s spirit sickens. He feels detached from the material world but also caught in its cycle. He has a dream in which Kamala’s songbird dies and with it, all Siddhartha’s hope. He leaves the town, and goes back to the river . Later we find out that Kamala is pregnant with his child.

Siddhartha, wishing to die, edges close to the river. But instead, the word ‘om’ comes to him from the river, and he falls into a deep sleep. When he wakes, there is a samana waiting with him, whom he recognizes as Govinda, his childhood friend. He tries to explain to Govinda that he has become many different people, but he is still searching. Siddhartha muses on his life, where his sadness has come from, and how the ‘om’ saved him. He seeks out the ferryman, who had attained peace by the river . The ferryman agrees to let Siddhartha stay and work with him. He advises that Siddhartha listens to the river as he does. Siddhartha begins to find enlightening visions and voices in the water.

One day, it is rumored that Gautama is dying. Kamala, now a pilgrim too, comes towards the river with her son, young Siddhartha . The boy is sulky and wishes to rest, and it is then that a black snake bites the resting Kamala. Vasudeva hears the cries and brings her to the hut and she sees Siddhartha. Kamala dies, and now Siddhartha must be guardian to his son. But young Siddhartha doesn’t know his father and is used to very rich things in town, not the simple life of a ferryman. He makes life very hard for Siddhartha. Vasudeva, seeing how painfully Siddhartha loves his son, advises that he should let the boy go to the town, because he does not belong here. Siddhartha can’t face letting him go, but soon he has little choice, the boy runs away and it is obvious that he doesn’t want the ferrymen to follow him.

Siddhartha learns the secrets of the river with Vasudeva by his side and eventually his wounds at the loss of his son start to heal. He understands the unity that Gautama taught, through the river. He sees that the river is the same at its source as in the waterfall and in the rain, that time doesn’t really exist. The world is like this river, eternal and whole. Now that Siddhartha can really listen to the river too, Vasudeva is ready to go ‘into the oneness’, and he leaves the river with Siddhartha and disappears into the forest.

In the town, the monks of Gautama live in Kamala’s old grove, and Govinda hears about a wise ferryman. He still seeks enlightenment and goes to the river. He doesn’t recognize Siddhartha when he sees him, and asks for a taste of the ferryman’s wisdom. Siddhartha says he has changed many times, that he was once that sleeper by the river that Govinda protected, but that despite change, everything is part of a whole, always in the present moment. Each sinner is also a Buddha. One must agree with it all, and love everything easily. This is what Siddhartha has learned. Govinda sees that his old friend has become one of the enlightened ones and that his smile radiates like a saint’s.

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Siddhartha Gautama

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Siddhartha Gautama (better known as the Buddha, l. c. 563 - c. 483 BCE) was, according to legend, a Hindu prince who renounced his position and wealth to seek enlightenment as a spiritual ascetic, attained his goal and, in preaching his path to others, founded Buddhism in India in the 6th-5th centuries BCE.

The events of his life are largely legendary, but he is considered an actual historical figure and a younger contemporary of Mahavira (also known as Vardhamana , l. c. 599-527 BCE) who established the tenets of Jainism shortly before Siddhartha's time.

According to Buddhist texts, a prophecy was given at Siddhartha's birth that he would become either a powerful king or great spiritual leader. His father, fearing he would become the latter if he were exposed to the suffering of the world, protected him from seeing or experiencing anything unpleasant or upsetting for the first 29 years of his life. One day (or over the course of a few) he slipped through his father's defenses and saw what Buddhists refer to as the Four Signs:

• An aged man
• A religious ascetic

Through these signs, he realized that he, too, could become sick, would grow old, would die, and would lose everything he loved. He understood that the life he was living guaranteed he would suffer and, further, that all of life was essentially defined by suffering from want or loss. He therefore followed the example of the religious ascetic, tried different teachers and disciplines, and finally attained enlightenment through his own means and became known as the Buddha (“awakened” or “enlightened” one).

Afterwards, he preached his “middle way” of detachment from sense objects and renunciation of ignorance and illusion through his Four Noble Truths , the Wheel of Becoming, and the Eightfold Path to enlightenment. After his death , his disciples preserved and developed his teachings until they were spread from India to other countries by the Mauryan king Ashoka the Great (r. 268-232 BCE). From the time of Ashoka on, Buddhism has continued to flourish and, presently, is one of the major world religions.

Historical Background

Siddhartha was born in Lumbini (in modern-day Nepal) during a time of social and religious transformation. The dominant religion in India at the time was Hinduism ( Sanatan Dharma , “Eternal Order”) but a number of thinkers of the period had begun to question its validity and the authority of the Vedas (the Hindu scriptures) as well as the practices of the priests.

On a practical level, critics of orthodox Hinduism claimed that the religion was not meeting the needs of the people. The Vedas were said to have been received directly from the universe and could not be questioned, but these scriptures were all in Sanskrit , a language the people could not understand, and were interpreted by the priests to encourage acceptance of one's place in life – no matter how difficult or impoverished – while they themselves continued to live well from temple donations.

On a theological level, people began to question the entire construct of Hinduism. Hinduism taught that there was a supreme being, Brahman, who had not only created the universe but was the universe itself. Brahman had established the divine order, maintained this order, and had delivered the Vedas to enable human beings to participate in this order with understanding and clarity.

It was understood that the human soul was immortal and that the goal of life was to perform one's karma (action) in accordance with one's dharma (duty) in order to break free from the cycle of rebirth and death ( samsara ) and attain union with the oversoul ( atman ). It was also understood that the soul would be incarnated in physical bodies multiple times, over and over, until one finally attained this liberation.

The Hindu priests of the time defended the faith, which included the caste system, as part of the divine order but, as new ideas began to circulate, more people questioned whether that order was divine at all when all it seemed to offer was endless rounds of suffering. Scholar John M. Koller comments:

From a religious perspective, new ways of faith and practice challenged the established Vedic religion. The main concern dominating religious thought and practice at the time of the Buddha was the problem of suffering and death. Fear of death was an especially acute problem, because death was seen as an unending series of deaths and rebirths. Although the Buddha's solution to the problem was unique, most religious seekers at this time were engaged in the search for a way to obtain freedom from suffering and repeated death. (46)

Many schools of thought arose at this time in response to this need. Those which supported orthodox Hindu thought were known as astika (“there exists”), and those which rejected the Vedas and the Hindu construct were known as nastika (“there does not exist”). Among the nastika schools which survived the time and developed were Charvaka , Jainism, and Buddhism.

Early Life & Renunciation

Siddhartha Gautama grew up in this time of transition and reform but, according to the famous Buddhist legend concerning his youth, would not have been aware of any of it. When he was born, it was prophesied that he would become a great king or spiritual leader and his father, hoping for the former, hid his son away from anything that might be distressing. Siddhartha's mother died within a week of his birth, but he had no awareness of this, and his father did not want him to experience anything else as he grew which might inspire him to adopt a spiritual path.

Siddhartha lived among the luxuries of the palace , was married, had a son, and lacked for nothing as the heir-apparent of his father until his experience with the Four Signs. Whether he saw the aged man, sick man, dead man, and ascetic in rapid succession on a single ride in his carriage (or chariot , depending on the version), or over four days, the story relates how, with each one of the first three, he asked his driver, “Am I, too, subject to this?” His coachman responded, telling him how everyone aged, everyone was subject to illness, and everyone died.

Reflecting upon this, Siddhartha understood that everyone he loved, every fine object, all his grand clothes, his horses, his jewels would one day be lost to him – could be lost to him at any time on any day – because he was subject to age, illness, and death just like everyone else. The idea of such tremendous loss was unbearable to him but, he noticed, the religious ascetic – just as doomed as anyone – seemed at peace and so asked him why he seemed so content. The ascetic told him he was pursuing the path of spiritual reflection and detachment, recognizing the world and its trappings as illusion, and was therefore unconcerned with loss as he had already given everything away.

Siddhartha knew that his father would never allow him to follow this path and, further, he had a wife and son he was responsible for who would also try to prevent him. At the same time, though, the thought of accepting a life he knew he would ultimately lose and suffer for was unbearable. One night, after looking at all of the precious objects he was attached to and his sleeping wife and son, he walked out of the palace, left his fine clothes, put on the robes of an ascetic, and departed for the woods. In some versions of the story, he is assisted by supernatural means while, in others, he simply leaves.

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Criticism of the Four Signs Tale

Criticism of this story often includes the objection that Siddhartha could not possibly have gone 29 years without ever becoming sick, seeing an older person, or being aware of death, but this is explained by scholars in two ways:

• the story is symbolic of the conditions which cause/relieve suffering
• the story is an artificial construct to give Buddhism an illustrious past

Koller addresses the first point, writing :

Most likely the truth of the legend of the four signs is symbolic rather than literal. In the first place, they may symbolize existential crises in Siddhartha's life occasioned by experiences with sickness, old age, death, and renunciation. More important, these four signs symbolize his coming to a deep and profound understanding of the true reality of sickness, old age, death, and contentment and his conviction that peace and contentment are possible despite the fact that everyone experiences old age, sickness, and death. (49)

Scholars Robert E. Buswell, Jr. and Donald S. Lopez, Jr. address the second point noting that the story of the Four Signs was written over 100 years after Buddha's death and that early Buddhists were “motivated in part by the need to demonstrate that what the Buddha taught was not the innovation of an individual, but rather the rediscovery of a timeless truth” in order to give the belief system the same claim to ancient, divine origins held by Hinduism and Jainism (149).

The story may or may not be true, but it hardly matters because it has come to be accepted as truth. It appears first in full in the Lalitavistara Sutra (c. 3rd century CE) and, before that, may have undergone extensive revision via oral tradition. The symbolic meaning seems obvious and the claim it was written to enhance the standing of Buddhist thought, which had to contend with the established faiths of Hinduism and Jainism for adherents, also seems probable.

Ascetic Life & Enlightenment

Siddhartha at first sought out the famous teacher Arada Kalama with whom he studied until he had mastered all Kamala knew, but the “attainment of nothingness” he gained did nothing to free him from suffering. He then became a student of the master Udraka Ramaputra who taught him how to suppress his desires and attain a state “neither conscious nor unconscious”, but this did not satisfy him as it, also, did not address the problem of suffering. He subjected himself to the harshest ascetic disciplines, most likely following a Jain model, eventually eating only a grain of rice a day, but, still, he could not find what he was looking for.

In one version of his story, at this point he stumbles into a river, barely strong enough to keep his head above water, and receives direction from a voice on the wind. In the more popular version, he is found in the woods by a milkmaid named Sujata, who mistakes him for a tree spirit because he is so emaciated, and offers him some rice milk. The milk revives him, and he ends his asceticism and goes to nearby village of Bodh Gaya where he seats himself on a bed of grass beneath a Bodhi tree and vows to remain there until he understands the means of living without suffering.

Deep in a meditative state, Siddhartha contemplated his life and experiences. He thought about the nature of suffering and fully recognized its power came from attachment. Finally, in a moment of illumination, he understood that suffering was caused by the human insistence on permanent states of being in a world of impermanence. Everything one was, everything one thought one owned, everything one wanted to gain, was in a constant state of flux. One suffered because one was ignorant of the fact that life itself was change and one could cease suffering by recognizing that, since this was so, attachment to anything in the belief it would last was a serious error which only trapped one in an endless cycle of craving, striving, rebirth, and death. His illumination was complete, and Siddhartha Gautama was now the Buddha, the enlightened one.

Tenets & Teachings

Although he could now live his life in contentment and do as he pleased, he chose instead to teach others the path of liberation from ignorance and desire and assist them in ending their suffering. He preached his first sermon at the Deer Park at Sarnath at which he introduced his audience to his Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Truths are:

• Life is suffering
• The cause of suffering is craving
• The end of suffering comes with an end to craving
• There is a path which leads one away from craving and suffering

The fourth truth directs one toward the Eightfold Path, which serves as a guide to live one's life without the kind of attachment that guarantees suffering:

• Right Intention
• Right Speech
• Right Action
• Right Livelihood
• Right Effort
• Right Mindfulness
• Right Concentration

By recognizing the Four Noble Truths and following the precepts of the Eightfold Path, one is freed from the Wheel of Becoming which is a symbolic illustration of existence. In the hub of the wheel sit ignorance, craving, and aversion which drive it. Between the hub and the rim of the wheel are six states of existence: human, animal, ghosts, demons, deities, and hell-beings. Along the rim of the wheel are depicted the conditions which cause suffering such as body-mind, consciousness, feeling, thirst, grasping among many others which bind one to the wheel and cause one to suffer.

In recognizing the Four Noble Truths and following the Eightfold Path, one will still experience loss, feel pain, know disappointment but it will not be the same as the experience of duhkha , translated as “suffering” which is unending because it is fueled by the soul's ignorance of the nature of life and of itself. One can still enjoy all aspects of life in pursuing the Buddhist path, only with the recognition that these things cannot last, it is not in their nature to last, because nothing in life is permanent.

Buddhists compare this realization to the end of a dinner party. When the meal is done, one thanks one's host for the pleasant time and goes home; one does not fall to the floor crying and lamenting the evening's end. The nature of the dinner party is that it has a beginning and an ending, it is not a permanent state, and neither is anything else in life. Instead of mourning the loss of something that one could never hope to have held onto, one should appreciate what one has experienced for what it is – and let it go when it is over.

Buddha called his teaching the Dharma which means “cosmic law ” in this case (not “duty” as in Hinduism) as it is based entirely on the concept of undeniable consequences for one's thoughts which form one's reality and dictate one's actions. As the Buddhist text Dhammapada puts it:

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draw it. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves. (I.1-2)

The individual is ultimately responsible for his or her level of suffering because, at any point, one can choose not to engage in the kinds of attachments and thought processes which cause suffering. Buddha would continue to teach his message for the rest of his life before dying at Kushinagar where, according to Buddhists, he attained nirvana and was released from the cycle of rebirth and death after being served a meal by one Cunda, a student, who some scholars claim may have poisoned him, perhaps accidentally.

Before dying of dysentery, he requested his remains be placed in a stupa at a crossroads, but his disciples divided them between themselves and had them interred in eight (or ten) stupas corresponding to important sites in Buddha's life. When Ashoka the Great embraced Buddhism, he had the relics disinterred and then reinterred in 84,000 stupas across India.

He then sent missionaries to other countries to spread Buddha's message where it was received so well that Buddhism became more popular in countries like Sri Lanka, China , Thailand, and Korea than it was in India - a situation which, actually, is ongoing – and Buddhist thought developed further after that. Today, the efforts of Siddhartha Gautama are appreciated worldwide by those who have embraced his message and still follow his example of appreciating, without clinging, to the beauty of life.

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Bibliography

• Baird, F. E. & Heimbeck, R. S. Philosophic Classics: Asian Philosophy. Routledge, 2005.
• Buddha. The Dhammapada. Royal Classics, 2020.
• Burtt, E. A. The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha. Berkley, 2000.
• Buswell, R. E. jr & Lopez, D. S. jr. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press, 2013.
• Keay, J. India: A History. Grove Press, 2010.
• Koller, J. M. Asian Philosophies. Prentice Hall, 2007.
• Long, J. D. Historical Dictionary of Hinduism. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010.
• Long, J. D. Jainism: An Introduction. I.B. Tauris, 2009.

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Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse: The Life of Religious People

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by Hermann Hesse

Siddhartha summary and analysis of part i.

Part One: Siddhartha

The Brahmins Son

Siddhartha, the son of a Brahmin (a Hindu Priest), and his best friend, Govinda , have grown up learning the ways of the Brahmins. Everyone in their village loves Siddhartha. But although he brings joy to everyone's life, Siddhartha feels little joy himself. He is troubled by restless dreams and begins to wonder if he has learned all that his father and the other Brahmins can teach him. As Hesse says, "...they had already poured the sum total of their knowledge into his waiting vessel; and the vessel was not full, his intellect was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace, his heart was not still" (5).

Siddhartha is dissatisfied with the Brahmans because despite their knowledge, the Brahmins are seekers still, performing the same exercises again and again in order to reach their goal‹Nirvana: the peace of oneness with Atman the Divine within‹without ever finding it. But if Atman is within, then oneness with it must proceed by focusing on the world within. As Siddhartha says, "One must find the source within one's Self, one must possess it. Everythig else was seeking‹a detour, error" (7). It is Siddhartha's search for this new path that leads him to the ascetic Samanas.

When Siddhartha announces his intention to join the Samanas, his father becomes very upset and forbids Siddhartha's departure. In respectful defiance, Siddhartha does not move. His frustrated father leaves him, gazing out of his window periodically to see if Siddhartha has left. The obstinate youth, though, remains motionless. Night passes. In the morning, Siddhartha's father returns to his intransigent son and realizes that while Siddhartha's body remains is present, his mind had already departed. Siddhartha's father acquiesces to his son's wishes and allows him to leave, reminded him that he is welcome back should he find disillusionment with the Samanas. Govinda joins Siddhartha as they disappear into the forest in search of the Samanas.

With the Samanas

As Samanas, Siddhartha and Govinda relinquish all their possessions and dedicate themselves to meditation, fasting, and other methods of mortification. As a result of this, the normal human world becomes anathema to Siddhartha. It is all illusory and destined to decay, leaving those who treasure it in great pain. With the Samanas, "Siddhartha had one goal - to become empty, to become empty of thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure, and sorrow‹to let the Self die" (14). His path to self-negation was through physical pain, pain he endured until he no longer felt it as pain. When pain is gone, the Self fades into oblivion and peace is attained. But while pain became a memory for Siddhartha, peace did not come.

After having been with the Samanas for some time, Siddhartha expresses concern that he is no closer to his goal than he was before joining the Samanas. Govinda replies that while they have grown in spirit, they still have much to learn. In response, Siddhartha derisively comparesthe Samanas' life to that of a drunkard, a series of temporary respites from the pains of existence. Ultimately, Siddhartha reasons, one cannot really learn anything from teachers or the doctrines they espouse. As Siddhartha tells Govinda, "There is, my friend, only a knowledge‹that is everywhere, that is Ataman, that is in me and you and every creature, and I am beginning to believe that this knowledge has no worse enemy than the man of knowledge, than learning" (19). Siddhartha is unsettled by the implications of his thoughts but feels certain that the Samanas have nothing for to teach him. For this reason, Siddhartha declares that he will leave the Samanas soon.

Three years after joining the Samanas, Siddhartha and Govinda hear intriguing rumors of a great man, Goatama, the Buddha, who, having attained enlightenment, teaches others the way to peace. Govinda is immediately entranced by this tale and tells Siddhartha of his intent to seek out Goatama. Siddhartha, surprised by Govinda's uncharacteristic initiative, wishes his friend well. Govinda, though, wishes Siddhartha to seek the Buddha with him. Siddhartha expresses his doubt that anything new can be learned from this man, but surrenders to Govinda's enthusiasm and agrees to go. The leaders of the Samanas scolds Siddhartha and Govinda for their departure. Siddhartha then demonstrates his mastery of the Samana ways by hypnotizing the old master.

Siddhartha and Govinda travel to Savathi, where they discover that the Buddha is staying in Jetavana, in the garden of Anathapindika. Arriving in Jetavana, Siddhartha recognizes Goatama immediately despite his nondescript dress: "he wore his gown and walked along exactly like the other monks, but his face and his step...spoke of peace, spoke of completeness,...an unfading light, an invulnerable peace."(28). And while Siddhartha is not terribly interested in what the Buddha has to say, he is completely taken with the Buddha's demeanor.

The two men hear Gotama's sermon, after which Govinda announces his intention to join in Goatama's discipleship. Siddhartha commends Govinda for his decision, but says that he will not join up. Govinda asks Siddhartha what fault he finds in the Buddha's program that makes him resist pledging his allegiance. Siddhartha says that he finds no fault; he just does not want to join. The next day Govinda takes his monk's robe and bids Siddhartha a sad farewell.

As Siddhartha is leaving, he runs into Goatama in the woods and questions the Buddha about his teachings. Siddhartha compliments the theoretical coherence of Gotama's worldview, the ultimate unity of creation and the incessant chain of causes and effects, but remarks that Goatama's doctrine of salvation, the transcendence of causation, calls into question the consistency of his position. Goatama responds by saying that he goal of his teaching is not "to explain the world to those who are thirsty for knowledge. It's goal is quite different; its goal is salvation from suffering. That is what Goatama teaches, nothing else" (33). Siddhartha, afraid that he has offended the Buddha, reiterates his confidence in the Buddha's holiness, but expresses his doubt that any teaching can ever provide the learner with the experience of Nirvana. And while Gotama's path may be appropriate for some, Siddhartha says that he must take his own path, lest self-deception overtake him and he admit to Nirvana before having actually attained it. The Buddha admonishes Siddhartha to beware his own cleverness then wishes him well on his path.

As Siddhartha leaves the Buddha, he realizes that a change has overcome him: he has outgrown the desire for teachers. From teachers he had sought to discover the mystery of his Self. As Siddhartha says, "Truly, nothing in the world has occupied my thoughts as much as the Self, this riddle, that I live, that I am one and am separated and different from everybody else, that I am Siddhartha" (38). But in seeking this Self, Siddhartha has only succeeded in fleeing from it. He was so consumed in annihilating this Self that he had lost sight of it completely. The path to self-knowledge‹and with it a knowledge of everything: Atman and Brahman are one‹cannot proceed by listening to the voice of others. Instead, as Siddhartha puts it, "I will learn from myself, be my own pupil; I will learn from myself the secret of Siddhartha" (39).

This awakening leads to a change in Siddhartha's perception of the world. Whereas he formerly reviled the world as a painful illusion, a distraction from a submerged, unitary reality, he now sees that the value in the world of the senses. Unlike the Brahmins and Samanas who ignored the wondrous diversity of shapes and colors around them, seeking to reduce everything to the common denominator of Braham, Siddhartha became convinced that truth was in the plurality rather than the commonality of nature. As he says, "meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them" (40).

This realization set Siddhartha apart from all of his previous associations. He was no longer a Brahmin or a Samansa, and he had resisted following his friend Govinda into the Buddha's discipleship. While this consciousness of solitude was frightening, it was also exhilarating; untethered from these communities and languages of thought, Siddhartha was more himself than ever. Enlivened by this new feeling of authenticity, Siddhartha "bean to walk quickly and impatiently, no longer homewards, no longer to his father, no longer looking backwards" (42).

One of the most difficult hindrances in approaching this novel in a sophisticated manner is its use of Indian religious/philosophical concepts. Unfortunately, Hesse does not always do a good job explaining these concepts, and so Siddhartha's conflicts, which may be intelligible on an intuitive level, defy complete comprehension. Many of these concepts are invoked in this first chapter, and so I will take the opportunity here to explicate some of the most significant of these. It should be said, though, that this is not an authoritative elaboration of these concepts. As within any vibrant religious or philosophical tradition, there is a diversity of opinions on even central issues. The picture presented here is meant only to provide the reader with enough background to appreciate the context in which Siddhartha's life is lived.

Although Buddhist inventions become more significant as the book progresses, Siddhartha, and Buddhism generally, take Hinduism as their starting point. Hinduism is at its core a pantheistic religion in that it holds that, despite appearances, the Divine, Brahman, is ultimately indistinguishable from its creation. The world is not just suffused with the Divine, it is actually is the Divine. This is as true of human beings as it is of every other aspect of Nature. The aspect of the Divine which resides in humans is called Atman; it is not that this Atman is an incomplete piece of Brahman, and that if one were to take the sum of the Divine in all things one would constitute the whole of Brahman. Brahman is indivisible, and so Atman is just the name we apply to Brahman in ourselves.

The phenomenal world which we daily experience is called Maya. Ultimately, this world is an illusion, an elaborate costume which covers the essence of Absolute Reality, Brahman, which, unnoticed, animates everything. Importantly, our subjective selves, our egos, are Maya as well. For reasons unknown to us, our Atman enters the cycle of birth and rebirth, Samsara, advancing through a series of lives, from unconsciousness, to consciousness, to self-consciousness. Self-consciousness results in the development of the ego, but it does not terminate there. As we are not really our ego but are Atman-Brahman, we are not fully self-conscious until we identify ourselves with our true natures. It is this realization which liberates us from the cycle of rebirth, a liberation, Mukti, which dissolves our individuality and reunites us the totality of being from which we sprang.

Siddhartha is the son of a Brahmin, a Hindu priest. According to the Hindic concept of Karma, our condition in our present life is the direct result of our actions in our previous lives. Being born a Brahmin means that one's soul, jiva, is nearing the end of its journey of self-consciousness, its journey to itself. As a Brahmin, Siddhartha's role in life is to work single-mindedly on achieving Nirvana, oneness with Brahman. It is this quest which we watch Siddhartha follow throughout the novel.

We are told that Siddhartha is exceptionally skilled in the Brahmin's art. He knows how to meditate on the mantra, Om, the most sacred, and recognizes the Atman within himself. He has, we are told, learned all that the Brahmins can teach, yet he still feels unsatisfied, the peace of Nirvana still alludes him. Moreover, he has never seen nor heard of any Brahmin who has reached Nirvana. If Nirvana is oneness with Brahman and Brahman is Atman, then the path to the Nirvana must proceed inward; all other paths, all other activities, including the path of the Brahmin must be distractions. It is for this reason that Siddhartha joins the Samanas, hoping that their focus on self-purification will better direct him to Atman and to Nirvana.

This brings out two important thematic issues to consider when reading the novel. First, the relationship between the actual practice of Hinduism and the beliefs and attitudes espoused by Hesse's Siddhartha. Hinduism, in theory at least, is an extraordinarily tolerant religion, asserting that that are many different ways one can approach the Divine. Which way appeals to each person depends on the person; no path is ultimately better than another. There is a definite sense in which Siddhartha's denunciation of Brahminism appears more than merely an acknowledgment that it doesn't quite work for himself. By noting that he has known no Brahmin who has achieved Nirvana, Siddhartha seems to be saying that Brahminism will not lead to Nirvana. Such universal claims may fit the tenor of Hesse's universal exhortation to self-awareness‹Siddhartha is supposed to be an Indian Everyman‹but they do not represent the perspective of Hinduism.

Second, there is a tension between two of Siddhartha's pursuits, discovering what is true of the world and finding a life of absolute peace. It seems at this point that Siddhartha is conflating these two: that which is true will bring peace. This is underscored by the fact that Siddhartha's lack of peace is regularly explicated in terms of his being "thirsty for knowledge" (4). Perhaps knowledge will not bring peace. Perhaps peace does not rely on knowledge. These concerns are taken up at greater length later in the novel.

It is also important to see how the life of Siddhartha is meant to parallel the life of the Buddha, referred to in the novel only by his last name, Goatama. (Siddhartha is also the Buddha's first name). Though the Buddha was born a prince and not a Brahmin, he was also possessed of things which make an earthly life easier, including precocious intelligence and a fine physical form. (Hesse tells us, "Love stirred in the hearts of the young Brahmins' daughters when Siddhartha walked through the streets of the town, with his lofty brow, his king-like eyes and his slim figure" (4)). Despite these traits, both men dedicated themselves to a religious/philosophical life. Drawing such parallelism between Siddhartha and the Buddha is a way of foreshadowing the general direction of Siddhartha's path. A full scale comparison between the two men is not necessary to understand the novel, but one should be aware of the intentional similarities. (For those who wish to know more, a good resource on the life of the Buddha is Paul Carus' The Gospel of the Buddha).

In terms of actual writing, Hesse's language is remarkably simple. Take the first sentence for example: "In the shade of the house, in the sunshine on the river bank by the boats, in the shade of the sallow wood and the fig tree, Siddhartha, the handsome Brahmin's son, grew up with his friend Govinda" (3). The sentence structure is uncomplicated, just a string of descriptions linked list-like by commas. The descriptions too are straightforward, using common images, which, while simple, conjure clear and potent mental pictures, words like Œshade,' Œsunshine,' and Œriver.' This style contrasts powerfully with the complex, abstract concepts which Hesse attempts to convey. This combination, though, helps give a religious tone to the writing, highlighted by the repeated allusions to Hindu holy books, notably the Upanishads and the Rig Veda. This is underscored by the commandment-like punctuation and syntax of the novel, setting certain statements apart from the writing with a colon. For example, "In the evening, after the hour of contemplation, Siddhartha said to Govinda: ŒTomorrow morning, by friend, Siddhartha is going to join the Samansas. He is going to become a Samansa" (9). The use of the third person in self-referential utterances‹ironic in a novel which is ostensibly about self-awareness‹ also provides an objectivity to the novelistic voice which makes it seem more religious, almost allegorical or parable-like.

This allegorical quality is further developed by the novel's use of somewhat hyperbolic though picturesque images to depict ordinary events like the passage of time: "The Brahmin was silent so long that the stars passed across the small window and changed their design before the silence in the room was finally broken" (10). In addition, the rather flat characterization of the protagonists heightens the impersonal symbolism of Siddhartha's journey; it is as if we are given just enough of Siddhartha's personality to identify with his quest, but not enough to fill him out as a realistic character. Indeed, even those circumstances in which Siddhartha seems to be distracted from his goal, circumstances in which he seems the most human, are transformed into educational experiences, necessary for his eventual enlightenment. Hesse's use of narrative repetition, as with Siddhartha's father's repeatedly checking on his obstinate son throughout the night, also lends the novel an allegorical air, an air which, while providing rich and interesting details, also raises the story above the local and announces an intention to provide a lesson valuable to all readers.

Siddhartha's time with the Samanas marks the first leg of his spiritual quest. As an ascetic, Siddhartha sheds all of his possessions and practices mortification of the flesh in the service of his "one goal‹to become empty, to become empty of thirst, desire, pleasure, and sorrow‹to let the Self die" (14). This brings out an interesting paradox in Siddhartha's journey. He leaves the Brahmins because he does not believe that their path will lead him to himself, to Atman. Yet with the Samansas, Siddhartha wants "no longer to be Self, to experience the peace of an emptied heart" (14). How are these two goals reconcilable? The answer relies on the particular conception of selfhood Siddhartha employs.

The Self can be divided into two basic components, the ego and the Atman. The ego is the consciousness which differentiates an individual from all other things. The Atman, as we have seen, is the consciousness which unites an individual with all other things. Ego is Maya and diversity is an illusion; underlying all individuation in form is a great unity, Brahman. Becoming empty of thirst, desires, pleasure, and sorrow means not identifying oneself with the ego, the seat of thirst, desires, pleasure, and sorrow. Instead of ego, one identifies oneself with Atman and so loses the differentiation which ego provides. This is what Hesse means when he says that "when all the Self was conquered and dead, when all passions and desires were silent, then the last must awaken, the innermost of Being which is no longer Self" (14).

The effect this desire to be rid of Self has on Siddhartha is very interesting. We are told that Siddhartha saw the various aspects of ordinary human life as "not worth a passing glance,....[E]verything lied, stank of lies; they were illusions of sense, happiness, and beauty. All were doomed to decay. The world tasted bitter. Life was pain" (14). This is a curious thing to say since not all ordinary life‹Siddhartha includes lovers making love and mothers soothing their children as aspects of ordinary life‹is filled with pain. What is the source of such a pessimistic generalization? It seems to be the fact of ephemerality, the fact that all pleasures which rely on external things, including other people, will ultimately end. Does this simple realization of finitude merit that attitude encompassed in the declaration that "Life was pain."? In other words, is denying the reality of the ephemeral world and the ego that participates in it the best way to preclude the pain?

This question again raises a concern about a theme discussed previously, the relationship between the search for truth and the truth for peace. Put in these terms, the question becomes, do we posit a reality beyond the ego only to escape the pains of finitude, or do we deny the ego because we know that there is a reality beyond it which more truthfully represents our nature? This issues comes to a head in the next chapter when Siddhartha speaks to the Buddha. At the present, though, it is unclear where Siddhartha's answer would be.

Another important question is why the path of Samanas does not allow Siddhartha to reach his goal. We are told that "he slipped out of his Self in a thousand different forms. He was animal, carcass, stone, wood, water, and each time he reawakened" (15). Why? The answer seems to be that he has been relying on the teachings of others to guide him. As with the Brahmins, Siddhartha knows of no Samana who has actually attained Nirvana. Where Govinda pleads that they still have much to learn from their teachers, Siddhartha repudiates teaching altogether. Siddhartha hypothesizes that the path to the Self must be self-directed; Atman directs itself to itself.

It is in the midst of this disillusionment with teachers that The Buddha appears on the scene. His arrival is the sort of turn of events which might seem a cheap contrivance in a regular novel, but in a allegorical work such as this, its occurrence in an instance of the novel's moral structure. Just when Siddhartha loses faith in instruction because none of his instructors have actually achieved the goal towards which they direct others, an instructor who has achieved the goal appears. Thus, Siddhartha and Govinda's departure to meet the Buddha seems preordained, an appropriate seeming for an allegory. Also preordained is Govinda's conflicts with Siddhartha, the former in favor of orthodoxy and learning from others while the latter favors the iconoclasm of self-teaching. It is, after all, Govinda who suggests the trip to see the Buddha. This trait of Govinda's makes Siddhartha's comments about Govinda's independence ironic.

The above conflict is an instance of the constant juxtaposition between Siddhartha and Govinda in the novel. The latter is a foil to the former, allowing Hesse to highlight the unique qualities of Siddhartha by contrasting him with Govinda. As these two friends begin the novel at approximately the same point in their spiritual journey, their later differences help emphasize just how Siddhartha has come. This significance of this juxtaposition to the novel generally is demonstrated by Govinda's reappearance in the novel whenever Siddhartha ends one phase of his life to begin another. Also, it might be said that juxtaposition characterizes the form of the novel more generally as at any moment in the novel Siddhartha is defined by his battle between two opposing forces, i.e. sense and thought, Maya and Brahman, pain and peace, etc. It is his position between these poles which designates Siddhartha's progress down his path to enlightenment.

And as we are supposed to identify Siddhartha with the Buddha, there is also interesting foreshadowing of Siddhartha's own path in the early descriptions of the Buddha. We are told that "this alleged Buddha had formerly been an ascetic and had lived in the woods, [and] had then turned to high living and the pleasures of the world" (21). This is, of course, what Siddhartha does in Part II.

Siddhartha's hyponosis of the old Samana master at the end of the chapter highlights his superiority over his teachers, forcing us to conclude that if Siddhartha cannot reach Nirvana by the Samana path, it is impossible for anyone to do so. This episode allows Hesse to close off this aspect of Siddhartha's past; he truly has no more to learn from this type of life. Again, a hyperbolic, almost inhuman happening which becomes appropriate in the context of a allegory.

The unique nature of the Buddha is brought out right at the beginning of the chapter. We are told that the Buddha is resting at his favorite abode, a grove given to him by a rich merchant, a great devotee. Such an association with worldly things would surely have been avoided by the ascetic Samanas. As the Buddha is superior to the Samanas‹he has reached Nirvana while they have not‹the fact that the Buddha is not uncomfortable with worldly trappings means that the Samanas were wrong in believing that renouncing the world is the only path to salvation. This again foreshadows Siddhartha's turning to a worldly life in Part II.

Siddhartha's immediate recognition of the Buddha highlights Siddhartha's uniqueness, especially in contrast to Govinda, whom we are told recognizes the Buddha only when he is pointed out. The initial descriptions of the Buddha are important in understanding the concept of Nirvana, the goal for which Siddhartha strives. Hesse tells us that the Buddha's "peaceful countenance was neither happy nor sad," so the experience of Nirvana cannot be reduced to an emotions such as happiness (28). Rather than happy, the Buddha is content, peaceful and complete, lacking nothing: "Every finger of his hand spoke of peace, spoke of completeness, sought nothing, imitated nothing, reflected a continuos quiet, an fading light, an invulnerable peace" (28). Siddhartha's preternatural perception of all of this in the Buddha's manner speaks to the importance of this interaction between the Buddha and Siddhartha and helps explain Siddhartha's enchantment with the Buddha. "Never had Siddhartha esteemed a man so much, never had he loved a man so much" (28). It is important to recognize that this esteem and love is offered without ever hearing the Buddha speak. In fact, "[Siddhartha] was not very curious about the teachings" (28). This shift in focus from words and teachings to experiencing particular states of consciousness is very significant and sets the stage for the next stage in Siddhartha's quest.

The Buddha's actual sermon is an abbreviated allusion to Buddhism's Four Noble Truths. As Hesse puts it, "Life was pain, the world was full of suffering, but the path to the release of suffering had been found. There was salvation for those who went the way of the Buddha" (29). (It does not seem coincidental that the book is separated into two parts, part I with 4 chapters and part II with 8 chapters: there are Four Noble Truths to Buddhism and the Buddha's path to salvation is called the Eightfold path). This focus on suffering and the attainment of peace as the abolition of suffering is very important to the novel. This is central to Siddhartha's discussion with the Buddha, which forms the start of the climax of part I of the book.

There are two thematic concerns at the heart of Siddhartha and the Buddha's discussion, both of which we have discussed previously. The first relies on the relationship between seeking truth and seeking peace. To express the same point another way, the question is one of metaphysics or ethics, a question of reality, truth, and knowledge or how one should live one's life. Siddhartha tells the Buddha that his view of the universe as cause and effect, his metaphysics, is unimpeachable, but it seems to break down at a crucial point, the point at which we are able to escape from this causal chain, the point of salvation. The Buddha responds that the goal of his teaching is "not to explain the world to those who are thirsty for knowledge. Its goal is quite different; its goal is salvation from suffering. That is what Goatama teaches, nothing else" (33).

This means that the Buddha is privileging ethics over metaphysics. Finding peace from suffering is what matters, not discovering the true nature of ourselves or of the universe. This comports with the Buddhist doctrine of AnAtman, or no-soul, which denies the Hindu duality between the absolute reality of Brahman and the false reality of Maya. Given that the pain from which Siddhartha has tried to escape is specifically the pain of metaphysical ignorance, it is odd that he does not respond to the Buddha here. We will return to this question later, as it seems to be one of the unresolved issues in the novel.

Siddhartha then expresses doubt that the Buddha's teaching can ever bring someone to Nirvana. As Siddhartha says, "The teachings of the enlightened Buddha embrace much, they teach much‹how to live righteously, how to avoid evil. 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" (34). This secret, the experience of Nirvana, can only be reached by oneself. This, of course, seems true. Buddhism only tells you how to approach the goal because the nature of the goal is such that it can only be known first-personally achieved; it is a state of consciousness. For example, the fact that I cannot make you intoxicated by telling you what being intoxicated feels like does not mean that I cannot tell you how to become intoxicated yourself. Given this, Siddhartha's comments seem off the mark.

Siddhartha's commentary is really a metaphysical rather than an ethical point. Siddhartha believes that the Self as Atman will guide us through some sort of inner voice. This is why he denies the value of teachers; they distract one from this inner guide. The Buddha does not believe in the Atman, at least not in the same way, and so seems to believe that people can be taught to approach Nirvana. It is Siddhartha's metaphysics, then, his view of what the Self really is, that makes him dissatisfied with Buddhism. This is what Siddhartha is getting at when he responds that "I must judge for myself. I must choose and reject" (35). While the Buddha's path may work for some, it does not work for himself. He must follow his inner voice. If this is true, though, why does Siddhartha respond to the Buddha that there is nothing wrong with other people following his teachings. Is it that their inner voice tells them different things than Siddhartha's? How could this be if the Atman is really Brahman, the unity of all things. If their voices are the same, either they are right in following Buddha's path or Siddhartha is right in rejecting it. This problem raises tensions which are more fully developed in the next chapter.

In this final chapter of part I, Siddhartha reviews all of his experiences up to that point and comes to conclusions that will shape his future. First, he concludes that he is done with teachers. This was clear from the previous chapter. He then asks what he intended to learn from the teachers and answers that he sought to know the nature of Self. The way he expresses this is very interesting. He says, "truly nothing in the world has occupied my thoughts as much as the Self, this riddle, that I live, that I am one and am separated and different from everyone else, that I am Siddhartha" (38). This provides an enlightening interpretation of Siddhartha's quest, because it is the first time he considers the Self as a solitary unity apart from the substratum of Atman to which the ego is attached. He has sought that which unites him with all things instead of that which marks him as distinct, as Siddhartha.

Siddhartha admits this in the next paragraph, saying that "the reason why I do not know anything about myself...is due to one thing, to one single thing‹that I was afraid of myself, I was fleeing from myself. I was seeking Brahman, Atman,...the nucleus of all things....But by doing so, I lost myself on the way" (38). Yes, the view that the Self is Atman does commit one to identifying with a reality more expansive and objective than one's singular personality: that is precisely the point. That this seems as a shock to Siddhartha is surprising as his quest for the Self as Atman was made clear in the first chapter.

After this "awakening," Siddhartha commits himself to learning from himself and not search single-mindedly for Atman. While this seems a result of his previous experiences, a continuity with his previous behaviors, it is actually a radical shift, one which contrasts Siddhartha's path from any traditionally associated with Indian religion/philosophy. This concern with authenticity, being true to one's particularity, derives from a decidedly Western context, and it is in this direction that Siddhartha moves in this chapter. Moreover, it is not clear why Siddhartha makes this move. He has lost himself on the way, but it is not clear why this is bad. It was not an unexpected side-effect of his quest. It was the very heart of it. Hesse doesn't seem to make this any easier as he equivocates in his use of the term ŒSelf.' The only reason for change consistent with Siddhartha's past is that suggested by his conversation with the Buddha: his previous paths have not alleviated his suffering. This is a far cry from Siddhartha's present contention that he has failed because he has lost himself. Siddhartha's logic here seems obscure.

The effect of Siddhartha's contemplation is his denial of Hindu duality; he know longer believes that the world in which we commonly live is an illusion, Maya. As he says, "Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them" (40). Why he decides this, though, is not clear. All in all, it seems like a convenient way to conclude Siddhartha's life as a thinker, the first part of his tripartite quest. There seems to be no obvious connection between listening to one's inner voice and appreciating the diversity of the world. The voice is not necessarily any more part of the world‹and therefore sympathetic to it‹than the thought-centered Atman Siddhartha is now rejecting. In any case, Siddhartha agrees with the Buddha, and this transfiguration is meant to mirror the Buddha's awakening from under the Bodhi tree. But while the Buddha awakened to Nirvana, Siddhartha has not yet done this. Siddhartha is far from it. He is traveling another path, one brought out powerfully by the chapter's close. Somewhat surprisingly, the last two paragraphs of this chapter are a startling precursor to European Existentialism. Indeed, the sentence "At that moment, when the world around him melted away, when he stood alone like a star in the heavens, he was overwhelmed by a feeling of icy despair, but he was more firmly himself than ever," could have come from Kierkegaard or Sartre or Camus. This sense of harrowing solitude is against the deepest spiritual convictions of Indian thinkers and further underscores the extent to which Hesse is importing Western ideas into an Eastern context.

Siddhartha Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Siddhartha is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What did the supreme Buddha develop to reach enlightenment?

That would be the 4 noble truths.

Siddhartha wants to leave his privileged life for what?

He wants to seek enlightenment.

What is Siddhartha’s initial reaction to his son’s request?

He refuses his son's request to leave the home.

Study Guide for Siddhartha

Siddhartha study guide contains a biography of Hermann Hesse, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Siddhartha
• Siddhartha Summary
• Character List
• Part I Summary and Analysis
• Related Links

Essays for Siddhartha

Siddhartha literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Siddhartha.

• The Effects of Society on the Individual's Quest for Divine Understanding
• Enlightenment on the River
• Self-Discovery and Its Discontents: Siddhartha's Journey
• Family in Siddhartha
• The Different Paths

Lesson Plan for Siddhartha

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Siddhartha
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Siddhartha Bibliography

E-Text of Siddhartha

Siddhartha E-Text contains the full text of Siddhartha

• Part I: The Son of the Brahman
• Part I: With the Samanas
• Part I: Gotama
• Part I: Awakening
• Part II: Kamala

Wikipedia Entries for Siddhartha

• Introduction

52 Siddhartha Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best siddhartha topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 most interesting siddhartha topics to write about, 👍 good research topics about siddhartha.

• The Role of Teachers in “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse Vasudeva, the ferryman and the river act as the best teachers for Siddhartha in his pursuit for enlightenment; however, one cannot undermine the role played by his own father, the Samanas, Kamala, Kamaswami and Buddha […]
• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse This is a young man who decided to go in search of his “I” because he wished to know the essence of the world and acquire wisdom.
• Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) Apart from secondary data, more information was also obtained from primary sources for instance, through interviews with some of the old people of the Buddhism society, who had information about who the person was and […]
• Novel Analysis: The Great Gatsby and Siddhartha Hesse’s Siddhartha seems complementary to The Great Gatsby as Brahman, the main role in Siddhartha, finds contentment in self-realization and not in money, sensuality, and love.
• Love in Hesse’s “Siddhartha” and Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” He is the founder and leader of Macondo, and during his life, he never stops striving for knowledge. Siddhartha’s quest for the Self is developed by three major events including his meeting with Buddha, his […]
• Siddhartha’s Monomyth: Journey to Self-Knowledge The first part of the paper will focus on the study of Siddhartha’s character throughout the seventeen stages of the monomyth.
• Siddhartha Gautama and Buddhism The knowledge is summarized in the four noble truths, which include life means suffering, the cessation of suffering is attainable, the origin of suffering is attachment, and the path to the cessation of suffering.
• Changes Through the Journey The difference of Siddhartha at the beginning of the story and at the end of it is obvious. Having understood personal place in this world and the purpose of personal being, Siddhartha is sure that […]
• Siddhartha Gautama’s Biography and Spiritual Journey The teachings did not contain the experience of the Buddha and that he was the only one who knew what had happened to him.
• The Symbol of the River in “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse
• The Themes and Motifs of Time, Love, and Morality in “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse
• Eco Spiritual Concerns in Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha”
• The Quest for Self Discovery in Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha”
• The Four Noble Truths in Siddhartha’s Journey to Self-Enlightenment
• The Philosophy in a Novel “Siddhartha” About a Life of a Man Named Siddhartha
• Uniting Mind, Body, and Spirit in Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha”
• The Symbolic Use of Rivers Towards Enlightenment in “The Divine Comedy” and “Siddhartha”
• The Spiritual Journeys of “Siddhartha” and Jed Cavalcanti in “Castello Cavalcanti”
• Culture in the Novel “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse
• The Theme of Identity in Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha” and Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”
• The Power of the River in Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha”
• The Mythemes and Literary Devices Used in “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse
• Hesse’s “Siddhartha” as It Parallels Maslow’s Hierarchy of Demands
• The Search for Enlightenment in “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse
• The Similarities and Differences Between Jesus Christ and Siddhartha Gautama
• Internal Conflict in Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha”
• The Timelessness and the Cyclic Nature of Life in the Novel “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse
• Comparing the Theme of Self Discovery in “Demian” and “Siddhartha”
• Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction in “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse
• The Path of Enlightenment and the Philosophy of Truth in “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse
• Govinda’s Importance in “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse
• The Use of Hesse’s “Siddhartha” to Reflect the Legendary Atmosphere of Buddha
• Function of Kamala in Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha”
• The Concept of Choosing a Dangerous Path Over Subjugation in the Novel “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse
• Ways to Attain Nirvana in “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse
• Significance of Language and Communication in “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse
• The Impact of Choices on Spirituality in Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha”
• Enlightenment and Siddhartha’s Reunion With Vasudeva
• The Differences of Suffering in “Siddhartha” and in “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”
• The Use of Nature in “Siddhartha” and “A Doll’s House”
• The Search for Wisdom in “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse
• The Reasons Why Philosophy Is Important in “Siddhartha” and in Our Daily Lives
• Manifestations of Parental Love in Herman Hesse’s “Siddhartha”
• The Importance of Surroundings in “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse and “The Stranger” by Albert Camus
• The Teachers in the Book “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse
• A Comparison of “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller and the Novel “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse
• The Spiritual Enlightenment in “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse
• The Life and Journey to Enlightenment of Siddhartha
• Hermann Hesse’s Disillusionment With Society Revealed in “Siddhartha”
• The Role of Teachers in Herman Hesse’s “Siddhartha”
• A Rose for Emily Research Topics
• A Streetcar Named Desire Titles
• The Alchemist Questions
• The Bluest Eye Titles
• The Cask of Amontillado Research Ideas
• The Awakening Questions
• The Crucible Research Topics
• Oedipus the King Essay Topics
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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The rise of the Hindu Right

Siddhartha deb’s twilight prisoners outlines the contribution of the liberal elite to the emergence of the narendra modi regime..

Published : Aug 21, 2024 11:00 IST - 5 MINS READ

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Survivors of the 1984 gas disaster burning an effigy of Union Carbide outside the company’s abandoned factory premises in Bhopal on December 3, 2018.   | Photo Credit: FARUQUI A.M.

There has been plenty of commentary on the evolution of Hindu nationalism in India over the past decade. Many of these works—with honourable exceptions, of course—tend to frame this story in a linear trajectory, the main themes of which are centred around the origin of the RSS, the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and Babri Masjid demolition, the Gujarat riots and Narendra Modi.

Amid these academic writings that have flooded the intellectual space in India, Siddhartha Deb’s Twilight Prisoners: The Rise of The Hindu Right And The Decline of India stands out .

Twilight Prisoners: The Rise of the Hindu Right and the Decline of India

Pages: ‎232, price: rs.599.

The book draws on a series of essays the author wrote over the past decade that allows readers to immerse themselves in the hydra-headed world of Hindutva and its multidimensional matrix in which Hindu nationalism took decades to gestate and make itself manifest in the most sinister of ways.

The highlight of the book is clearly its evocative writing through which Deb sketches out the gradient layers in which India’s political, social, and cultural realities fan out and turn into an intersectional point for the many dynamics that enable Hindutva to find expression.

Book cover of Twilight Prisoners: The Rise of the Hindu Right and the Decline of India by Siddhartha Deb  | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement

The “loud expert voices” that paved Modi’s way to power

As Deb demonstrates, the rise of Hindutva could not have been possible without tacit acceptance from the country’s aspirational demographic group that envisioned India as a rising power. The imbrications between modern narratives about India, with all their secular pretensions, and the Hindu nationalism that the country’s electorate eventually delivered are hard to miss. As Deb writes, in the run-up to the 2014 parliamentary election, it was the “loud expert voices” from a seemingly well-heeled section of the liberal diaspora that “bolstered the triumphal narrative” around Modi’s “economic miracle”.

Arvind Panagariya of Columbia University, for example, would deny that malnutrition (which Gujarat reels under as badly as the rest of the country) was responsible for stunted growth among millions of Indian children. Instead, genetic limitation was to be blamed.

Also Read | ‘We must push back, otherwise we’ll live in a police state’: Siddhartha Deb

This kind of myth-making that backed Modi led citizens to ignore some of the glaring inconsistencies of his economic model. For instance, while the media trumpeted Modi’s decision to offer the Tatas space to set up a car-manufacturing unit for their flagship project Nano in 2008 in Gujarat, how the low-cost vehicles were later found to be vulnerable to fire hazards was overlooked.

The hype about “Islamic terrorism”

The centrist discourse originating from sections of India’s liberal elite also fed into the hype about “Islamic terrorism”, cementing India’s transformation into a security state that grew suspicious of its Muslim citizens. This narrative struck deeply with Indians, migrating as they were to the West in the early 2000s, propelled by the IT boom. Indians could conveniently shut their eyes to the bloodletting taking place in Gujarat and, instead, seize on the West’s troubles with the Muslim world to give expression to their own deep-seated bigotries.

“The lethal gas leak in Bhopal in 1984 that killed more than 20,000 people over the course of several years was, for all intents and purposes, connected to the country’s Green Revolution.”

A list of familiar tropes spun in the media would soon become part of received wisdom: “India was an ally in the marketplace and in the war against Islamism, and it was a contrast to both the overly religious, anti-Western militancy that would consume Pakistan and the godless manipulation of market capitalism in China,” Deb writes.

From this new culture, built around the shibboleths of materialism, a kind of “white man’s Indian” was finessed into shape, exemplified in the narratives of Western intellectuals like Thomas Friedman, whose book The World Is Flat Indians grew increasingly enamoured of. There is an uncanny overlap between the reworking of the discursive space within India and the arrival of Modi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the nation on Independence Day in 2014. | Photo Credit: SAURABH DAS/AP

Although the rise of the Hindu Right in India was not an overnight process, it was already presaged by the major premonitory trends unfolding in the late 20th and early 21st century.

The lethal gas leak in Bhopal in 1984 that killed more than 20,000 people over the course of several years was, for all intents and purposes, connected to the country’s Green Revolution, which had precipitated a voracious appetite for pesticides, especially those backed by Western science, the wisdom behind which the Indian government would have hardly doubted. The Union Carbide factory that manufactured these toxicants in Bhopal was already beset by concerns over safety issues. The company itself had horrendous origins, linked as it was to the legacy of gas chambers in Europe.

Emerging out of this rank nexus between capitalism and nation-building was the enthronement of the security doctrine as the cornerstone of India’s state policy. The brilliantly written chapter about the crackdown on Burmese dissidents sheltering in Manipur, who had launched an uprising against the military junta in Myanmar, hammers home this point very well.

Also Read | Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan

The author has welded the essays in the book into a consistent narrative, with the chapters linked dialogically to each other. Deb’s account of the Hindu Right’s obsession with Vedic “technology” apparently found in ancient Hindu scriptures; the assassination of dissenters critical of Hindutva; and the weaponisation of law enforcement agencies, along with the use of military-grade spyware to frame social activists on trumped-up charges— all add to the coherence of his storytelling.

The book concludes with the author’s rendezvous with Arundhati Roy, one of India’s leading public intellectuals. The conversations are sharp and immersive, offering a vital window into Roy’s world, tracing her journey from being a student of architecture, to getting crowned as the country’s foremost critic. Perhaps, the author wishes to remind us that the acclaim Roy has attracted is symbolic of the broader resentment over the kind of degeneration that India has experienced, and that such a resentment is a natural corollary to the path that Hindutva is traversing. 

Shakir Mir is a freelance journalist and book critic based in Srinagar.

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