Siddhartha Gautama, who is later known as Buddha, was born in a small kingdom in ancient India. He is the son of Queen Maya and King Suddhodan. Maya was returning to her parents home for the birth of her child, she stopped on part of the long journey for a rest and as she entered into the forest she fell into a trance. She remembered a dream she had the day she conceived her child about a baby elephant that...
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​To start off this reaction paper, I am going to list the books I have read and the YouTube video I have watched to form this reaction paper. The first part of this paper will be about my reaction to Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. The second part of this paper will be about my reaction to the YouTube video titled, “Letting Go of God” by Julia Sweeney. The final part of this paper will be about my reaction to Black...
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In Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, the main character, Siddhartha perseveres through a tedious mission for Nirvana. Throughout his entire life, Siddhartha had been advised to stop allowing the six Ripus to blockade him, with their lustful thoughts. Even though Siddhartha is truly proficient, he does not feel satisfied and wishes to enter Maya to be with his friend Atman. He accepts that enlightenment must be accomplished through individual understanding, as opposed to the understanding of others. Hesse recommends that learning is...
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Author Richard Rohr has said “Transformation is more about unlearning than learning”, a claim the title character in Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha would certainly agree with. The protagonist is able to reach enlightenment not through ceaseless purity, but through sin, specifically the seven deadly sins. Siddhartha enters a world of lust, gluttony, sloth, greed, pride, wrath and envy, and only after having personally experienced them can he instead choose virtue. In Siddhartha’s own words, “I had to sin, to be able...
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What does the river symbolize? How significant is to Siddartha’s quest for enlightenment? Throughout the novel, there are many intelligent references to earth like elements to help the reader connect and understand Siddartha and the way he thinks. The entirety of the novel is about Siddhartha’s journey through life and finding oneself. The book takes place during the time of the Buddah and this gives Siddhartha a chance to meet him and to seek knowledge and to find enlightenment. Him...
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Hermann’s Hesse’s novel Siddhartha and The Guide by R.K. Narayan both portray protagonists or rather main characters who somehow grow and go through a transformation throughout their story. When we first meet Siddhartha, he is a respected member of the Brahman caste, however, he becomes a Samana, and goes on a journey with the goal of becoming enlightened. Raja on the other hand, is a con artist who’s in the merchant or working class in India. Although he is a...
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In the Bhagvad-Gita, the author implies that enlightenment is gained through teachings whereas in the Siddhartha it is implied through one’s own experiences. Siddhartha spends most of his life doing things that most everyone tends to do, living by the ways and rules of society. He abides by all the foundations, makes a way to perform the rituals and does what is expected of him by all the individuals of his village and his father but remains unhappy. Day after...
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Hermann Karl Hesse was born in 1877, even when he was a little boy, he had an amazing mind, as his Mother Marie puts it in a letter to her husband… “The little fellow has a life in him, an unbelievable strength, a powerful will, and, for his four years of age, a truly astonishing mind. How can he express all that?” (Hesse). As a child he was seriously depressed, his grandfather introduced him to his library and this is...
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Bennett explains in his article that Siddhartha “focuses most specifically on three principal themes, the nature of the self, the nature of knowledge, and the essential unity of all things.” This novel is important because Siddhartha “follows his own personal path instead of just following the Buddha’s or anyone else’s doctrines,” (Bennet 1). While Hesse’s novel mostly focuses “on various Hindu or Buddhist principles,” it also focuses on “symbolic lyricism,” (…) (what’s missing here?) Herman Hesse evokes its deeper meaning...
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