review of siddartha

What is life? Ask Hesse.

‘Om is the bow, the arrow is soul
The Brahman is the arrow’s target
That one should incessantly hit.’
Herman Hesse, a German writer begins the novel ‘Siddhartha’ with this verse in his first section. For him, Om, the perfection achieved by awakening the soul should incessantly hit the target i.e., painful and measurable life as of a Brahman, the lazy in-charge of offerings. Indeed, life is full of sufferings. All and sundry seeks some sort of peace in course of living, albeit possession of tacks and splinters in it. Hesse attempts to discover the causes of sufferings and discloses solutions to maintain them through this novel. Of course, Hesse has achieved a success with his character Siddhartha delivering the reality of life.
` Siddhartha, the protagonist is a son of Brahman whose daily duty is to perform rituals and make offerings. His friend, Govinda also grew in a similar fashion. But Siddhartha is contemplative; therefore, he thinks – who is Brahman? Can the ablutions of Brahman wash off the sins? But they are water, they do not heal the spirit’s thirst, they do not relieve the fear in their heart. The sacrifices and invocations of the gods are excellent – but is that all? Do the sacrifices give the happy fortune? And about the gods? Are the gods not creations, created like me and you subject to time, mortal? Is it therefore god, right, meaningful and the highest occupation to make offerings to the god? For whom else are the offerings to be made, who else to be worshipped but him, the only one, the Atman? Where is Atman to be found? Where is this innermost part, this ultimate part? He contemplates and makes the decision that even the best wisdom of his father and other Brahmans cannot fill his expecting vessel. So, he takes a decision to be a Samana, an ascetic. Govinda gives him a company.
At first, it disheartens Siddhartha’s father but he is reluctant to accept it for Siddhartha’s blissfulness. Siddhartha, along with his friend, Govinda joins Samana. Now, they are no longer Brahmans and are far away from homes. Since they hear about exalted Buddha, Gotama in the town of Savithi, they long to listen his teachings. Siddhartha makes an objection in his teaching; he does not believe only the words. Meanwhile, Govinda decides to be a disciple of Gotama. Now the company betrays him. Here, Hesse shows the common pain of human life.
Siddhartha walks in his thoughts and asks himself, ‘But what is this, what I have sought to learn from teaching and from teachers, and what they, who have taught me much, were unable to teach? He finds, ‘It is the self I want to free myself from, which I seek to overcome.’ In this way, he overcomes his self.
In the second part of the novel, he enters the city and meets the beautiful Kamala in her sedan-chair. He has a goal now and allows the city to suck him in. Her beauty lures him, now he has a lust; therefore, he expects some kisses from Kamala. But how does a beautiful lady kiss a Samana who is from the forest? He succeeds in getting kisses over the freshly cracked fig which he often compares to her mouth through his charming verses that is full of Kamala’s appreciation. Now, the story has a great twist, a climax. Slowly, a Samana becomes no longer a Samana as he drowns in seduction and lust. He experiences noble thing with Kamala’s help, he becomes a merchant when he gets a company of the great merchant, Kamaswami. He involves in gambling, buying and selling as a pure merchant. He is in the game of Sansara.
Kamala also becomes pregnant as she longs for a child. But Siddhartha does not notice it. He leaves the town with repentance. Now there is no destination at all but he reaches at the same river where he had reached before. He thinks of suicide but falls asleep. He meets a ferryman who had ferried him before. He stays in his hut and learns the river’s language. It means he gets enlightenment with the aid of ferryman.
Govinda was the one who meets his friend as a ferryman, much enlightened. He longs to know some noble things from Siddhartha. Certainly, Siddhartha was a complete man experiencing repentance and blissfulness both in living to make a full circle of life. It depicts the full circle of life as Siddhartha changes from Brahman- Samana- merchant to an exalted ferryman.
Hesse, albeit a German writer, has clearly reflected the life from the Buddhist philosophy. His writing is so smooth that one may be drowned completely seeking for the immaculate source to reduce suffering. The entire issue is humans’ pain; therefore the readers find involving themselves with Hesse’s words. The statement like, ‘Love can be obtained by begging, buying, receiving it as a gift, finding it in the street but it cannot be stolen’ touches the common hearts. When Hesse makes Siddhartha utter the expression, ‘Searching means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.’ it becomes close to our lives.
But Hesse is not so much honest in maintaining coherence of a plot as he makes the gigantic twist in the second section. It becomes unimaginable to see a Samana changes into a lustful merchant in no time. Hesse seems to have ended his novel in hasten as it has left the rooms for some comments to be made. Post modernists may claim it is fine but to me, if Hesse had made his character Siddhartha, the exalted one meet the ferryman and other monks to deliver his words of lively experience, I suppose there would have been much justice even in reference to readers who seek for solutions to sufferings. Nonetheless, it is an impeccable novel with noble philosophical taste; therefore, Hesse is highly credited.

Sagun Shrestha