Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
"Siddhartha," a novel by Hermann Hesse, tells the story of a young Brahmin named Siddhartha, who is discontented despite his privileged upbringing. Accompanied by his devoted friend Govinda, Siddhartha embarks on a spiritual quest for self-discovery and enlightenment, initially joining a group of ascetics known as the Samanas. Despite mastering various ascetic practices, he realizes that suppressing his desires does not lead to true understanding and seeks out the teachings of Gotama Buddha. However, he ultimately decides that he must forge his own path to enlightenment, separate from the teachings of others.
Throughout his journey, Siddhartha experiences a wide range of life’s pleasures and pains, including love and ambition, as he indulges in a life of excess with the courtesan Kamala and the merchant Kamaswami. Following a period of deep reflection and a near-suicidal crisis, he finds solace by the river, where he learns valuable lessons about the nature of existence and the interconnectedness of all life. Eventually, Siddhartha becomes a ferryman, embodying the wisdom he has gained. The story culminates when Govinda visits him, recognizing Siddhartha’s enlightenment, which resonates with the teachings of the Buddha. This narrative explores themes of self-discovery, the quest for spiritual fulfillment, and the understanding of life's cyclical nature, making it a significant work in literature on personal and spiritual growth.
On this Page
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
First published: 1922; English translation, 1951
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Bildungsroman
Time of plot:ca. 563–483 b.c.e.
Locale: India
Principal Characters
Siddhartha , the protagonist, son of a BrahminGovinda , Siddhartha’s friend and followerKamala , the courtesanKamaswami , the merchantVasudeva , the ferrymanGotama , the historical Buddha
The Story
Siddhartha is a Brahmin’s son. He grows up with his friend Govinda. Handsome, intelligent, and graceful, he is loved by everyone—his parents, friends, society, and especially Govinda. At an early age, he listens to the teachings of his learned father, masters the required Brahminic texts, performs all prescribed religious rites, and practices the art of meditation. Govinda admires his friend’s superior intellect, strong determination, and high vocation. He knows that Siddhartha will be a great man someday, and he wants to be his friend and follower.
Siddhartha himself is not happy, however. His soul is restless. Dissatisfied with what the scriptures tell him, he wants to experience knowledge himself. An inner voice compels him to leave the idyllic peace and harmony of his father’s home and join the Samanas, a sect of ascetics who live a life of rigorous austerity in the forests. Govinda follows him like his shadow.
While living with the Samanas, Siddhartha learns many ways of losing the self. He learns how to mortify his flesh, to kill his senses, to suppress his ego, and to dwell at will in the bodies of dead birds and animals. He soon realizes that this flight from the self is only a temporary escape, not a permanent release from the life cycle. Still athirst for self-knowledge, he decides to leave the Samanas and goes with Govinda in search of Gotama Buddha.
Siddhartha meets Gotama Buddha in the Jetavana grove. He immediately recognizes that the Buddha has attained the peace of Nirvana, which he is still seeking. He listens to Gotama’s sermon on suffering, the cause of suffering, and the release from suffering through the Eightfold Path. He is impressed by Gotama’s enlightened presence, but he is not convinced by his teachings. He concludes that, in order to find Nirvana, one must experience what the Buddha experienced. He therefore resolves to conquer his self, like the Buddha. Govinda becomes a follower of the Buddha, leaving Siddhartha to wander alone on his solitary path to self-conquest.
Carrying an indelible impression of the Buddha’s personal example in his mind, Siddhartha turns to himself and says, “I will learn from myself, be my own pupil; I will learn from myself the secret of Siddhartha.” With this resolution, he experiences a new awakening and a sense of aloneness, for he decides to continue his quest alone and never to look back.
With this awakening, the world of appearance becomes palpable and real; it is no longer the veil of illusion that conceals the truth. Like a newborn child, he looks at the world with great wonder and curiosity. During the night, as he sleeps in a ferryman’s hut beside the river, he has a strange dream in which he embraces and kisses Govinda, but Govinda turns into a woman. For the first time, he feels the stirrings of sexual awakening.
He leaves the river and reaches a large town, where he falls in love with a famous courtesan, Kamala. Kamala tells him that he can gain her love only after he earns wealth, power, and prestige, and to help him acquire these things, she introduces him to a rich merchant, Kamaswami. With Kamaswami as his instructor in acquiring wealth and Kamala as his teacher in the art of love, Siddhartha begins to live in excess and surrenders himself to the world of senses, immersing every cell of his being into desire and carnal pleasure.
One night, Siddhartha has a dream that Kamala’s rare songbird dies in its golden cage and that he takes it out and throws it away on the road. Suddenly, he feels sad, as if he threw away the most valuable thing in his life. The next day, he leaves Kamala and his life of sensual experience and disappears into the forest.
During his wanderings through the forest, he comes back to the river and yearns to be submerged in death. As he is about to commit suicide, suddenly he hears the holy sound “Om” coming from the depths of his inner being and he recognizes the folly of his action. The holy sound awakens his slumbering soul, and he remembers all that he has forgotten. Murmuring Om, he sinks into a deep sleep.
On awakening from his long sleep, he finds Govinda watching over him, and he feels happy once again. It seems to him that the river has a special message for him. He therefore wants to listen to the river and learn from it. To understand the river and its secrets, he decides to remain by the river and become the helper of the old ferryman, Vasudeva. Siddhartha learns deep secrets from the river. He learns that there is no such thing as time past or future. There is only the present, just as the water of the river is in a state of continuous flux and yet it is everywhere at the same time, at its source and in the ocean, always the same. The voice of the river is for him “the voice of life, the voice of Being, of perpetual Becoming.”
Many years pass. One day, Kamala arrives with some followers of the Buddha. She dies in Siddhartha’s arms and leaves with him their son, who was born after his disappearance. Once again, Siddhartha experiences the pangs of love and loses his benign calm. He tries to win the boy’s affection and to keep him, but the son runs away, rebelling against him as he himself rebelled against his father years before. Vasudeva consoles Siddhartha in his suffering, but the river seems to laugh at his pain. Vasudeva tells him to listen to the river and to absorb its lesson. Siddhartha tries to listen more intently and discovers the interconnectedness of all life. From Vasudeva, as from the river, he learns about the unity of all things. After Vasudeva’s death, he becomes the ferryman, radiant and benign like his mentor, his face shining with the serenity of the inner awareness of the unity of all things.
Hearing about the old ferryman, Govinda comes to the river to see him. When he looks at the face of Siddhartha, he is reminded of the benign and peaceful smile of the Buddha. At Siddhartha’s request, when Govinda kisses him on the forehead, he no longer sees the face of his friend Siddhartha. Instead, he sees the multiplicity of all life-forms in various stages of development, even the gods, reflected in his unchanging countenance. He recognizes then that, like the Buddha, Siddhartha has attained perfect enlightenment and wisdom. In great reverence and humility, Govinda bows his head before his old friend and tears trickle down his cheeks.
Bibliography
Bishop, Paul. “Hermann Hesse and the Weimar Republic.” German Novelists of the Weimar Republic: Intersections of Literature and Politics. Ed. Karl Leydecker. Rochester: Camden, 2006. 45–60. Print.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Hermann Hesse. Broomall: Chelsea, 2003. Print.
Boulby, Mark. Hermann Hesse: His Mind and Art. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1967. Print.
Field, G. W. Hermann Hesse. Boston: Twayne, 1970. Print.
Hsia, Adrian. "Siddhartha." A Companion to the Works of Hermann Hesse. Ed. Ingo Cornils. Rochester: Camden, 2009. Print.
MacFarlane, Scott. “Siddhartha (1922): The Spiritual Quest.” The Hippie Narrative: A Literary Perspective on the Counterculture. Jefferson: McFarland, 2007. 85–91. Print.
Naik, B. Y. "Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha: A Recreation of the Buddha's Life." Studies in Literature in English. Vol. 13. Ed. Mohit K. Ray. New Delhi: Atlantic, 2007. 103–11. Print.
Otten, Anna, ed. Hesse Companion. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1977. Print.
Stephenson, Barry. "Siddhartha: Swabian Mysticism." Veneration and Revolt: Hermann Hesse and Swabian Pietism. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2009. 129–44. Print.
Timpe, Eugene E. “Hesse’s Siddhartha and the Bhagavad Gita.” Comparative Literature 10 (1969): 421–26. Print.
Tusken, Lewis W. Understanding Hermann Hesse: The Man, His Myth, His Metaphor. Columbia: U of South Carolina P, 1998. Print.
Zipes, Jack. “Hermann Hesse’s Fairy Tales and the Pursuit of Home.” When Dreams Came True: Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2007. Print.