Siddhartha: A spiritual Journey of Self-Discovery (Essay Sample)

Name Professor's Name Course Number Date Siddhartha: A spiritual Journey of Self-Discovery Siddhartha, a publication by Hermann Hesse, is a novel that seeks to give answers to profound questions pertaining love, individuality, self, and friendship. The plot revolves around the life of Siddhartha and Govinda sons of Bahraims, and their quest to understand Nirvana, or the way of life. Both characters have underlying desires to understand the way of life through divinity. Nevertheless, they differ in their ways and willingness to search for the truth. The path that Siddhartha follows is manifested in three principal stages namely; asceticism, prosperity, and reflection and evaluation of experiences which are the stages that enable him to attain his childhood goal of absolute wisdom and enlightenment. The publication takes a bibliographical theme which enhances a smooth transition of events during Siddhartha's journey. It makes the publication enticing and extremely captivating to the audience. The read starts with the departure of the persona from his home. Upon leaving home, Siddhartha makes several mistakes along the way. Nevertheless, he realizes his mistakes and yet again embarks on his path to Nirvana. The novel portrays an array of themes such as love, wisdom, spirituality, mortality, and dissatisfaction. Among the numerous themes in the novel, the theme of spirituality is manifested throughout the publication. This is from the time Siddhartha leaves his family, friends, and home in search of enlightenment until the end when he attains Nirvana. Siddhartha's spiritual journey to Nirvana succumbs under worldly pleasures along the way. It is manifested by how the pleasures suck Siddhartha in deeper and deeper until he loses his focus. The magnitude of his belief in spirituality is manifested when he refuses to learn the ways of enlightenment from others. Instead, he wants to experience it by himself through personal experiences. Upon leaving his home, Siddhartha joins a group of Samana in believe that he might attain Nirvana. The Samana was a group of wandering ascetics that Siddhartha thought had attained enlightenment and divine. The Samana's believed that self actualization can only be attained by a life of self deprivation, and wandering. Nevertheless, after a three year period, Siddhartha leaves them and instead opts to follow the teachings of Gotama. The role of Samana in the plot of the novel was to show that divinity alone cannot bring about self actualization. Asceticism in the life of Siddhartha marks his first stage to enlightenment. Asceticism has been characterized by a state self- mortification of all worldly pleasures. This is in search for contemplative ideologies about life as well as religious aspects. The protagonist, Siddhartha, denies himself material possessions in order to attain divinity. This phenomenon can be compared by the life that monks or hermits have in today's society. Since he was born in a wealthy family, Siddhartha tries asceticism to attain enlightenment. He was the son of a prince, Rajah (Soccio, Pg.43). He later finds out that he is not able to attain satisfaction through asceticism. He is frustrated after discovering that asceticism is merely a way for people to escape daily earthly tribulations. Siddhartha abandons his position as a future Brahmin priest after he discovers that asceticism is a sheer waste of time. This scene plays a prominent role in the plot development of novel, Siddharta. It shows that absolute divinity cannot bring about any form of wisdom otherwise gained through experience. It brings about the realization that divinity cannot yield any form of wisdom alone without experiencing events themselves. Siddhartha realizes that it is possible to attain knowledge through teachings, but wisdom cannot be attained by mere communication. The second phase in his journey to enlightenment is illustrated by Siddhartha's change of ways, from asceticism to wealth and prosperity. He abandons the learned ascetics and decides to take pride in acquiring earthly possessions. During this phase, he encounters Kamala a beautiful courtesan who later educates him about the arts of love (Goode, Pg.70). Upon their marriage, Siddhartha accepts Kamala as a teacher in the world of wealth and prosperity. Siddhartha describes Kamala as a good teacher who aided him on his path to enlightenment. This is by helping him see all that the world of possessions has to offer. Kamala plays a prominent role in this scene. She takes up the educative role of enlightening Siddhartha about the pleasures of the world. Her relationship with Siddhartha can be characterized to be that of one of a teacher and a student (Hesse, Pg.41). She helps Siddhartha see that material possessions cannot help him attain self actualization. Together with Kamala they have a child who further binds them together. Nevertheless, at the end of this phase, their bond is not built on transcendent love, but it is mutually beneficial. This is because, through Siddhartha, Kamala seems to attain relative peace if not enlightenment. After several years of living a materialistic life, Siddhartha evaluates on his life characterized by money, sex, and earthly possessions. He lives like a merchant based from two different decades, by learning about love from Kamala, and about wealth from Kamaswami CITATION Boo12 \l 1033 (BookCaps). Siddhartha again realizes that he has no meaningful thing in his life. He realizes that he is suffering from what is characterized as the soul sickness, which is supposedly attained by the rich people. This realization drives him into making a decision to leave Kamala and all the wealth he had amassed for her. He realizes that in order for someone to appreciate all things in life, a person must search for inner peace and wisdom. Earthly possessions despite how extensive they can be may not be enough for a person to attain Nirvana. From this phase, he also learns that in order to attain peace inner peace, a person must not necessary look for Nirvana. Instead, he should be ready to learn various life teachings and also appreciate all experiences that come along the way. The third stage in Siddhartha's life is marked with by his encounter with Vasudeva a ferryman while wandering in the woods (Bailey & Hoffman, Pg.142). Vasudeva plays a key role in the Siddhartha's quest at this stage. Vasudeva is depicted as an intelligent man in this phase. He enhances the theme of wisdom in the plot of the movie. Siddhartha becomes an apprentice to Vasudeva and also shares his life experiences with him. Siddhartha is fascinated on how another person can get so captivated by his narration through listening. After narrating his experiences, Siddhartha realizes that he attains self calmness and relief. He marvels at the power of listening that Vasudeva has. This phase marks the climax of the play. Through listening, Siddhartha learns about the interconnectedness of various life forms in the world. He achieves this after Vasudeva advises hi...