Siddhartha

Rating:
Summary: The quintessential journey
Review: I re-read this work after I re-visited the highly overlooked, "Demian" by the same author. Though "Siddhartha" has a completely different goal in mind--that of conveying the story of the very person who "founded" what became Buddhism--"Demian" is another gem worth reading.

As some others have commented here, I ,too, read this book while I was a student--19 years old--and it is so different in reading it as an older person! I almost want to say that is what makes this work so powerful (as well as "Demian") because it seems to be written for that very important, transitional age group--the late adolescent. That just seems to be the right age to receive these works.

What prompted all this re-reading, though, is a much newer novel that deals with late-stage adolescence as it is about to metamorphose. I'm talking about the lesser known, "Simon Lazarus". Strongly recommend (note the Eckhart Tolle statements on the back cover--all true.)

Rating:
Summary: Stunning...
Review: A close friend of mine has been pestering me for quite some time to read this boook...and I finally concured last Wednesday. I took the book home from school, sat down outside, and began to read. I was immediately engrossed...immediately amazed at this ingenious work of art.

The story is about a young man in ancient India named Siddhartha. He came from a long line of Hindus, and embraced and sought refuge in his faith for many years. One day...he decided that religion just wasn't cutting it for him, so he set off to become a samara (traveling monk). He learned to meditate...to fast...to wait. He started to become one with his surroundings, and lived for three years in an intimate spiritual state. However, something was still missing. He saw the elder monks...desperately seeking Nirvana their entire lives, and making little progress. Siddhartha left these monks, and encountered Buddha. I'll leave it there, as to not give away the ending.

"Siddhartha" is a masterpiece...beautiful in its simplicity. A most intimate tale of self-discovery, change, falls from grace, and rebirth. A very easy and very short read, I recommend it to anyone. Christian or Buddhist, philosophical or secular, all can benefit.

Rating:
Summary: A remarkable, life altering novel.
Review: Herman Hesse's "Siddhartha" is one of the greatest tales of self-discovery, love and the meaning of life. "Siddhartha" is loosely based on the lives of Gotama Buddha and the author, and describes the journey of Siddhartha as he looks for the meaning of life, hoping to achieve a greater state of being known as nirvana. What makes "Siddhartha" such a remarkable story is that it is not like a novel, but rather a manual to find your soul It is not simply the story of one man, but the story of all men for eternity and their quest to find eternal happiness and the answer to the question: What is my purpose in the world?

This was a remarkable novel because Hesse is able to tell a tale about a character living hundreds of years ago, and make it relevant today. This book should be read by high school students around the world because it can teach people to listen to themselves. It is not relevant only in Indian culture but in every culture around the world. It can show students that knowledge and wisdom are completely different. Knowledge is something that can be obtained by listening to teachers and parents. Wisdom however, can only be obtained by living life for you, though experience.

Rating:
Summary: Being Is A River...
Review: Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha is a parable about the dream of attaining bliss and discovering the truth about the one path. The story recounts the story of a young man who meanders through life, after departing his father's home, only to flow from a life of abstinence and piety to one of wantonness and lust only then to reach a tree at the foot of a river where pausing for a sojourn he begins to truly undertake the flight of his dreams towards the content inner self.
On his way Siddhartha learns life and happiness from many and yet finds that none can teach him what he wants to learn. Perhaps great people can not love, he tells himself.
In the short story Hesse, himself at conflict with his parent, life and often mentally at odds with his world, steers the reader away from conventional thinking on love, happiness and the meaning of existence. He casts the quest in a different light than most and indirectly imparts the wisdom that all things described are arrived at through passages which are personal and self-attained. Teaching is good, but learning is better. To hear one has to seek; not trust in the voice of another. To see one must look around himself; not be shown. One has to find his own way in this world and the guiding and soothing words of a wise man are not to be interpreted for others.
Siddhartha teaches that the river is not a metaphor for life, but is life itself. It can even teach one to think, to wait and to fast if one listens well enough.


Rating:
Summary: Revolutionary
Review: Hesse tells the story of a young man, Siddhartha, who is set on finding enlightenment and thus happiness. Initially, Siddhartha adheres to the teachings of his father, but after years of meditation and adulation, he was unhappy. No one had shown him the way to enlightenment. Set on finding it, he embarks on a new journey, with his friend, Govinda, and joins the Samanas. After awhile, Siddhartha feels the same discontent. His teachers, the Samanas, still have not shown him the way to enlightenment, and at this point, he parts with his friend and teachers and attempts to live the life of ordinary people. Although, at first, Siddhartha learns a great deal about business and the art of lovemaking, he again becomes bored and unhappy. He is caught in Samsara, the ways of the world, and once he realizes this, he is disgusted with himself. He leaves all of his riches behind and commences a new journey.

The book is a treat to read. In addition, it has profound wisdom to impart to the reader. In a sense, a revolutionary message permeates the book; this message goes hand and hand with Siddhartha's desire to find enlightenment. Every time Siddhartha attempts to gain enlightenment by following the paths of others, he fails. At one point, he says, "No, a true seeker could not accept any teachings, not if he sincerely wished to find something." The message it sends to the reader is that one can only find enlightenment by listening to the wisdom deep within one. The teachings of others will not necessarily help one achieve true happiness because, according to Siddhartha, "wisdom is not communicable." For instance, Siddhartha believed that the illustrious Gotama, the Buddha, achieved enlightenment, while the followers of Buddha, such as Govinda, may never find it by adhering to the Buddha's teachings. Nevertheless, although Siddhartha's path was arduous, he eventually attained enlightenment by listening to himself and to the wisdom of nature.

Rating:
Summary: A mystical quest for the truth of our existence
Review: Hesse's Siddartha is a compelling story and a book that almost hypnotizes the reader with its simple, subtle approach to wisdom and existence. It combines the enigmatic brevity of the haiku with the matter-of-fact narrative of an Icelandic saga, all within a Hindu-Buddhist framework infused with Hesse's own brand of Western existencialism.

The young man Siddharta, the Brahmin's son, is precocious and learns at an early age the traditional ways of worship and meditation. He eventually grows dissatisfied with their approach to salvation, and with his good friend Govinda he joins a wandering group of ascetic Samanas. During his life with the Samanas he learns the skills of 'thinking, waiting, and fasting'; but after three years he realizes that his old teachers have yet to find salvation, and that the ascetic life can not be the way he seeks. He and Govinda go to meet Buddha and listen to his teachings. Govinda decides to join Buddha's disciples, but Siddhartha will not accept the doctrine of the Illustrious one. He thinks that the Buddha is indeed a holy and enlightened man, but that such holiness and enlightenment can not be communicated. After living for a while as a rich merchant and learning "love" from a courtesan, Siddhartha eventually comes closer to what he has sought when he gives up his riches to live with Vasudeva, a ferryman. Through living with Vasudeva by the river he learns to listen, to fall and be drawn in, into the unity of all things. He learns to be and become without seeking, to abandon words, thoughts and the concept of time so as to better dissolve his Self into this all-encompassing whole.

Although this is in a certain sense a celebration of the individual journey to truth and salvation, and surely an existencialist work, it is much less Nietzschean that Hesse's Steppenwolf. The negation of the self, the limits of human communication, and the importance of observation and pure being is more reminiscent of Kierkegaard and especially Heidegger (although Siddharta precedes Being and Time). Mixed with ancient Eastern mysticism and philosophy and a truly unique and captivating style of writing, this little book offers more inspiration and food for thought than virtually any other book you can read.

Rating:
Summary: Adventures towards the Self
Review: I have not slept craving companionship or security from an inanimate object for years. The stuffed teddy bear of my childhood has long since been thrown away and I don't recall ever owning a blanky, à la Linus Van Pelt. I grew out of these sorts of things long ago. However, after unintentionally falling asleep while slowly reading Siddhartha in the dim light of my bed lamp, I woke to find myself clinging tightly to the book, as a child does a safety blanket. I admit that a paperback could hardly be considered soft or cuddly, but take my word on it, Siddhartha warms your heart all the same.

Here is a timeless story of self discovery told in a manner which is at once both simple and profound. Presented as the tale of a young boy experiencing the various trials and splendors of life while exploring eastern philosophy and learning about himself, the novel is actually a very easy read with everything presented in a straight forward fashion. Despite this, I continually found myself re-reading the same paragraphs and passages over and over again while slowing my pace to take everything in more gradually. As I did so, I wondered silently to myself what I was attempting to accomplish. Was I trying to find some hidden meaning amid the subtle words and simplistic messages? Could it be that I was merely attempting to absorb every drop of beauty and depth that I possibly could from the story and its plot? Is the answer both? Is it personal and dependant on myself (or my 'self')...?

This is one of the magical things which Siddhartha does, it makes you think. Repeatedly, the story of Siddhartha and his evolving perspective makes you ponder deeply about concepts which are, on the surface, very simple, but which all of us have made complex. Then all at once the book makes even the complexity beautiful... and for fleeting moments scatterred throughout the story everything becomes perfect, till as all things do, the moment passes and fades, so that you may read on.

Siddhartha is the first novel from this author that I have read. Hesse came to me highly recommended by many people and this book did not let me down in the slightest. On the contrary, I am rushing off to the bookstore now to search for more material that I might hope to delve a little deeper.

Rating:
Summary: Truly a masterpiece
Review: i have one grouse...most reviewers are not indians so they dont't seem to understand one basic point,A Brahmin is different from A Brahman.
A BRAHMIN is a person who belongs to the priestly class or caste,he is one who is supposed to be well versed with the vedas and upanishads.Not every one can be a brahmin,he/she has to be born to brahmins to be a brahmin I.e its hereditary.
A BRAHMAN is one who has realized himself and is in sync with the cosmos,he is also refered to as one with the cosmos.any one can become a brahman or one with the cosmos and doesnt have to do anything with the lineage.
i would recommend works of Shri Adi shankara to understand more about Brahman.

Rating:
Summary: Not a masterpiece!
Review: I loved HESSE more before I read this book. It is a story, just a simnple story and far away from human reality at least from my point of view. It is full of philosophical discussions about what life should be but I don't think it can be a guide for it.
I think that there will always be people who will like this book especially in the west, regarding the spiritual crisis expected to get serious dimensions in the following years, but not suffiecient for pragmatist people.
Anyway, not a very bad read.

Rating:
Summary: Profound - but with one big shortcoming
Review: I read this book in my junior year of college. I thought it was profound. It was one of my favorite books. I'm glad I re-read it now that I am 51-years-old. It is not one of my favorite books anymore.

Siddhartha is fine literature and deeply insightful. It traces the life of an intelligent, sensitive young man of Eastern (Buddhist?) spirituality; from his youthful studies with the masters, through a period of self-conscious asceticism and self-rejection, through a period of self-indulgence and sensuality, ultimately to self-knowledge and peace as he becomes a ferryman living humbly in a small hut beside a river which teaches him many of the ultimate truths of life.

Siddhartha has a shortcoming that I did not see when I was young but I see now. This book is always and only about the self. Even when he finds salvation - Siddhartha finds it in himself. The path towards salvation is only internal - coming from self-denial, self-examination, self-discipline, self, self, self... Where compassion, charity, humility, and love exist, they exist as by-products of self-knowledge.

There are a great many truths in Siddhartha. Young people who are seeking should read this book. Siddhartha looked into the river and saw that life does not change. I suggest that things do change - and they change as a result of what we do. Like the young Siddhartha, the young reader of this book should pause for a while, then grow and move on. There are bigger things outside the self. You will find that Robert Frost spoke more truly when he said "[you] have promises to keep."