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Siddhartha is a narrative which explores the spiritual development that occurs over the course of a lifetime, emphasizing the process of discovery above all else. As Siddhartha comes to realize, this kind of personal growth cannot be achieved by following the teachings of others. Instead, the individual must forge their own path in order to reach a genuine understanding of the self and a sense of inner peace. Hesse takes the reader through each stage of Siddhartha’s quest for enlightenment and shows how, with each lifestyle he adopts, he gains a new perspective on the physical and spiritual worlds around him. Although this internal journey progresses upward and ultimately ends with Siddhartha achieving an elevated state of being, the path he takes to get there is not completely linear. He experiences numerous metaphorical deaths and rebirths throughout the course of the novel, and this structure reflects both the realities of self-exploration as well as the sense of timelessness that Siddhartha eventually discovers upon achieving enlightenment. Given the importance that Hesse places on the role of the individual, the internal struggle that Siddhartha experiences as he navigates these spiritual setbacks ultimately serves as the novel’s central conflict.
The first stage of Siddhartha’s journey focuses on his rejection of traditional approaches to spirituality, and this choice establishes the idea that enlightenment cannot come from external sources. As a young boy living among the Brahmins, Siddhartha struggles to feel spiritually fulfilled despite the fact that he participates in all of the rituals which religious leaders like his father agree will lead to Nirvana. His decision to leave home to join the Samanas, an event which serves as the novel’s inciting incident, marks his first attempt to look beyond the limits of his father’s teachings to find a practice that works for him. Siddhartha’s transition to an ascetic lifestyle also introduces the first of the novel’s many metaphorical deaths and rebirths as he tries to kill his physical senses, believing that this emptiness will allow him to experience enlightenment. When the Samanas’ practices render Siddhartha “just as far removed from wisdom…as a child in in the mother’s womb,” he and Govinda set out to find Gotama, the Buddha. This move begins the novel’s rising action and furthers Siddhartha’s understanding of what achieving enlightenment truly means. Meeting Gotama confirms his suspicion that the only way to truly find inner peace is to discover it individually as teachers cannot manifest Nirvana for their students.
The second major stage of Siddhartha’s quest for enlightenment takes him to the city where he indulges his physical senses with the help of Kamala and the childlike people there. Realizing that focusing purely on his spirituality was an ineffective approach to reaching enlightenment, Siddhartha expands his knowledge by experiencing worldliness in the extreme. His relationship with Kamala allows him to learn about himself, something that he was never able to do with the Brahmins, the Samanas, or Gotama. Ironically, however, this moment of awakening, or rebirth, intoxicates his soul and empties it of anything meaningful. The metaphorical death that Siddhartha feels as a result of years of overindulgence first appears in a dream he has before manifesting itself physically. Siddhartha has a vision in which he finds Kamala’s exotic bird dead in its cage, and this image foreshadows his own doom should he choose to stay in Kamala’s world permanently. Feelings of death continue to set in even after Siddhartha leaves the “childlike people” behind and drive him to consider committing suicide by drowning himself in the river. Upon seeing his reflection and hearing the “Om” come from the water, he falls into a deep sleep and, upon awakening, is reborn once again.
Having experienced both a purely spiritual life and a purely sensual life, Siddhartha spends the final years of his journey seeking balance by the river. With the mentorship of Vasudeva, the ferryman, Siddhartha begins to sense the divine essence and timelessness of the river. The arrival of his son in the wake of Kamala’s death, however, provides one final, external obstacle that Siddhartha must face before he can achieve true inner peace. The tension between father and son calls back to the disagreements between Siddhartha and his own father at the beginning of the novel, and realizing this similarity is what ultimately enables him to move beyond the suffering he feels after his son’s disappearance. Through both this experience and listening to the voices of the river, Siddhartha finally becomes in touch with the oneness of the universe, the climax of the novel. He understands that all aspects of the universe are inherently connected, that human experience is eternal, and that spiritual perfection requires an embrace of the oneness. These are the concepts which Siddhartha tries to express when Govinda, who aspires to meet the legendary ferryman, appears at the river. In the novel’s falling action, Siddhartha helps his old friend get one step closer to achieving inner peace himself by sharing his wisdom. This act reflects the power of Siddhartha’s awakened spirit and further illustrates the uniqueness of each individual’s journey to enlightenment.
