Siddhartha

 

                        Siddhartha - when one hundred years have passed.

It is a rare novel in the world of literature. Even after 100 years, the novel by Hermann Hesse  (1877-1962 ) shakes the reader as a deep reading experience. Siddhartha brings the readers to the absolute truth that life is a journey everyone's life is different and the experience of another cannot be transferred. 

The novel Siddhartha was published in 1922. It continues to influence readers all over the world even after 100 years. Regardless, we see in Siddhartha the journey of man from childhood to adolescence, from youth to old age, the paths he takes, the answers he tries to find, the changing perspectives on the journey, and the goal.

It is not the knowledge that someone else has understood or told that satisfies a seeker of truth, but the truth that he obtains through his own experience. Finding this truth is his goal. It is a journey. Every journey has a path. What is that path? This is the thought that the author carries through the writing of each character. Siddhartha discovers that he remains poor in spirit despite having everything.

*"As the son of a Brahmin, Siddhartha enjoys comfort and privilege while sequestered in his home village. However, as he grows older, his heart is moved by a burning desire to acquire wisdom and new experiences. Telling his father his intentions, Siddhartha and his childhood friend, Govinda, leave the safety of home to join the Samanas, a group of wandering ascetics.

As Hermann Hesse’s novel unfolds, we follow Siddhartha in his search for meaning and truth in a world of sorrow and suffering. Drawing on both Hindu and Buddhist teachings, Siddhartha expertly explores the tension between the doctrinal dictates of organized religion and the inner promptings of the soul. As Siddhartha grows older, a fundamental truth gradually becomes apparent both to him and to us: there is no single path to self-growth, no one formula for how to live life. Hesse challenges our ideas of what it means to lead a spiritual life, to strive after, and to achieve meaningful self-growth through blind adherence to a religion, philosophy, or indeed any system of belief.

We should, rather, seek to seize hold of the reality of each moment, which is always new, alive, and forever changing. Hesse uses the potent symbol of a river to convey this sense of vibrancy and flux. The particular brilliance of this novel is how its profound message is delivered through prose that flows as naturally and shimmeringly as the surface of the river beside which Siddhartha spends the final years of his life."

(*source: Britannica - Christopher Gregory )

Siddhartha leads readers to the truth that life is a constant stream of joyous moments rather than despair.

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Hermann Hesse, born on July 2, 1877, in Calw, Germany, was a renowned German novelist and poet. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. The main theme of his work focuses on the individual's struggle to break free from the established norms of society and discover their true spirit and identity.

When Siddhartha was initially published in German, it failed to gain much recognition. However, when it was released in English in 1951, it was highly embraced by young readers who were in pursuit of spiritual enlightenment. As of its hundredth anniversary in 2022, it has sold over four million copies in the United States alone.