In the shade of a banyan tree, a grizzled ferryman sits listening to the river. Some say he's a sage. He was once a wandering shramana and, briefly, like thousands of others, he followed Gautama the Buddha, enraptured by his sermons. But this man, Siddhartha, was not a follower of any but his own soul. Born the son of a Brahman, Siddhartha was blessed in appearance, intelligence, and charisma. In order to find meaning in life, he discarded his promising future for the life of a wandering ascetic. Still, true happiness evaded him. Then a life of pleasure and titillation merely eroded away his spiritual gains until he was just like all the other "child people," dragged around by his desires. Like Hesse's other creations of struggling young men, Siddhartha has a good dose of European angst and stubborn individualism. His final epiphany challenges both the Buddhist and the Hindu ideals of enlightenment. Neither a practitioner nor a devotee, neither meditating nor reciting, Siddhartha comes to blend in with the world, resonating with the rhythms of nature, bending the reader's ear down to hear answers from the river. --Brian Bruya
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
The River Laughs This allegorical tale of a Brahmin's son who gives up everything in the search for his self is, in my opinion, one of the masterpieces of the 20th century. The story is short and clear, with one foot in Buddhism and another in Modernism. The first time I read this book (during one sitting in a Toronto cafe), I fell in love with it. Now, after reading it for the second time, I feel as if it will be the book I keep by my side, through out my life, for whenever I need to be comforted. If you feel lost,... more info
You get back far more than what you put in I read this book in German (oh, hark at me!) but the language in it is so beautifully simple that I am sure the English translation provides an accurate rendering of the original. I would recommend Siddhartha to everyone. The fairy-tale-like atmosphere it evokes and its simple prose make it immediately accessible, and its brevity makes it readable even for those who are not otherwise avid readers. The message in it is deceptively simple: the way to contentment lies in a full experience and... more info
Interesting work of fiction, but not a 'religious experience'! The thing that makes this book interesting is that it is really an intellectualisation of Buddhist and Hindu thought. However, one thing I think got lost in translation is that the essential point of Buddhism is **practice** (meditation). In the book, Siddhartha reaches realisation only when he lets go of everything, but how do you 'let go' of everything? You can't just think it - otherwise you end up with a fake smile pretending to be enlightened while having all the same problems you had before. The... more info
Brilliant Hesse describes the spiritual development of Siddartha, a holy man who finds peace by discarding all doctrines and quest for knowledge and in stead becoming 'one' with the unity of the world and eternity.
Time is not real. Life is not about right or wrong, pleasure or suffering. Everything is a unity, with which all the components, ourselves including, flow and are one. Through great parts of his life, Siddartha seeks for his Self in order to destroy it and find peace, only to discover that this is not... more info
