My Thoughts on Herman Hesse's 'Siddhartha'

Siddartha is a paradox, and leaves me more confused than I was.

Siddhartha is the journey of a man through his life. The start of the book resembled that of The Buddha's journey and the misleading book covers and some pretentious reviews on the net made me think that this was indeed the journey of how Gowtama became The Buddha. However, this book is about a common man, a man who doesn't heed to the teachings of The Buddha. He didn't care what the words were; he gave importance to the experience indeed.

I think the author was trying to answer a question that I have been trying to answer myself for the longest time. That is probably why this book has resonated so deeply with me.

Why is there only one Buddha? Why is there only a single 'Enlightened One'?

The answer according to the author is that everyone paid attention to the words of the Buddha, but even He couldn't put his enlightenment into meaningful words. The experience that the Buddha had during his hour of enlightenment, cannot be communicated in any known way to others, and sadly died with the great one himself. Buddha gave us the four noble truths and eight-fold path, all which are virtuous and practical. Yet, nobody--that we know of--has reached that stage of enlightenment.

From this realization stemmed the true path of enlightenment for our Siddhartha, first as a householder, then a merchant, and finally to a ferryman. There are no great quotes, no striking comments on life.

It is a man seeking the innermost part of his Self. That part of his Self which is truly him, which is not made up by him or the world, which is not touched by others or even by himself. That part of himself from which he, Siddhartha, blooms. For me, this is the true meaning of the word spirituality-- the search for the untouched, ethereal spirit that defines the term 'I am'.

So, why is the book a paradox?

If the rotten planks in the ship of Theseus are replaced with new planks will it still be the ship of Theseus? Will the Siddhartha, who changes his thoughts and beliefs, who changes the food he eats--and mind you that same food makes him up--, who changes his very directions of his life quite a number of times. Is he still the same Siddartha? The quest to find that entrenched, embedded part of you seems to change you in all ways possible. What he finds out, I can't say...because that is the essence of this book. It is a paradox. The book teaches you to learn only from experience and not from any teaching. So, how am I supposed to learn anything from this book?

And yet, if there is one thing that stood out in the book, it is to love and spread love irrespective of whatever comes in the way. I can only put it as vaguely--and maybe as corny--as this, the rest needs to be known only by reading the book.

Siddhartha was life altering to me in so many ways, I think I finally got some solace to my seeking nature, and maybe I will be able to become a finding person. But I know this for sure; henceforth I will only learn from experiences and their conclusions.