SUMMARY
Siddhartha was the son of a handsome Brahmin (a scholar/member of the highest of the 4 social classes) and grew up with his best friend Govinda. He was well-spoken and very knowledgeable thanks to his father’s teachings and was experienced in the art of contemplation and meditation. He made his parents proud because of his thirst knowledge and good health. His friend Govinda as well as everyone absolutely loved him. Despite having a very good life, Siddhartha himself was not happy. He had a feeling that the love surrounding him would not always make him happy and peaceful. He had a feeling that there was so much more to learn and that his teachers have already taught him all that they could. He questioned the need for offering sacrifices to the gods all the time. He was uneasy because his teachers did not show him the way to find Atman (which means self in Sanskrit). Eventually he questioned the need for so much knowledge when that knowledge could not help one find oneself. As a result, he decided to abandon his way of life, a good and relaxed life, in order to find the answer to these questions. With his friend Govinda accompanying him, he set off to become a Samana (an ascetic who denied worldly pleasures). And so began his life of abstinence. As always, Siddhartha was a natural at what he did. His goal was to let the Self die, to get rid of sorrows and pleasures and to experience purity of thought. Through his time with the Samanas he was able to lose the Self in many forms. However, he would always find his way back into his own self and feel the torturous life cycle. He expressed to Govinda that they are just going in circles, when their ultimate goal was to escape from that circle of life and attain Nirvana (the state of being free from suffering).
One day Govinda told him of a man named Gotama, called the Illustrious One, a Buddha who had indeed had attained Nirvana. He asked Siddhartha if he wanted to find this man and hear his teachings. Although Siddhartha had long grown skeptical of learning, he decided to accompany his friend.
They journeyed to the Jetavana Grove in the garden of Anathapindika, where Gotama was residing and stayed there until the morning. Then after a period of time when Gotama and his disciples went around town to collect alms, he began to give his speech to the people who have come to hear it. Although Siddhartha was not curious about the teachings, he still respected Gotama very much. And so Gotama delivered his speech, teaching the 4 noble truths and the Eightfold Path. When he was finished, many people came to him and asked to be accepted into his community of disciples. Of these people was Govinda. Siddhartha would choose to not accompany him. Early the next morning, he met with Gotama in person and had a talk with him. In this talk he said that although Gotama’s teachings were very nice and all, it was blurry in regards to his doctrine of salvation. He did not explicitly explain the secrets of what he had experienced when he attained Nirvana. Therefore, Siddhartha told Gotama that he was going to find this experience alone. And so Gotama wished him luck.
QUOTE
“ You know how to speak cleverly, my friend. Be on your guard against too much cleverness ”(Hesse 35).
REACTION
The reason I picked this quote is because I feel that it is foreshadowing something that will happen later on in the novella. I am guessing that perhaps Siddhartha’s cleverness will soon get the best of him. I am reminded of the classic situation where a monk pours tea into an already full teacup making it spill. I have a feeling that in the future, Siddhartha will have to begin emptying his teacup of cleverness in order to reach his goal.
One of the most interesting things in this section to me is the relationship between Siddhartha and his best friend Govinda. It seems as though Siddhartha is the doer and leader while Govinda is the follower. I feel as though the author first made this observation when he said in page 5 that, “Govinda wanted to follow him as his friend, his companion, his servant, his lance bearer, his shadow”. As you can see, the renown of the titles gets lower until you get to shadow, which is really low. I don’t think that anyone should be a shadow of anyone, but Govinda loves his friend so much that he doesn’t care.
Then in page 36, when Govinda had parted ways with Siddhartha, I am afraid that he still has not truly become independent because Siddhartha notes that, “ He was my shadow
and is now Gotama’s shadow”. He also lies to Govinda hen he says that he does not find any flaws with Gotama’s teachings when in fact, he does. I find this white lie to be bad because Govinda was really asking for support from his friend and inquiring why his friend would not join him. I know that Siddhartha was just trying to make his friend be at peace but I still feel the truth would be better.
Some other things that I noticed in general were examples of Siddhartha’s cleverness. On page 23 Siddhartha told Govinda that they both had already tasted the best fruits of Gotama’s teachings. When Govinda asked him how this was possible when they had never met Gotama yet, Siddhartha replied by saying that the fruit was the fact that he had enticed them away from the Samanas (which he did).
Thanks to my Buddhist background I have already done a lot of research on Buddhism in the past. I also watched this move called Little Buddha and that was very informative as well. It’s a good thing that I did all this beforehand, or else this novel would be very confusing. Nevertheless, the Buddhism that I practice is called Mahayana Buddhism, which is more prevalent nowadays in Southeast Asia. It is different from the Theravada Buddhism upon which this novel is based upon. Therefore, there were still some things that were new to me. For example, I was wondering why all of these ascetics and monks alike were always begging for what they called alms. It seems weird that they do not simply find food themselves.
Finally, all this time I thought that meditating was to just become relaxed. But Siddhartha said that it is a temporary escape from the Self and the torment of Self. I realized this to be the reason why it is so relaxing. So it is nice to know that.
