Book Review: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Just completed Nobel Laureate Hermann Hesse’s classic Siddhartha-an Indian Tale (free e-book at Project Gutenberg), which had been written almost 100 years ago by the grandson of Linguist-Polymath Hermann Gundert (who authored probably the first Malayalam grammar book Malayala Bhasha Viyakaranam). Through Siddhartha, Hesse intertwined his understanding of Indian Spirituality with a beautiful fiction influenced by Western philosophy. The book had been banned in many places because of its vivid sex scenes- something I was not expecting from a book that principally dealt with spirituality.
Influence of Hesse’s compatriot Arthur Schopenhauer's worldview that centred around “will and desires” is everywhere since the protagonist- a Brahmin (spelt “Brahman” in the book) boy-turned ascetic Śramaṇa (spelt Samana in the book)-landed in the city. Schopenhauer famously said:
But if you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity — in life or in literature, — you must be careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an addition to your knowledge — a new fact to be considered in studying the character of humanity.
And Hesse wrote in Siddharta:
He always seems to be merely playing out business-affairs, they never fully become a part of him, they never rule over him…“It is not for me to judge another man’s life. I must judge, I must choose, I must spurn, purely for myself. For myself, alone.”
Influence of Indology- that treat Eastern spirituality with mysticism which was popular in Germany during Hesse’s period- is obvious in the book. Hesse implicitly criticised the Brahmanical mysticism and the worldview; Siddhartha left his former life as a Brahman because he did not prefer “self-castigation, offerings, ablutions and prayers.” Deeply thinking Brahman ‘scorns diversity and seeks unity’ (analogous to Aristotelian fixed worldview). After renouncing Brahmanism, the protagonist turns into a hermit, and finally into an ordinary businessman who frequents a brothel, the very base of values traditionally revered in Brahmanism (therefore, the novel is a critique of Brahminical hegemony and caste system). The very concept of enlightenment has mystical essence to it, the reason why the protagonist Siddhartha disagreed with Gotama Buddha and set out to frame his own worldview.
Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else … Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.
At the end of the story, I felt the problem of universals- the carnal struggle between realism and nominalism — two philosophical schools-becoming apparent.
The work beautifully captured dynamicity of life in general and treating the life as a zero-sum game; with increasing interactions with ‘child-like’ materialistic city dwellers, Siddhartha gradually started losing his much-coveted spiritual wisdom and skills (“I can think, I can wait, I can fast”). The work briefly touches upon the philosophy of space-time (so as Stoic mantra of Carpie diem)
“Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?” That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.”
The central message of the work is the importance of having no fixed-mindset; the folly of blindly following a fixed philosophy/religion/spirituality towards a goal. His best friend Govinda had earlier been Siddhartha’s “shadow, later became a shadow of Gotama.” Instead of living a life of Brahman like his father, Siddhartha chose a path of hitchhiking through different philosophical paths/mindsets, through asceticism (Cynicism), Buddhism (close to Stoicism), Epicureanism and Hedonism (time at pleasure garden with Kamala) to Pragmatism (the reason why he took the job as a ferryman) and finally mystical enlightenment. An alternative interpretation that his journey as following the traditional stages of life in Hinduism, Brahmachaari (student), Grihastha (housekeeper) and Vaanaprastha (ascetic) is seemingly unlikely, as the protagonist broke the norm of following Brahman life, and the subsequent Samana life. turning himself as an apostate at each step.
He also critiqued ‘childlike people’ who are slaves of desires and always ‘wish to have teachers and to listen to teachings.’
All are submissive, all would like to be friends, like to obey, think little. Like children are all people
No coincidence that the protagonist acquires wisdom and achieve enlightenment all by himself, by listening to nature- the sounds of the river. Throughout the journey, he treated life as an information, a learning opportunity:
“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value…“We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.”
At several places, it stressed the importance of compassion and love (parallelism with Carl Jung’s writings became apparent to me)
“. . . gentleness is stronger than severity, water is stronger than rock, love is stronger than force.”
The work critiqued goal-seeking in general:
“When someone seeks,” said Siddhartha, “then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.”
The plot had several cyclical elements. Kamala bringing his son to him before a snake took her life away (too dramatic!); like Siddhartha renounced his father’s advice and ran away from home, his son does the same later in the story.
Like any good works, the novella Siddhartha let my mind read between the lines and wander to related ideas to complete the whole picture, the ‘uniformity of the world’! I took extensive side notes, the proof that I really loved this book, highly recommended.
