# Siddhartha (novel)

Siddhartha: An Indian novel (German: Siddhartha: Eine Indische Dichtung; German: ) is a 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha. The book, Hesse's ninth novel, was written in German, in a simple, lyrical style. It was published in the United States in 1951 by New Directions Publishing and became influential during the 1960s. Hesse dedicated the first part of it to the French writer Romain Rolland and the second part to Wilhelm Gundert, his cousin.
The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in the Sanskrit language: siddha (achieved) + artha (what was searched for), which together means "he who has found meaning (of existence)" or "he who has attained his goals". In fact, the Buddha's own name, before his renunciation, was Siddhartha Gautama, prince of Kapilavastu. In this book, the Buddha is referred to as "Gotama".

## Plot

The story takes place in ancient India, where Siddhartha decides to leave his home in the hope of gaining spiritual illumination by becoming an ascetic Samana. Joined by his best friend Govinda, Siddhartha fasts, becomes homeless, renounces all personal possessions, and intensely meditates. Eventually the pair seek out and personally speak with the enlightened Gautama, but although Govinda hastily joins the Buddha's order, Siddhartha does not. For him, the Buddhist philosophy, though supremely wise, must be individually realized independently of instruction by a teacher. He thus resolves to carry on his quest alone.
Siddhartha crosses a river and the ferryman, whom Siddhartha is unable to pay, predicts that Siddhartha will return later to compensate him in some way. Venturing onward toward city life, Siddhartha encounters the courtesan Kamala, the most beautiful woman he has seen. She notes Siddhartha's handsome appearance and fast wit, but warns him that he must become wealthy to win her affections so that she may teach him the art of love. Although Siddhartha despised materialistic pursuits as a Samana, he agrees now to Kamala's suggestion. She directs him to the employ of Kamaswami, a local businessman, and insists that he have Kamaswami treat him as an equal rather than an underling. Siddhartha easily succeeds, providing a voice of patience and tranquility, which Siddhartha learned from his days as an ascetic, against Kamaswami's fits of passion. Thus Siddhartha becomes a rich man and Kamala's lover, but in his middle years he realizes that the luxurious lifestyle he has chosen is merely a game that lacks spiritual fulfillment. Leaving the bustle of the city, Siddhartha returns to the river, disillusioned and contemplating suicide. Falling into a meditative sleep, he is saved only by an internal experience of the holy word, Om.
The next morning, Siddhartha briefly reconnects with Govinda, who is passing through the area as a wandering Buddhist monk. Siddhartha decides to live the rest of his life in the presence of the spiritually inspirational river, companioning Vasudeva, the elderly ferryman, with whom he begins a humbler way of life. Although Vasudeva is a simple man, he has spiritual insight and relates that the river has many voices and significant messages to divulge to any who might listen.
Some years later, Kamala, now a Buddhist convert, is traveling to see the Buddha on his deathbed, accompanied by her reluctant young son, when she is bitten by a venomous snake near the river bank. Siddhartha recognizes her and she informs him that the boy is his own son. After Kamala's death, Siddhartha attempts to console and raise the furiously resistant boy, until one day the child flees altogether. Although Siddhartha is desperate to follow the runaway, Vasudeva urges him to let the boy find his own path, just as Siddhartha did himself in his youth. Listening to the river with Vasudeva, Siddhartha realizes that time is an illusion and that all of his feelings and experiences, even those of suffering, are part of a great and ultimately jubilant fellowship of all things connected in the cyclical unity of nature. After Siddhartha's moment of illumination, Vasudeva claims that his work is done and he must depart into the woods, leaving Siddhartha peacefully fulfilled and alone once more.
Toward the end of his life, Govinda hears about an enlightened ferryman and travels to Siddhartha, not initially recognizing him as his old childhood companion. Govinda asks the now-elderly Siddhartha to relate his wisdom and Siddhartha replies that for every true statement there is an opposite one that is also true; that language and the confines of time lead people to adhere to one fixed belief that does not account for the fullness of the truth. Because nature works in a self-sustaining cycle, every entity carries in it the potential for its opposite and so the world must always be considered complete. Siddhartha simply urges people to identify and love the world in its completeness. He then requests the puzzled Govinda to kiss his forehead; when he does so, Govinda experiences the same visions of timelessness that Siddhartha himself saw with Vasudeva by the river. Govinda then bows to his wise and radiantly smiling friend.

## Major themes

In Hesse's novel, experience, the totality of conscious events of a human life, is shown as the best way to approach understanding of reality and attain enlightenment⁠—⁠Hesse's crafting of Siddhartha's journey shows that understanding is attained not through intellectual methods, nor through immersing oneself in the carnal pleasures of the world and the accompanying pain of samsara; rather, it is the completeness of these experiences that allows Siddhartha to attain understanding.
Thus, individual events are meaningless when considered by themselves—⁠Siddhartha's stay with the Samanas and his immersion in the worlds of love and business do not ipso facto lead to nirvana, yet they cannot be considered distractions, for every action and event gives Siddhartha experience, which in turn leads to understanding.
A major preoccupation of Hesse in writing Siddhartha was to cure his "sickness with life" (Lebenskrankheit) by immersing himself in Indian philosophy such as that expounded in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. The reason the second half of the book took so long to write was that Hesse "had not experienced that transcendental state of unity to which Siddhartha aspires. In an attempt to do so, Hesse lived as a virtual semi-recluse and became totally immersed in the sacred teachings of both Hindu and Buddhist scriptures. His intention was to attain to that 'completeness' which, in the novel, is the Buddha's badge of distinction." The novel is structured on three of the traditional stages of life for Hindu males (student (brahmacharin), householder (grihastha) and recluse/renunciate (vanaprastha) as well as the Buddha's Four Noble Truths (Part One) and Eightfold Path (Part Two) which form twelve chapters, the number in the novel.
Ralph Freedman mentions how Hesse commented in a letter "[my] Siddhartha does not, in the end, learn true wisdom from any teacher, but from a river that roars in a funny way and from a kindly old fool who always smiles and is secretly a saint." In a lecture about Siddhartha, Hesse claimed "Buddha's way to salvation has often been criticized and doubted, because it is thought to be wholly grounded in cognition. True, but it's not just intellectual cognition, not just learning and knowing, but spiritual experience that can be earned only through strict discipline in a selfless life". Freedman also points out how Siddhartha described Hesse's interior dialectic: "All of the contrasting poles of his life were sharply etched: the restless departures and the search for stillness at home; the diversity of experience and the harmony of a unifying spirit; the security of religious dogma and the anxiety of freedom." Eberhard Ostermann has shown how Hesse, while mixing the religious genre of the legend with that of the modern novel, seeks to reconcile with the double-edged effects of modernization such as individualization, pluralism or self-disciplining. The character Siddhartha honors the character Gotama (Gautama Buddha) by not following him in person, but by following Gotama's example.

## Cultural reinterpretations

Zachariah, an adaptation loosely based on two Hesse novels, including Siddhartha, was released as a musical Western in 1971. In the following year, the film version of the novel was released as Siddhartha, starring Shashi Kapoor and directed by Conrad Rooks.
Musical compositions based on the novel have included Claude Vivier's symphonic poem, Siddhartha (1976), and Pete Townshend's song "The Ferryman", written for an amateur dramatisation in June 1976. By 2024 the novel had become a new 'literary and musical reinvention' titled "The Seeker", composed by Townshend's wife Rachel Fuller and starring him as the ferryman. Earlier, in 2015, Joel Puckett composed a piece for wind ensemble titled "That Secret from the River", based on the Ferryman's words from the book: "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."
There was also an Indian-themed photographic essay by Fred Mayer published in 2011 under the title "Homage to Hermann Hesse and His Siddhartha"