Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

No, this is not a book about the life of the Buddha, though it’s natural to anticipate that given the title, and most of the accompanying book covers. Nobel Prize winning author, Herman Hesse’s epochal work was first published in German in 1922, and was translated into English in 1951.

“Siddhartha” is the fictional story of a contemporary of the Buddha, looking for his own enlightenment. Born the ‘son of a Brahmin’, he rejects the way of ritual and worship -

“Why must he, who was without blame, wash away sin day after day…Was not Atman within him…This was what must be found…All else was searching, detour, confusion.”

He treads the path of austerities and finds no answers there either. Coaxed by his friend, Govinda, he goes to meet the Buddha, only to declare to the Master,

“No one will ever attain redemption through doctrine!”

The Buddha tells him serenely to beware “the thicket of opinions and quibbling over words”.

However, this meeting with the great Master brings about an awakening, and with this newfound awareness, he embarks on the life of the world. Alternately amused and disparaging of the trivial concerns of materialistic living, he nevertheless pursues a relationship with the beautiful courtesan, Kamala, thinking himself the master of wealth and pleasures, only to discover that he has allowed himself to be enslaved by them.

Driven to self-loathing and despair, he is on the brink of suicide when he meets an unexpected new mentor. Siddhartha has many more lessons before he dissolves into undifferentiated Oneness, beyond dualities, where all contradictions are reconciled.

The proud, intellectually superior young ascetic is very different from the Siddhartha towards the end of the book, softened and humbled by attachment, love, loss and dawning self-awareness. The “searching, detour and confusion” of his myriad experiences are each as precious and relevant as one bead of a rosary after another.

It is no co-incidence that our hero has the same name, Siddhartha (meaning ‘one who has accomplished his aim’) as the Buddha. He is every aspirant discovering that whether one follows many paths, one, or none at all, enlightenment is not only for the chosen few - it is the ineluctable destiny of all.