english exstension

Critical Analysis of the story Gotama Buddha and its appropriation Siddhartha.

The theme of spiritual quest permeates both the novel and the traditional tale of Buddha.

Both stories have this theme of change, the characters get this certain level of success and are satisfied or more often dissatisfied with what they found the holes, so they move to the next doing so in an attempt to find the best this is another reason these stories resonate with such a large populous everyone in world has had phases of life and love bad, and good just to different extents.

 An example of this, To stop the Prince from thinking about the troubles of the world the King built him a pleasure garden, and only healthy young people were aloud to enter, the King had noticed the empathetic person that the Prince was and thought that if he saw the suffering of the people he would never be satisfied with his life of privilege. He also did not want siddhartha to know that everyone grows old and dies he wanted to keep him in this state of ignorance so he would in bliss without the troubles of the world weighing on his conscious. But despite the Kings efforts the Prince was not happy he wanted to know what real life was like outside his safe sanctuary. Eventually the King caved and let his son go on short visits to nearby towns. While on his visits Siddhartha saw an old man his attendant explained that everyone gets old this shocked Siddhartha he had never been aware of this, he never had the same desensitization as the average person he had lead a sheltered life. This sudden exposure profoundly effected him he wanted to seek a way to end suffering but one can only know how to end something if one has experienced it. 

These two stories share more than just a base theme of seeking enlightenment, in the novel, Siddhartha and Buddha are two different characters, but the historical Buddha was also known as Siddhartha, and the character of Siddhartha in the novel is also meant to be an exploration of the life of Buddha, as imagined Hesse. There are considerable other coinciding affinity’s both have a period of asceticism when they are young and leaving home, both are dissatisfied with the teachers they have encountered, both have a period of being rich and prosperous, both find enlightenment through the river in the end Govinda, (Siddhartha’s childhood friend) discovers that Siddhartha and Buddha are indistinguishable from one another. 

All the phases siddhartha experiences are important in that they are all an experience without any of which siddhartha would never have attained enlightenment. His experiences gave him his opinions his opinions are why he made the choices he did which ultimately led to the experience of enlightenment. 

The primary premise of the book is that existence is not simply material. It is not just what we comprehend with our senses or cogitate with our minds or experience with our emotions. There is another aspect of life that is ordinarily hidden from view, but which can be encountered in a state of meditation. During meditation, the mind and senses withdraw from the outer world and perceive the innermost truth. This inner truth is described as Brahman. It is infinite, silent, and boundless. It is also blissful. Brahman is said to be identical with the innermost essence of every human. When the individual experiences Brahman, he knows that the material world is not the reality. This knowledge makes a person free he or she no longer identifies with all the joys, sorrows, pleasures, griefs and fears of the small individual ego. Unaffected by such transient things, the enlightened person knows that the true reality of life is indestructible and eternal. Hesse expresses through Siddhartha in the novel, that enlightenment is a state that must be experienced directly. It cannot be described in words.

The story of Siddhartha is one that most people can relate too one of its predominant themes is self-discovery. Achieving self-awareness is one of the major obsessions of teenagers thus, the innate appeal of Siddhartha as a character is readily apparent. One modern text, Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, can work admirably to bridge this gap. Profoundly popular in the sixties as a portrait of another world that somehow seemed more real and pure. Obviously, too, there is a conscious attempt to echo the life of the Buddha, indeed, many people assume Siddhartha is like his namesake, Siddhartha Gautama Sakyamuni, really the Buddha, until their famous meeting a few chapters later. And just like the Buddha, Siddhartha is unhappy. He has it all he is on the verge of moksha, the ultimate goal of all Hindus, which means that he will be out of the samsaric cycle of reincarnated lives. Yet he seems peculiarly unsatisfied and disconcerted 

People have an instinctive identification with this mysterious despair which Siddartha is experiencing.  Maybe people identify with Siddhartha quickly because they sense what he is experiencing, even if they cannot name it this is one of the great contributors to this books reputation as a classic. 

 A major preoccupation of Hesse in writing Siddhartha was to cure his ‘sickness with life’  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 probably 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 (brahmacarin), householder (grihastha) and recluse/renunciate (vanaprastha)) as well as the Buddha’s four noble truths and the eight-fold path which form twelve chapters, the number in the novel. How did Hesse appropriate this story, although this book was written in the 1920’s and set thousands of years ago its ideals and concepts can be applied to anyones life the different phases of development of body mind and spirit the constantly evolving and developing human that Hesse showcases. Hesses’s Siddhartha was first published in 1922 in Germany the book was later translated, appropriated and published in 1951. It became influential in the 1960‘s at time were there was a resurgence in interest into eastern philosophy and religion at a time when the beatniks ruled siddhartha fed the hungry minds of the public. 

Both these storys are spiritually profound and the ideas instilled within them are priceless. Thanks for reading :) 

http://www.doyletics.com/_arj1/siddhart.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha

http://www.online-literature.com/hesse/siddhartha/

http://www.amazon.com/Siddhartha-Hermann-Hesse/dp/0553208845

http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?q=siddhartha+critical+analysis&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart

http://www.bookrags.com/Siddhartha_(novel)

http://www.flipkart.com/siddhartha-hermann-hesse-kathleen-helal-book-141656148x

http://www.jstor.org/pss/30156543

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Siddhartha/Hermann-Hesse/e/9781411491984

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3353372.Steppenwolf_Siddhartha