siddhartha

The book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is a story about reaching enlightenment. In Buddhism, in order to achieve enlightenment one is supposed to follow the Four Noble Truths. Throughout the book Siddhartha, the main character, encounters many people who are trying to find enlightenment or who have already attained it such as, Govinda, Gotama and Vasudeva. All of these characters reach enlightenment, but Siddhartha, Vasudeva and Gotama do so through their won ways where as Govinda needs the guidance and teaching of others.

Govinda, Siddhartha’s best friend, is an aesthetic like Siddhartha, but he does not question teachings to the extent and in the same way that Siddhartha does. Govinda has always followed Siddhartha’s past, but when they boy go to listen to Gotama, Govinda decides to follow him while Siddhartha stays behind because he says he does not have faith in teachers. Unlike Siddhartha Govinda has always followed the teachings and actions of others. At the end of the book when Govinda and Siddhartha meet again, Siddhartha has already reached enlightenment on his own through the realization that no matter how much life splits from the source, everything tends to gravitate back towards it. Once Govinda realizes this he uses Siddhartha to reach enlightenment himself Govinda uses Siddhartha to help him reach enlightenment. Govinda needs assistance in order to achieve the same state as Siddhartha. He needs someone to point out the path he should be following. Towards the end Siddhartha uses Vasudeva to help guide him towards enlightenment, but he ultimately relies on only himself.

Vasudeva achieves enlightenment by listening to the river. Similarly, Siddhartha also uses the river to help him achieve enlightenment. Vasudeva guides Siddhartha on his path to enlightenment by telling him to listen to the river, but he does not teach Siddhartha his philosophical beliefs. Siddhartha and Vasudeva are both similar in that they both used the river to help them reach enlightenment and neither of them followed or used others teachings in order to achieve enlightenment.

Gotama is a Buddha who uses his state to teach others how to reach enlightenment. Gotama uses the Eightfold Path, the four main points, and other aspects of Buddhism as his main teachings. However, Siddhartha does not believe it is possible to achieve enlightenment using the teachings of others. Gotama like Siddhartha achieves enlightenment by following his own path.

In varied ways Siddhartha, Govinda, Gotama, and Vasudeva all find enlightenment in the book Siddhartha. All four of these characters find enlightenment in different ways, but Govinda unlike the others needs guidance in order to reach enlightenment. Siddhartha goes through many stages in order to find enlightenment, but eventually reaches it by listening to the river, just as Vasudeva did. Govinda latches onto Siddhartha when he realizes that Siddhartha has found enlightenment so that Siddhartha can guide Govinda to enlightenment. All of these characters reach a state of enlightenment.