Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

• German writer
• Published in 1992
• Spiritual book that explores eastern philosophy of what is meaning of life and our
purpose on this planet
• Searches for a better and stronger purpose in this world

SUMMARY
• Siddhartha, the handsome and respected son of a Brahmin, lives with his father in
ancient India. Everyone in the village expects Siddhartha to be a successful Brahmin
like his father.
Siddhartha enjoys a near-idyllic existence with his best friend, Govinda, but he is secretly
dissatisfied.

• He performs all the rituals of religion, and he does what religion says should bring
him happiness and peace. Nonetheless, he feels something is missing. His father and
the other elders have still not achieved enlightenment, and he feels that staying with
them will not settle the questions he has about the nature of his existence.
One day, a group of wandering ascetics called Samanas passes through town. They are
starved and almost naked and have come to beg for food. They believe enlightenment can
be reached through asceticism, a rejection of the body and physical desire. The path the
Samanas preach is quite different from the one Siddhartha has been taught, and he believes
it may provide some of the answers he is looking for. He decides to follow this new path.
Siddhartha’s father does not want him to join the Samanas, but he cannot dissuade
Siddhartha. Govinda also wants to find a path to enlightenment, and he joins Siddhartha in
this new life.

Siddhartha adjusts quickly to the ways of the Samanas because of the patience and
discipline he learned in the Brahmin tradition. He learns how to free himself from the
traditional trappings of life, and so loses his desire for property, clothing, sexuality, and all
sustenance except that required to live. His goal is to find enlightenment by eliminating his
Self, and he successfully renounces the pleasures of the world.
Sunburned and half-starved, Siddhartha soon ceases to resemble the boy he used to be.
Govinda is quick to praise the Samanas and notes the considerable moral and spiritual
improvements they both have achieved since joining. Siddhartha, however, is still
dissatisfied. The path of self-denial does not provide a permanent solution for him. He
points out that the oldest Samanas have lived the life for many years but have yet to attain
true spiritual enlightenment. The Samanas have been as unsuccessful as the Brahmins
Siddhartha and Govinda left behind.
At this time, Siddhartha and the other Samanas begin to hear about a new holy man named
Gotama the Buddha who has attained the total spiritual enlightenment called Nirvana.
Govinda convinces Siddhartha they both should leave the Samanas and seek out Gotama.
Siddhartha and Govinda inform the leader of the Samanas of their decision to leave. The
leader is clearly displeased, but Siddhartha silences him with an almost magical, hypnotizing
gaze.
Siddhartha and Govinda find Gotama’s camp of followers and are taken in. Siddhartha is
initially pleased with Gotama, and he and Govinda are instructed in the Eightfold Path, the
four main points, and other aspects of Buddhism. However, while Govinda is convinced to
join Gotama and his followers, Siddhartha still has doubts. He has noticed a contradiction in
Gotama’s teachings: Siddhartha questions how one can embrace the unity of all things, as
the Buddha asks, if they are also being told to overcome the physical world. Siddhartha
realizes Buddhism will not give him the answers he needs. Sadly, he leaves Govinda behind
and begins a search for the meaning of life, the achievement of which he feels will not be
dependent on religious instruction.
Siddhartha decides to embark on a life free from meditation and the spiritual quests he has
been pursuing, and to instead learn from the pleasures of the body and the material world.
In his new wanderings, Siddhartha meets a friendly ferryman, fully content with his simple
life. Siddhartha crosses the ferryman’s river and comes to a city. Here, a beautiful courtesan
named Kamala entrances him. He knows she would be the best one to teach him about the
world of love, but Kamala will not have him unless he proves he can fit into the material
world. She convinces him to take up the path of the merchant. With her help, Siddhartha
soon finds employment with a merchant named Kamaswami and begins to learn the trade.
While Siddhartha learns the wisdom of the business world and begins to master the skills
Kamaswami teaches him, Kamala becomes his lover and teaches him what she knows about
love.
Years pass, and Siddhartha’s business acumen increases. Soon, he is a rich man and enjoys
the benefits of an affluent life. He gambles, drinks, and dances, and anything that can be
bought in the material world is his for the taking. Siddhartha is detached from this life,
however, and he can never see it as more than a game. He doesn’t care if he wins or loses
this game because it doesn’t touch his spirit in any lasting way. The more he obtains in the
material world, the less it satisfies him, and he is soon caught in a cycle of unhappiness that
he tries to escape by engaging in even more gambling, drinking, and sex. He understands
that the material world is slowly killing him without providing him with the enlightenment
for which he has been searching. One night, he resolves to leave it all behind and departs
without notifying either Kamala or Kamaswami.
Sick at heart, Siddhartha wanders until he finds a river. He considers drowning himself, but
he instead falls asleep on the riverbank. While he is sleeping, Govinda, who is now a
Buddhist monk, passes by. Not recognizing Siddhartha, he watches over the sleeping man to
protect him from snakes. Siddhartha immediately recognizes Govinda when he wakes up,
but Govinda notes that Siddhartha has changed significantly from his days with the Samanas
and now appears to be a rich man. Siddhartha responds that he is currently neither a
Samana nor a rich man. Siddhartha wishes to become someone new. Govinda soon leaves to
continue on his journey, and Siddhartha sits by the river and considers where his life has
taken him.
Siddhartha seeks out the same content ferryman he met years before. The ferryman, who
introduces himself as Vasudeva, radiates an inner peace that Siddhartha wishes to attain.
Vasudeva says he himself has attained this sense of peace through many years of studying
the river. Siddhartha expresses a desire to likewise learn from the river, and Vasudeva agrees
to let Siddhartha live and work beside him. Siddhartha studies the river and begins to take
from it a spiritual enlightenment unlike any he has ever known. While sitting by the river, he
contemplates the unity of all life, and in the river’s voice he hears the word Om.
One day Kamala the courtesan approaches the ferry along with her son on a pilgrimage to
visit Gotama, who is said to be dying. Before they can cross, a snake bites Kamala.
Siddhartha and Vasudeva tend to Kamala, but the bite kills her. Before she dies, she tells
Siddhartha that he is the father of her eleven-year-old son. Siddhartha does his best to
console and provide for his son, but the boy is spoiled and cynical. Siddhartha’s son dislikes
life with the two ferrymen and wishes to return to his familiar city and wealth. Vasudeva
believes Siddhartha’s son should be allowed to leave if he wants to, but Siddhartha is not
ready to let him go. One morning, Siddhartha awakens to find his son has run away and
stolen all of his and Vasudeva’s money. Siddhartha chases after the boy, but as he reaches
the city he realizes the chase is futile. Vasudeva follows Siddhartha and brings him back to
their home by the river, instructing him to soothe the pain of losing his son by listening to
the river.
Siddhartha studies the river for many years, and Vasudeva teaches Siddhartha how to learn
the many secrets the river has to tell. In contemplating the river, Siddhartha has a revelation:
Just as the water of the river flows into the ocean and is returned by rain, all forms of life are
interconnected in a cycle without beginning or end. Birth and death are all part of a timeless
unity. Life and death, joy and sorrow, good and evil are all parts of the whole and are
necessary to understand the meaning of life. By the time Siddhartha has learned all the
river’s lessons, Vasudeva announces that he is through with his life at the river. He retires
into the forest, leaving Siddhartha to be the ferryman.
The novel ends with Govinda returning to the river to seek enlightenment by meeting with a
wise man who lives there. When Govinda arrives, he does not recognize that the wise man is
Siddhartha himself. Govinda is still a follower of Gotama but has yet to attain the kind of
enlightenment that Siddhartha now radiates, and he asks Siddhartha to teach him what he
knows. Siddhartha explains that neither he nor anyone can teach the wisdom to Govinda,
because verbal explanations are limited and can never communicate the entirety of
enlightenment. Instead, he asks Govinda to kiss him on the forehead, and when Govinda
does, the vision of unity that Siddhartha has experienced is communicated instantly to
Govinda. Govinda and Siddhartha have both finally achieved the enlightenment they set out
to find in the days of their youth.
THEMES

The Search for Spiritual Enlightenment

In Siddhartha, an unrelenting search for truth is essential for achieving a harmonious
relationship with the world. The truth for which Siddhartha and Govinda search is a
universal understanding of life, or Nirvana. Siddhartha and Govinda both have a
fundamental desire to understand their lives through spirituality, seek to do this by reaching
Nirvana, and start with the conviction that finding Nirvana is possible. Although Nirvana
leads to a perfect relationship with the world and is thus an end goal that each man aspires
to reach, Siddhartha and Govinda differ in what they’re willing to do in search for this truth.
In Siddhartha’s case, when he becomes suspicious that one path may lead to a dead end, he
quickly alters his course. He is willing to abandon the path of the Brahmins for the path of
the Samanas, to leave the Samanas for Gotama, and then to make a radical departure from
spiritual teachers and search in the material world with Kamala and Kamaswami. He does
not relent in his search and instead continues to follow whatever path becomes available if
he has clearly not yet reached Nirvana.

Govinda is much less flexible in his quest for spiritual enlightenment. In his quest, he
restricts himself to the spiritual and religious world and persists in his need for teachers.
Although Siddhartha is willing to break with religion itself and to abandon all his training,
Govinda is willing to seek truth only as long as it appears within the narrow confines of
Hinduism or Buddhism and is transmitted by a respected teacher. As a result, Govinda is
unable to see the truth around him, since he is limited by his belief that truth will appear in
the way he has been taught by his teachers. This distinction between Siddhartha’s
unrelenting search and Govinda’s limited search is the reason why Govinda can attain
enlightenment only through an act of grace on Siddhartha’s part, whereas Siddhartha is able
to find truth through his own powers.
Inner vs. Exterior Guidance
In Siddhartha, Siddhartha learns that enlightenment cannot be reached through teachers
because it cannot be taught—enlightenment comes from within. Siddhartha begins looking
for enlightenment initially by looking for external guidance from organized religion in the
form of Brahmins, Samanas, and Buddhists. When these external spiritual sources fail to
bring him the knowledge and guidance he needs, he discards them for Kamala and
Kamaswami in the material world, again using an external source in his quest. These sources
also fail to teach him wisdom, and he knows he must now find wisdom on his own. This
realization itself comes from within. Siddhartha leaves the Brahmins, the Samanas, Gotama,
and the material world because he feels dissatisfied, not because an external source tells
him to go. His eventual attainment of Nirvana does not come from someone imparting the
wisdom to him but instead through an internal connection to the river, which he finds
contains the entire universe.
Vasudeva is a teacher of sorts for Siddhartha, and thus an external guide, but Vasudeva
never attempts to tell Siddhartha what the meaning of life is. Instead, Vasudeva directs
Siddhartha to listen to the river and search within himself for an understanding of what the
river says. Vasudeva does not tell Siddhartha what the river will say, but when Siddhartha
reveals what the river has told him, Vasudeva simply acknowledges that he too has received
the same wisdom. The river itself never actually tells Siddhartha what its revelations mean.
Instead, the river reveals the complexity of existence through sound and image, and
Siddhartha meditates on these revelations in order to gain an understanding of them.
Govinda, on the other hand, persists in looking to teachers for his wisdom, and in the end,
asks Siddhartha to teach him the path to enlightenment. Because of this reliance on an
external explanation, Govinda continuously fails to find Nirvana. His final success, however,
does not come as explicit directions from Siddhartha on how to achieve enlightenment.
Instead, Siddhartha acts as a conduit for Govinda, as the river did for him. He asks Govinda
to kiss his forehead, an act that enables Govinda to see the nature of existence in an instant.
Govinda’s final revelation thus comes through his own interpretation of what Siddhartha
shows him in the kiss. Though interior and exterior paths to enlightenment are both
explored in Siddhartha, the exterior path is roundly rejected. Nirvana comes from within.
The Wisdom of Indirection
Throughout the novel, Siddhartha pursues Nirvana differently, and though at first his tactics
are aggressive and deliberate, he eventually finds that a more indirect approach yields
greater rewards. Both Siddhartha and Govinda initially seek Nirvana aggressively and
directly. Govinda remains dedicated to the relentless practice of Buddhist devotions that are
specifically intended to bring about enlightenment, but Siddhartha eventually rejects these
methods and instead relies on intuition for guidance. Siddhartha points out that by focusing
only on the goal of Nirvana, Govinda failed to notice the tiny clues along the way that would
have pointed him in the right direction. In effect, Govinda tries too hard. Siddhartha
ultimately understands that because the essence of enlightenment already exists within us
and is present in the world at every moment, prescriptive paths simply lead us further from
ourselves and from the wisdom we seek. An indirect approach is more likely to take into
account all elements of the world and is therefore better able to provide the necessary
distance from which to see the unity of the world.