The novel, Siddhartha, displays the troubles faced throughout Siddhartha’s life on his journey to find spiritual understanding of himself and the world. As a boy, Siddhartha was born a respected Brahmin; however, he begins to doubt that the religious practices of the group will help him achieve peace. Therefore, he leaves to find a different path toward nirvana. He sees a wandering group of almost naked beggars, Samanas, looking for food and decides to experience…
All throughout the story, Gunga Ram believes that there is a snake that drinks the milk that he puts out every day as an offer, in return for sanctuary from the extremely venomous fangs of the snake. The young teenagers obviously think this is just superstition, and nothing else. They claim “‘You are a stupid old Brahmin’, I Said. ‘Don’t you know snakes don’t drink milk?”(77). the author adds to the notion of the Brahmin being full of superstition by describing several of the rituals that the Brahmin preforms. “Every morning he smeared his forehead with a V mark […] to him, all life was sacred.”(77). Thea author is describing these events in a negative connotation, because it is believed that the old Brahmin, like all old religious traditions, are no longer useful to the faith. However, when the snake gets captured and “killed” by the boys, the saucer full of milk is still full since there is no Kala Nag. This is when one can start to wonder, if this is really superstition after all, or if the old Brahmin is wise, rather than superstitious. Next, a big turn of events happens when in the middle of class, the capture of Kala Nag turns sour. The supposedly dead snake escapes in class, but when Gunga Ram shows up offering him some milk, the snakes kills him anyways. This shows an interesting point of view…
Samsara is the world in which we all live, it is neither good nor bad it simply exists and includes continual rebirth and the cyclicality of life. “Samsara is very…
The three main archetypes that were notable throughout the novel were the mother archetype who was represented by Nirmala; the villain which was portrayed by Ammayya; and Raju as the wise old man. Anita Rau Badami’s novel uses the horrible effects of death and what it does to a family to reveal the character’s flaws and weaknesses. While reading this novel many emotions and feelings are discovered through the usage of archetypes. When an author uses the archetypal approach, he or she selects a universal theme through which to tell their story. Loss and Grief is an underlying universal theme in this novel. This theme is shown as the family learns how to cope with the death of Maya, a very loved daughter, sister, mother and friend. The spark of insight that can come from making a connection between characters in this novel to the archetypes ultimately helps the reader find the essential truth about certain matters in the novel. Using an archetypal approach to literature means that there is a collection of symbols, images, characters, and motifs that evokes basically the same response in all people. To conclude, archetypes are important in this novel because they help to explain why characters have certain traits and it also helps to understand the text better. If the reader applies their knowledge of archetypes while reading the novel, it will definitely help to make the text more understandable and it will also make it a more enjoyable…
Veylaswami, S. B. (2009, April – June). Introduction to Hinduism. Hinduism Today, 31 (2). 10…
Why do people suffer? Buddhists believe that suffering is caused by desire. There are things and people in life we all want and desire, and when we lose them Buddhists believe we suffer. Buddhists want to attain non-attachment so they can be at peace with themselves; they want to reach Nirvana, the state of breaking the cycle of rebirth. They believe that you are reborn when you die, which is called Samsara, and the only way to break that cycle is to find enlightenment. Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, is a novel about a man’s journey to finding his inner self, to be enlightened. Siddhartha was born a Brahmin, the highest of the caste system in Hinduism, but he felt that he had to find his own path to enlightenment. As a Brahmin, he was expected to reach Nirvana. He joined the Samanas, listened to the Buddha, lost himself in riches and pleasures, and found himself again at the brink of suicide. Siddhartha finds himself when he looks into the river he is about to jump in. The river awakens him. The novel centers on Siddhartha’s journey through experiencing the extremes of deprivation and excess and leads the reader to understand how he found peace. Hermann Hesse uses the river symbolically to represent Siddhartha’s final understanding of the meaning of life; he lived through the extremes and found the middle path, which put him at peace with himself.…
Seen as a crucial and pivotal element in the process of deepening spiritual understanding, religious ritual plays a fundamental role in building both personal and cultural identity, an act that expresses and emphasises the things that bind a faith community together. In all religions, the milestones of a practitioner’s life are highlighted and celebrated through ritual and ceremony. These events often include both birth and death, marriage and coming of age. Several features play an indispensable role within rituals, such as the presence of representative symbols, people or religious leaders and music, features that have been central to both worship and ritual since primordial…
THURUTHIYIL, S. (2009, January 21). Reincarnation in Hinduism. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from Sipiriual Wholeness: http://www.spiritual-wholeness.org/faqs/reincgen/hindrein.htm…
As I thought about this paper, I wanted to explore a religion that I had little knowledge about so I chose Hinduism. In thinking about what little I previously knew about the Hindu religion my knowledge was very limited indeed! In this paper I will discuss what I have done in order to learn more about Hinduism. I will discuss any misconceptions I may have had and how they have changed. Also, I will try to figure out a way to minimize misconceptions.…
Hinduism is the indigenous religion of the Indian subcontinent. It has many similarities to the indigenous sacred traditions. Hinduism is considered the oldest religion in the world. It has no particular founders, like indigenous sacred traditions. Indigenous religions are unusually pass down orally, in contrast, Hinduism is no longer an oral tradition. In indigenous sacred traditions, the human issue is the need of guidance in dealing with the forces of nature and the spirit world. yet, in Hinduism it’s the need to be liberated from the cycle of reincarnation. The human community differs quite greatly between the two. In indigenous sacred traditions, usually its society is known to be one as “the people,” unlike Hinduism. In Hinduism it’s…
Every society, tribe, or group of people have certain rituals and beliefs that we practice every day. In Horace Miner’s “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”, he tells us about this particular tribes unusual rituals, therefore giving us an insight into how different human behaviors can be. It gives the readers a look into a culture that many do not understand.…
It is axiomatic that an individual indulges in an activity wanting to achieve a defined purpose. In the case of renouncers, these individuals participate in activities which stress on gaining control over human senses that demand worldly pleasures and attachments (Olivelle 272). The purpose behind these actions can be explained by making reference to two Indian divinities, which are samsara and moksa (Olivelle 274). Samsara simply means that life in this world is a suffering which continues through the cycle of death and rebirth (Olivelle 274). Moksa, on the other hand, is the final destination/ objective of human existence. It is the only way through which one can escape suffering, or in other words, the cycle of death and rebirth (Olivelle 274). The purpose of this essay is to prove that practices, such as asceticism emerged as a solution to end human suffering by making reference to Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism respectively. Simultaneously, this essay also aims to negate the orthodox views about asceticism and renunciation by investigating the social, cultural and…
“A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.” (Gandhi, M. (n.d.)). People in our world come from all different cultures that we may not always be familiar with. Our experiences and perceptions represent the values and decisions that are made in our life. It is important to get to know the different types of cultures that surround us and how others live their lives. The article, Body Ritual among the Nacirema, relates to many core aspects of sociology, including culture, cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, and conflict theory…
The Samanas are warriors who practice self-denial, the loss of need and desire, in order to live a perfect life. They teach Siddhartha about their exercises to extinguish thyself and give birth a new self, one who is connected to everything, nature and animals.…
John Locke believed, the enduring self is defined by a person’s memory. With memory there is an enduring self, and without it there is no self at all. I believe there is an enduring self, but it is a little more complicated than that. Even if a person encounters a dramatic change to his/her life, they are still the same self, the same person. I believe memory is not the only factor that defines the self. Many things form this enduring self, and these things work together to form an identity, to form who you are now. These things are your memories, your experiences and your personality. You may change and grow over time as you are exposed to new experiences, but under it all you are still ....you. But is a person the same after 20 years? 30 years? Yes and no. He/she is the same PLUS the experiences and knowledge of the additional passage of time.....as we percieve it. More on "time" in a bit.…