Siddhartha Journey

Lao Tzu is quoted saying, “knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment,” and Hermann Hesse’s novel, Siddhartha, carries this sentiment over to its story. To fulfill his journey to find his identity and achieve Nirvana, Siddhartha experiences three different aspects of life, the intellectual world, the material world, and the spiritual world. Siddhartha’s journey begins with him leaving home and the life of the “Son of the Brahman” (5) with his friend Govinda to become Samanas to learn all they can from them. During his time with the Samanas, Siddhartha has his first epiphany, and says he has “grown distrustful” (14) of their teachings, so he and Govinda part from the ascetics. While they are under Gotama the Buddha’s tutelage
Kamala owns a “rare singing bird in a golden cage” (38). One night, Siddhartha has a dream where the songbird dies and he throws it in the street, symbolizing the death of Siddhartha’s spiritual life and as he is becoming more enveloped in the material world the realization that “he had thrown away from himself all value and everything good” (39). Acknowledging his departure from both the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, goes to the river and contemplates suicide. It is only when Govinda, who does not recognize Siddhartha, gives him a helping hand that he decides to keep living. After this Siddhartha decides that the material world is not the way to enlightenment and he leaves Kamala and she in turn lets her songbird go. The root of both Kamala and Kamaswami names, Kama, signifies the Hindu god of love and desire. When Siddhartha leaves these pursuits behind, he falls back in line with the Four Noble Truths and returns to his