Siddhartha Journey

IRP: Siddhartha How far would one go to search for the truth behind the universal understanding of life, or Nirvana? In Siddhartha, a continual search for the truth is viewed as crucial for achieving an amicable relationship with the world. Siddhartha, a young Brahmin who is driven to extremes by his desire to understand himself, embarks on an internal spiritual quest to attain enlightenment, leading him far from home and through various paths of wisdom before reaching his spiritual goal. As Siddhartha relies on intuition for guidance, the different paths he followed put him on a path of maturation, which is marked by self-discovery and the spiritual awakening. Hesse’s Siddhartha shows the importance of the concept of journey to fully develop
The river embodies the incessant cycle of life and time and the path to enlightenment. It defines and unifies the transitions in Siddhartha’s journey and ultimately demonstrates the vast vision of totality and timelessness. “And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, al the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life” (Hesse, 105) shows the river’s ability to hold a myriad of things while still illustrating unity and wholeness. The readers can view the river as Siddhartha’s final guide as his epiphany on the riverbank lead to intuitive wisdom. It is from the river that Siddhartha learns that time does not exist; it flows forevermore and cannot be termed with neither past nor future. He eventually understands because the essence of enlightenment already exists within ourselves and dictatorial paths can divert us from ourselves
When contemplating suicide, after losing his son, near the river, he hears the word Om. He realizes that he must overcome his suffering and must learn to “be,” and not try to force his life in a specific direction. In “Om,” suffering acts as a humanizing force for Siddhartha. Through suffering, Siddhartha finds consensus among his roles as son, father, seeker, allowing him to see his unity with the world. As he is no longer in the high class of Brahmin, his suffering has shown him that he is like anyone else, and only his similarities with the rest of the world can allow him to achieve the compassion essential for true enlightenment. He slowly uncovers the complexity of the Om and how it involves time and both the physical and spiritual world. Thus, through overcoming his sufferings, he is able to achieve enlightenment and fulfill his spiritual quest; he achieves it when he finally comprehends that all things exist at the same moment, time is trifling, and all possibilities are rational. Due to the “Om,” Siddhartha was able to figure out his identity as a son, father, and seeker attempting to reach enlightenment. As he is able to find common ground between two differing worlds—material and spiritual—he understands that Om is the unity of polarity and that one cannot achieve enlightenment if one embraces opposite beliefs and