Siddhartha Theme Of Love

There are many types of love: familial, romantic, platonic, or even spiritual. In the context of Siddhartha, from a Buddhist worldview, love can bring a person closer or farther away from enlightenment depending on how they look at humanity. When someone has a full understanding of the world and the knowledge in it, they begin to leave the cycle of the world as a result of attaining enlightenment. It takes Siddhartha much of his lifetime to reach enlightenment, and when he does he realizes that loving the earth in its entirety: people, places, and objects, is what will bring him to enlightenment. Hesse uses the theme of love and the various relationships that Siddhartha develops throughout his life to help him reach a universal love, with
In addition to Siddhartha’s romantic relationship with Kamala, he establishes a paternal love for his son that awakens him on his spiritual journey. This love puts him one step closer on his path to enlightenment, and helps him reach his final goal of enlightenment, however, it becomes an obstacle when he is first introduced to it. The son causes him much stress while he is with him because he was raised in a lavish lifestyle with Kamala, and he does not like the life that Siddhartha lives along the river. Young Siddhartha is disobedient and does not wish to live the same life as Siddhartha. As a parent this frustrates Siddhartha because his son is not following the same path to enlightenment that his father has. Since Siddhartha worries about his son he gets drawn away from his spiritual journey, and this comes as a result of the paternal love he has for him. Siddhartha had experienced the physical attraction of love with Kamala, and the familial type of love with Govinda, but the love that Siddhartha has for his son is one that he has not felt before, a paternal love. He described the love for his son as “the strongest, and strangest passion”(122). In western culture as well, the paternal/maternal love that parents have for their children is among the strongest love. Parents want what is best for them even though children do not want to be just like their parents, and they too can cause their parents stress. Young Siddhartha also wanted to be free and live on his own where he could be happy. Siddhartha has to learn to accept this paternal love even though it is painful for him to let his son go, because it diverted him from his path to enlightenment and caused him suffering. However, Siddhartha was able to accept this suffering as experience and knowledge, and he was