Set on the Gangetic Plain some 2,600 years ago, Siddhartha is about one man's search for enlightenment. Siddhartha, son of a Brahmin, even in the presence of Gautama Buddha himself, is unable to find a way if it depends on the teachings of others. There is, Siddhartha comes to believe, no single illuminated path for all men and women to follow. We must each of us make our own mistakes. We must all suffer, and no warning against it will ever help us. For to live some kind of bizarre life of comfort that prevents suffering also prevents our finding peace. The novel's especially illuminating if you have some understanding of Vedic Religion and how it fed developments in Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. The writing style is very honed, lean, without abstruse digressions. It fulfills for me the fundamental requirement of all good fiction: that it reveal a fully imagined world. And isn't that what we really require from narrative: that it takes us out of ourselves; that, to paraphrase John Gardner (The Art of Fiction, Grendel, Mickelsson's Ghosts, Nickel Mountain, October Light, etc.), it perpetuates the dream? Highly recommended. I much prefer it to Steppenwolf. Up next Journey to the East and The Glass Bead Game.

Ένα μικρό βιβλίο που κρύβει στις σελίδες του μεγάλη σοφία. Όπως λέει κάποια στιγμή και ο Σιντάρτα, η σοφία δεν μεταδίδεται. Πρέπει κάποιος να την ψάξει, να τη ζήσει. Μπορεί να ενισχυθεί από αυτήν και να κάνει θαύματα. Αλλά δεν μπορεί να την διδάξει. Μόνο η γνώση διδάσκεται.

Μπορεί λοιπόν να μη διδάχτηκα πολλά, όμως διαβάζοντας αυτό το βιβλίο ένιωσα πως έκανα διαλογισμό. Χαλάρωσα, ηρέμησα και το απόλαυσα.
Τα παραμύθια λένε πάντα τις μεγαλύτερες αλήθειες. Αυτό έχω να πω.

Sometimes you happen to find the right book at the right moment in your life and it just seems to fall into a place in your mind and fill a space so perfectly like a puzzle piece.

Siddhartha is a man with three talents: he can think; he can wait; he can fast. When asked what is the good of fasting, he replies:

It is very good, sir. If a person has nothing to eat, then fasting is the wisest thing he can do. If, for instance, Siddhartha had not learned how to fast, he would have to accept any service today, whether with you or someone else, for hunger would force him to do so. But now Siddhartha can calmly wait, he knows no impatience, he knows no plight. He can stave off hunger for a long time and he can laugh at it. That, sir, is what fasting is good for.

Hesse has gotten right to the bottom of it. Fear is the destroyer of happiness. Paths taken out of desperation do not lead one to fulfillment. It is best to be patient and choose wisely.

Siddhartha is a story of discovery, of searching for meaning and finding one's way in life. It is filled with Buddhist mysticism, and despite this (I consider myself a strict scientific rationalist), I found this thoroughly insightful and thought provoking. It is not Siddhartha's mystical conclusions that are important, it is the process of self-discovery, the search for wisdom, the questions asked, the quest for what *truly* satisfies the spirit.

Hermann Hesse is fast becoming one of my favourite writers. I loved Steppenwolf, and the title characters in these two books could not be more different! Hesse writes with simplicity, yet manages to impart such depth of thought. This characters have a real internal life without being overly introspected or endlessly analytical.

Has it ever happened to you that you are standing, facing a magnificent, breathtaking view, in solitude, and a strong wind hits you in the face? You try to stay still, with eyes closed and then an involuntary smile comes across your face? This book was like that.

Whatever. Blah blah blah Samana. Blah blah blah Kamala. Blah blah blah Samsara. Blah blah blah River. Blah blah blah Om.

Mythical and poetic, lyrical and rhythmic.

Siddhartha lives as the jewel of his Bramin family. A promising scholar, a curious and reflective young man.

Once, Samanas had travelled through Siddhartha’s town, ascetics on a pilgrimage, three skinny, withered men, neither old nor young, with dusty and bloody shoulders, almost naked, scorched by the sun, surrounded by loneliness, strangers and enemies to the world, strangers and lank jackals in the realm of humans. Behind them blew a hot scent of quiet passion, of destructive service, of merciless self-denial.

A visit from wandering Samanas transforms him and sets his lifepath. Siddhartha begins his journey, turning through many cycles of existence. He lives several different lives, floating through and absorbing the waters of experience. He realizes this path of experience, along with his resume-listed core strengths: Thinking, fasting, patience, leads him closer to enlightenment. Siddhartha understands other people cannot teach anything of real value - You are your only teacher and you must be receptive and willing to learn.

This classic novella by Herman Hesse tells the story of a man's self discovery.  The eponymous Siddhartha (not to be confused with Lord Buddha, whose name was also Siddhartha) leaves home searching for meaning of life and a true teacher, and goes through different phases from long days of meditation to a life of lust and material indulgences, understands love and liberation before finally finding peace. It's primary influence is the Buddhist philosophies. It can be a brilliant influence to someone more philosophically inclined than me, and it is so to thousands of readers all over the world. For me personally it did not strike any special chord. May be because growing up in India, I was always indirectly exposed to the Buddhist philosophies of liberation and peace, therefore this did not provide me a lot of new fodder for thought. Or may be because I am just too materialistic to be truly moved by it. Either way, it wasn't for me.

A profound book. I can't believe I had never read it before now. Siddhartha is the story of a man who has to experience all the ups and downs of life before he can find enlightenment. He becomes a beggar to experience being poor and knowing how to be hungry. He becomes a rich merchant to experience what working and luxury are like, and he also makes love with a beautiful woman. He then gives all that up and becomes a poor ferryman.

"I have experienced on my body and on my soul that I needed sin very much, I needed lust, the desire for possessions, vanity, and needed the most shameful despair, in order to learn how to give up all resistance, in order to learn how to love the world, in order to stop comparing it to some world I wished, I imagined, some kind of perfection I had made up, but to leave it as it is and to love it and to enjoy being a part of it."

But the buildup to his enlightenment in the end was enthralling, and... for lack of a better work - beautiful. It sounded very peaceful to be so calmly listening to a river. This quote was the point of the whole book. And perhaps it's also a better way to live:

"And this is now a teaching you will laugh about: love, oh Govinda, seems to me to be the most important thing of all. To thoroughly understand the world, to explain it, to despise it, may be the thing great thinkers do. But I’m only interested in being able to love the world, not to despise it, not to hate it and me, to be able to look upon it and me and all beings with love and admiration and great respect."

A true classic - has affected me differently every time I read it.

Hermann Hesse’s 1922 book feels absolutely timeless and ageless – almost like a religious or spiritual text, not a work of fiction.

It’s about the lifelong journey of Siddhartha, a Brahmin’s son who leaves the comfort and intellectual stimulation of his home life to become a wandering ascetic, renouncing all possessions. After meeting the famous Buddha, Gautama, he realizes he wants or needs more, and so crosses a river with the help of a ferryman (who lets him ride for free - saying he’ll be back and will pay him in another way) and goes to take part in city life. There, he embarks on an extended affair with a beautiful courtesan and works for a ruthless businessman. He has mind-blowing sex, amasses wealth and drapes himself in fine clothes, but he’s unfulfilled. In fact, he’s in despair. Then, revisiting the river he was at years earlier, and meeting the same wise but uneducated ferryman who helped him cross, he has a sort of epiphany. People from his earlier life eventually find him at the river, and he comes to a fuller and richer understanding of the nature of time, life, suffering. And he reconnects with a childhood friend, now a Buddhist monk, who recognizes in Siddhartha true enlightenment.

What an unusual but powerful book: quiet but full of profound things to say about what’s ultimately important in life. I can see how the book would have resonated with generations of young people in the 1960s seeking meaning in a society clamouring after wealth and power.

It makes you think about essential things: How important are possessions? What’s the purpose of pain and hardship? Does learning only happen in the classroom?

It’s a slim volume, but it’s written in a clear, timeless prose, and it’s packed with wisdom. I’ll definitely be making repeat journeys to it in the years to come.

Siddhartha (1922) de Hermann Hesse

Siddhartha, así como la obra en conjunto del autor alemán Hermann Hesse (ganador del Premio Nobel de Literatura en 1946) plantea una observación crítica de la sociedad de consumo (entonces como contestación de la revolución industrial), la novela plantea que existe una descompensación producida entre la abundancia de lo material y de lo espiritual y que la búsqueda humana consiste en encontrar un equilibrio entre ambas.
Escrita en 1922 a la manera de los poemas hindúes, la historia de Siddhartha coincide inicialmente (casi de manera análoga) con la historia del Buda Siddhārtha Gautama (que aparece durante el transcurso de la obra representado de manera simbólica como el último maestro que nuestro protagonista persigue).
En Siddhartha se plantea por ejemplo, que no es necesario ser miembro de una religión para tener un sentido de espiritualidad o de trascendencia, la noción de que en la búsqueda de encontrar un maestro uno evita convertirse en uno y finalmente la noción de que la sabiduría no puede enseñarse, ya que es el resultado de las experiencias totales de un individuo y sólo le pertenecen a él mismo.
A pesar de que la obra de Hermann Hesse presenció un resurgimiento durante la época hippie en la década de los sesenta debido a que los valores de sus libros (entre ellos Siddhartha) parecen coincidir con los valores reaccionarios de dicho movimiento, es importante advertir que el autor no plantea que la espiritualidad sea una solución a la infelicidad, más bien nos invita a descubrir que la realidad es suficiente, que la plenitud no se encuentra en el ansia del futuro sino en la contemplación del presente.

سیدارتها یک کتاب به شدت فلسفی با مفاهیم عمیق عرفانی هست که من مطمئنم متن آلمانیش هم یک متن سخت و ادبی هست.
در توانایی آقای سروش حبیبی برای ترجمه هیچ شکی نیست. کتاب قبلی هرمان هسه رو هم با ترجمه حبیبی خوندم (داستان دوست من) اما این کتاب رو ایشون جوری ترجمه کرده که انگار داری قابوسنامه یا تذکره الاولیا میخونی. مثلا از کلماتی استفاده شده مثل حواصیل ، غثیان سترگ، اباطیل و از این دست کلمات که در لغتنامه دهخدا هم بعضا نمبشه پیداشون کرد. همین ماجرا باعث شده بود که مطالعه این کتاب کم حجم برای من نزدیک به یک ماه زمان ببره.
از ترجمه که بگذریم تمام حرف های کتاب در 20 صفحه آخرش بود. تا قبل از این که به اون بخش برسم میخواستم بهش 2 تا ستاره بدم اما الان نظرم فرق کرده که البته اینم خوب نیست و نشون میده نویسنده بعضی جاها دچار اضافه گویی شده.
عرفان نهایی که سیدارتها از اول دنبالشه و آخر هم بهش میرسه چیزی نیست جز درک ارزش زمان حال. اینکه همه پدیده های عالم از کوچک و بزرگ همگی در حال زندگی میکنند و اصلا آینده و گذشته ای وجود نداره و همه چیز الان و همین لحظه است.
"امروز اما از رازهای بسیار رود فقط به یکی پی برد و همان نیز جانش را تسخیر کرد. دید که رود پیوسته روان است و پیوسته برجا. همیشه و همیشه همان رود است وبا این همه هر لحظه رودی دیگر."
"... به زندگی خود نگریستم و آن را نیز رودی دیدم و دیئم که سیدارتهای کودک وسیدارتهای بالغ و سیدارتهای پیر جز با سایه ای از هم جدا نبوده اندو فاصله ای واقعی از هم جداشان نمیکرد. سیدارتهای دیگری نیز بودند، در تولدهای پیشین، که گذشته نبودند. مرگ و بازگشت او به نزد برهما نیز آینده نیست. هیچ چیز نبوده و نخواهد بود. همه چیز هست. وجود همه چیز فقط در حال است."