I read this book a couple of weeks back, but couldn't write anything about it. The book had been written by Herman Hesse who's a well respected German author, who once even won the Nobel prize for literature.
When I saw this book on display in the library I thought it to be a peice of fiction based on the life of Price Siddhartha before he left his palace in search of salvation, a work similar to that of Martin Wickramasinghe's "Bhavatharanaya". But it was not to be so. When I started reading it only did I discover that the Siddhartha referred to in the book is not the same prince Siddhartha who atained enlightenment and came to be known as Lord Buddha, but a different person, a Brahmin's son who lived in India during the time of Lord Buddha.
It's a fairly short story, and the story goes as this Siddhartha along with his friend goes in search of the meaning of existence. And just like the prince Siddhartha we know he goes onto learn different beliefs and practice rituals etc. under different teachers but realizes that they are not the liberation that he's looking for. After some time they both pay a visit to Lord Buddha, who they have been hearing so much about.
However, the story takes an unexpected turn here, and from this point onwards I think Hesse had got it all wrong.
Lord Buddha only appears in this book for a very short time, and at this point Siddhartha's friend decides to stay and become a Buddhist monk. However, the main character of the story Siddhartha decides to move on in search of self-realization. His argument is that there's no point in learning from someone else, but you have to realize the path by yourself alone. This point is not directly in contradiction with Buddhism, which says that you shouldn't believe in something just because someone says so or it's written in some book etc.. but analyse it and after due examination if it's intended to be good towards all others you may take it in. (From Kalama Sutta: but not the exact words, sorry about that) anyway, my point is that this doesn't necessarily mean that you should disregard what all others say.
Anyway, this Siddhartha goes on with life, searching for whatever he's searching for, and gets himself entangled with a courtesian, I think this woman named "kamala" is taken from the character of "Ambapali" in Buddhist texts. For later in the story this Kamala donates her mango grove to the Buddhist monks.
So, Siddhartha gets himself in a lot of different situations and finally one day suddenly ends up realizing that this life is meaningless! And goes in search of self-realization again.
The story I thought was pretty weird. The worst thing about it was that Hesse had to name this character as "Siddhartha". I kept wondering about that all throughout the story. Didn't make any sense at all. Perhaps he expected this character to be a close image of Lord Buddha himself. The introduction to the book was given by a scholar who had been studying Buddhism, and he had mentioned that "Hesse's understanding of Buddhism was not very accurate".
In my opinion, this is a book which is not worth reading, it only leaves you confused. Unless you are one of those people who just love to criticise others work!
When I saw this book on display in the library I thought it to be a peice of fiction based on the life of Price Siddhartha before he left his palace in search of salvation, a work similar to that of Martin Wickramasinghe's "Bhavatharanaya". But it was not to be so. When I started reading it only did I discover that the Siddhartha referred to in the book is not the same prince Siddhartha who atained enlightenment and came to be known as Lord Buddha, but a different person, a Brahmin's son who lived in India during the time of Lord Buddha.
It's a fairly short story, and the story goes as this Siddhartha along with his friend goes in search of the meaning of existence. And just like the prince Siddhartha we know he goes onto learn different beliefs and practice rituals etc. under different teachers but realizes that they are not the liberation that he's looking for. After some time they both pay a visit to Lord Buddha, who they have been hearing so much about.
However, the story takes an unexpected turn here, and from this point onwards I think Hesse had got it all wrong.
Lord Buddha only appears in this book for a very short time, and at this point Siddhartha's friend decides to stay and become a Buddhist monk. However, the main character of the story Siddhartha decides to move on in search of self-realization. His argument is that there's no point in learning from someone else, but you have to realize the path by yourself alone. This point is not directly in contradiction with Buddhism, which says that you shouldn't believe in something just because someone says so or it's written in some book etc.. but analyse it and after due examination if it's intended to be good towards all others you may take it in. (From Kalama Sutta: but not the exact words, sorry about that) anyway, my point is that this doesn't necessarily mean that you should disregard what all others say.
Anyway, this Siddhartha goes on with life, searching for whatever he's searching for, and gets himself entangled with a courtesian, I think this woman named "kamala" is taken from the character of "Ambapali" in Buddhist texts. For later in the story this Kamala donates her mango grove to the Buddhist monks.
So, Siddhartha gets himself in a lot of different situations and finally one day suddenly ends up realizing that this life is meaningless! And goes in search of self-realization again.
The story I thought was pretty weird. The worst thing about it was that Hesse had to name this character as "Siddhartha". I kept wondering about that all throughout the story. Didn't make any sense at all. Perhaps he expected this character to be a close image of Lord Buddha himself. The introduction to the book was given by a scholar who had been studying Buddhism, and he had mentioned that "Hesse's understanding of Buddhism was not very accurate".
In my opinion, this is a book which is not worth reading, it only leaves you confused. Unless you are one of those people who just love to criticise others work!
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