Book Review: Siddhartha. Writer: Herman Hesse.

 

The witty and charming Oscar Wilde in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ wrote, (read full review here: https://bff-anewdimension.blogspot.com/2020/10/book-review-picture-of-dorian-gray.html) “The best way to resist temptation is to yield to it”. The deeper questions here are:

What is ‘temptation’?

What makes something ‘tempting’?

Was it the mere forbiddance of the apple that made Adam eat it? Who was that serpent who was successful in ‘tempting’ Adam to eat that apple? Was it really an entity, or was it a metaphor, a figment of Adam’s imagination?

 

Various authors from Europe have studied, understood and embodied the Hindu culture into their lives, and aptly written down its tenets in the stories they weaved. Herman Hesse is one such Swedish writer. ‘Siddhartha’ is a book for the pensive and perspicacious souls, eager on exploring the ‘who’, ‘why’ and ‘what’ of things, and who like to look at everything from a materialistic as well as philosophical standpoint.

 

‘Siddhartha’ captures the journey of a man named Siddhartha to becoming an enlightened monk, equipped with worldly as well as other worldly knowledge. The things that defined him were his curiosity and iconoclastism. He wasn’t designed to follow something just because it was told to him. He would go on to question everything, which is why when he goes to the monastery in furtherance of his intention of becoming the ‘Enlightened one’, he is unable to stand the blind obedience and the semi-servility of the other students. He decides to take matters into his own hands and see where life leads him as he decides to become a monk without attending a monastery.

 

The book embodies the English proverb, ‘to each his own’ in great measure. The fact that to reach thorough evolution, various roads have to be tread upon and understanding the other person, or in the words of Atticus Finch, “to truly understand someone else, a man needs to put himself in his shoes, and walk around in them”. The book openly explores taboo, talks of the various forms of love, unrequited love, and the various obstacles on the journey to greatness.

 

As the reader travels with Siddhartha, he questions his actions in his personal life, as well as tries to appreciate Siddhartha, and the rationale behind his actions. The striking feature of the book is that as Siddhartha treads on wrongful paths and even goes on to do things that aren’t exactly just, fair and rational, he never loses sight of his goal.

 

‘Siddhartha’ tries to explore the ‘whys’ of the various postulates that are taught to him, one of them being: why are women ‘vile temptresses’? As he interacts with Kamala, the Courtesan he understands the tenderness of women’s hearts and comes to know that women have as much brains as souls and give more than they receive. In a way, ‘Siddhartha’ touched upon sexism and embodied feminism.

 

The book, in a span of less than 200 pages, takes into account every emotion: love, anger, helplessness, hopelessness, hopefulness and finally leads to a solid fact: self-awareness. ‘Siddhartha’ normalizes many things in addition to delivering a wonderful story enunciated through simple writing. It tells the reader that to grow, hurdles are inevitable, to set free the things that have the power to hold them back, no matter how difficult it may seem, to fall out of love with their sufferings, no matter how glorious they are, and most importantly that things will change, if not at the moment, then eventually.

 

While social media influencers and modern day psychologists discuss ‘toxic positivity’ and its aftermath into a trauma, ‘Siddhartha’ in 1922 comforts the reader by insinuating that it is just as important to feel sadness as much as happiness, the zeniths, the nadirs, good, bad and everything is important and paves the way for evolution.

 

Another feature of the book is Siddhartha’s appetite to learn from others, and the malleability of his opinions when he understands the rationale behind things. How often are people in today’s times capable of doing that?

 

As Siddhartha gets closer to realizing his goal of becoming a monk, the reader feels happy for him and more importantly, the reader feels that Siddhartha deserves his enlightenment, after working so hard for it.

 

In addition to being a spiritual exploration of the path to Enlightenment, ‘Siddhartha’ is also a tale of true grit, determination, and love for one’s goal clashing with the love of one’s life. Surviving. Thriving. Tasting Success. Understanding failures. Coming to terms with what was and parting with love and without bitterness.

 

‘Siddhartha’ is a guide to life in a storical form that not only adorns the bookshelf, but also carves its place in the reader’s heart. ‘Siddhartha’ is a must read.