Two People, Two Journeys

In the novel Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, the main character Siddhartha's journey is explained thoroughly. Every human being experiences their own life journey. Some journey's are intended, like Siddhartha's, and other journey's are simply the different actions an individual experiences. Each life journey is unique and separates human beings from one another. My personal life journey is not the same as Siddhartha's, but certain aspects are similar in their own way.

Since pre-school, I attended the same school until the eighth grade. During those nine years I grew to recognize every face of every student, parent, and teacher. I was completely content with where I was and cherished every minute I was there. When the high school decision approached, my grade split evenly between the all-boy and all-girl private schools. I then had the choice to stay among the children I had known all my life, or to venture and receive a beginning taste of the real world and experiences that come with meeting new people. In the beginning of the novel, Siddhartha is in the community he was born and raised into. Every member loved and admired Siddhartha, but like myself, Siddhartha wanted more and wanted to experience the world outside of his comfort zone. To explain Siddhartha's feelings, it is quoted "..they had already poured their all into his waiting vessel, and the vessel was not full, his mind was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace, his heart was not content" (5).

When I was twelve years old, my parents divorced. At first, the realization of what was happening did not affect me, but once it did my emotions took a turn for the worst. I never believed before that I would be a member of a family with divorced parents. It felt as if how I'd been living my whole life had been a lie. Unfortunately, I had to leave the house I grew up in my whole life. My home was the place I had been accustomed to for so long. Siddhartha also experienced something like this. After living in Samsara for a long period of time, once he left he felt as if his whole life for that period of time had been a lie. His emotions took a turn for the worst, and he found himself in search of a new place to call home. Although the two experiences may seem different, they are both similar in different ways. Both are experiences of being pulled out of a place and life someone has grown so accustomed to, and feeling like a period of their life had been a lie. Another quote of Siddhartha's thoughts states "He knew only one thing-that he could not go back, that the life he had led for many years was over and gone" (68).

After leaving the city of Samsara, Siddhartha was confused and unaware of where his life was going next. This is the point I am currently at in my life journey. I am trying to figure out what college I belong to that will be the best suitable place for me. This college is where I will learn and experience my own form of enlightenment. My enlightenment will be my realization of what my job on this earth is intended to be. Siddhartha's journey was filled with complications, fasting, and constantly adapting to new surroundings. But once he promised himself to begin a new positive chapter of his journey, his goal of enlightenment was quickly attained. "That life is now old and dead. May my new way, my new life, have its starting point there" (79)!

With Vasudeva

• physically: Siddartha travels back to the river he once crossed in the ferrymans boat. The ferrymans name is Vasudeva and he invites Siddhartha to work and live with him in his hut on the river. Siddartha regains his health as he begins to eat daily again. He becomes Vasudeva's apprentice and transports people across the river on the boat. 
• mentally: Siddhartha finds positive aspects in the river. Beginning from the first day, the river spoke to him and continued too through his time spent living by it. It became his new guide and mentor as well as Vasudeva. Neither of the two taught Siddhartha through words, but Siddhartha still learned from them through their unspoken teachings. 
• spiritually: The river begins to instill peace in Siddartha. He can tell that he is growing closer to attaining Nirvana because he has Vasudeva as a mentor. Vasudeva tentatively listens to Siddhartha and allows their hearts to become one when Siddhartha confides in him. Siddhartha feels himself growly spiritually.
• socially: During this period of Siddhartha's journey, he encounters the most amount of people. First, he becomes close with Vasudeva. Vasudeva and the river teach Siddhartha his most important lessons. They teach him the importance of life, and different voices the river makes in imitation of peoples emotions. Siddhartha meets an assortment of people as he transports them across the river. He learns from each of them, and takes note of the affect the river has on them. Siddhartha also comes in contact with Kamala again. Unfortunately, she is bitten by a poisonous snake and dies. She leaves with him, their son Siddhartha. The son is very disobedient and soon leaves Siddhartha, just as Siddhartha had once left his own father. 

*"Above all he learned from it how to listen, how to listen with a still heart, with an expectant, open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgement, without opinion" (83).

- This quotation explains the rivers affect on Siddhartha. Siddhartha gained enlightenment through the river. This quotation states the first effects the river had on Siddhartha. It began by teaching him how to listen. It also taught him to live without desire, without judgement, and without opinion. These are the basic foundation that Siddhartha used to reach his enlightenment. The river taught him his foundation, and helped him grow from that to find himself to attain Nirvana. 

By the River

• physically: After leaving the city, Siddhartha journeyed into the forest to begin fresh. Although he was still dressed in his fine clothes and perfume, he was considered a wanderer once again. After a couple of days his health began to deteriorate as the hunger deprivation started. Siddhartha has nothing around him but the river. 
• mentally: Siddhartha realizes that the recent years of his life were a lie. Each thing he did was a step backwards in all of the progress that he made. Depression overwhelmed Siddhartha as he realized that he allowed greed and possessions to over take his life. These were things that he believed his whole life to be worthless. Siddartha's depression reached to its peak when he believed that there was nothing left to live for, and contemplated drowning himself in the river. 
• spiritually: Siddhartha felt dead on the inside when he first entered the forest after leaving the city. His happiness and satisfaction with life was nonexistent. Siddhartha was contemplating suicide until the phrase OM helped him remember the indestructibility of life. His encounter with Govinda also aided in Siddhartha's climb back to happiness. 
• socially: In the forest, Siddhartha was completely alone. One day sleeping under a tree, Siddhartha encounters his old childhood friend Govinda. At first Govinda does not recognize him, because both men have visibly aged. The two friends caught up on each others lives. This reencounter with Govinda positively helped Siddartha in realizing why he set out on the journey to find himself in the first place. 

*"I had to pass through so much ignorance, so much vice, such great misunderstanding, so much revulsion and disappointment and misery-just to become a child again and start over" (75).

- This quote describes Siddhartha's journey so far. After everything he had learned, it took the most negative thoughts for Siddhatha's journey to start fresh and to find himself again. It is important because it can almost be linked to reincarnation in the general sense. The religion believes that individuals go through each life, experiencing pain and hardships in hopes to achieve enlightenment. If they do not achieve enlightenment, then their whole life is swept clean as they are reincarnated into a new child and a new life. Luckily for Siddhartha, he reached the most negative point of thought and was saved by a realization, and essentially born again. 

In Samsara

• physically: During this chapter in Siddhartha's life, he lives the life of a rich man. Kamaswami has taken Siddhartha in and taught him the world of business. He is now capable of wearing nice clothing and shoes, and has perfume in his hair. Siddhartha is now capable of spending his days with business and playing dice, while servants and other take care of work and problems. 
• mentally: In the beginning, Siddhartha enjoys himself. He is learning new practices and seeing life through the eyes of a different type of people he never thought possible. Although he lives alongside of them, Siddhartha still feels himself aliened from the others. Their lives are consumed in the worldy life, and Siddhartha soon realizes that it is wrong and there are much more crucial things in life.
• spiritually: The only positive aspect Siddhartha had at this point was Kamala. She understood Siddhartha spiritually better than anyone else. Other than her, Siddhartha always felt aliened. He was not able to fit in and share the childlike joy and foolishness the people of Samsara shared. Slowly, Siddhartha's began to diminish until he knew he could no longer stay and live waisting each day. He choose to leave Samsara and continue back on the path he left off before he entered the city. 
• socially: Everywhere Siddhartha went, he made friends. People of Samsara came to him for money and advice. Kamala was the closest to Siddhartha. She was the first person to grow so close to Siddhartha since his childhood friend Govinda. Siddhartha also grew a strong bond with Kamaswami. Unfortunately, Siddhartha would sometimes find Kamaswami to be irritating and not worth his time.

*"Then Siddhartha knew that the game was over, that he could not play anymore. A shudder went over his body, through his insides, and he felt that something had died" (66).
- This quote summarizes when Siddhartha realizes that he must once again change his life. The game Siddhartha is referring to is the game he had been living the past years in Samsara. In Samsara, Siddhartha was a completely different man. He lived a life that the past Siddhartha would not have even considered. Once he realized that he had to make changes, the old Siddhartha that had been living in Samsara for the past years died. Siddhartha was able to then continue on the path he left of on the years before. 

With the Buddha

• physically: Siddhartha and Govinda enter into the city of Shravasti in hopes of finding Gotama. They travel through this unknown town among an endless sea of monks who are also in search of Gotama as well. Soon enough the followers begin to pack into Gotama's favorite dwelling place, the Jeta Grove, where he is going to conduct his teachings. 
• mentally: After Siddhartha hears Gotama's teaching, he is fortunate enough to come in contact with the buddah. Siddhartha says that he admires all of the lessons in the teaching but finds one flaw. This flaw is that the Buddah's only teaches how he achieved enlightenment, but that does not help his followers because each individual achieves enlightenment differently. 
• spiritually: In hopes to experience his final enlightenment, Siddhartha opens his spirit to Gotama's teachings. Unfortunately he does not find Gotama's teachings to satisfy his urge, nor allow him to become any closer to attaining Nirvana. But he does believe that what Gotama teaches is good and right. 
• socially: After only seeing Gotama from a far, Siddhartha was already able to conclude that he had never loved a man more than he loved Gotama. Gotama too saw very positive and important assets in Siddhartha, but was quick to warn him that he is too greedy for knowledge.  

*"The Buddha robbed me, thought Siddhartha, he robbed me, yet he gave me even more. He robbed me of my friend, who believed in me and now believes in him, who was my shadow and is now Gotama's shadow. But he gave me Siddhartha, he gave me myself" (29).

- This quote summarizes the positive and negative effect Gotama had on Siddhartha. In a negative note, this is where Siddhartha and his childhood friend Govinda separate to finally fulfill their own separate journeys. In a positive note, although Siddhartha feels Gotama had robbed a piece of Siddhartha when Govinda choose to join his followers, Gotama also gave much more in return when he gave Siddhartha the key to himself. This brings Siddhartha another step closer to reaching Nirvana. 

With the Samanas

• physically: Siddhartha begins his travels with the shramana. During his travels he is taught the practices of self-abnegation and meditative absorption. Slowly his health begins to become effected by his fasting. The flesh on his body becomes scarce and he starts to experience fevered dreams. After a period of time Siddhartha and Govinda leave the shramana to hear the teachings of Gotama, the buddah.
• mentally: Once Siddhartha begins to live the life of a shramana, he is stripped of all that he had. While passing through local cities and examining the people, he begins to view all possessions that the people carry to be lies. 
• spiritually: Siddhartha's current goal is to die away from himself and become completely empty so he can find his inner self. He concludes that life is pain and questions whether what he is doing is right or if he is just traveling in a circle. Siddhartha does not believe that he is close to attaining Nirvana because even the oldest shramana has not attained it. This is one of the main reasons Siddhartha chooses to leave and seek out the teachings of Gotama. 
• socially: Once the older shramana saw Siddhartha learning quickly, they showed admiration to him as others had before. Siddhartha was again not content and confided in Govinda his feelings of abandoning the shramana's. The eldest shramana was very angered by his wish to leave, until Siddhartha mentally showed all he had learned by practicing with the shramana. 

*"We have learned a great deal, Siddhartha, and there remains a lot more still to learn. We are not going in a circle, we are moving upward. The circle is a spiral; we have already advanced through a number of stages" (15).
- This quote represents Siddhartha's journey. Each time Siddhartha comes to a new enlightenment, he climbs higher up in this spiral of a journey. All of the knowledge he obtains from the different groups of people he stays with, is a new chapter in his life, and a new climb up into his spiral of a journey. 

Hometown

• physically: Siddhartha is first introduced to the readers as the "beautiful brahmin's son." He practices and lives the daily life of a brahmin by performing sacred ablutions and sacrifices, and training by his elders alongside his childhood friend Govinda.
• mentally: Although Siddhartha believes that all he has been taught is true, good, and should not be underestimated, he also believes that all he has been taught is not enough. He yearns for more and a better understanding of each of the things that he has been taught. Siddhartha believes there is more out in the world to learn to better his chances of attaining Nirvana.  
• spiritually: In Siddhartha's hometown, he is at peace with himself. Unfortunately, he does not believe that he is close to happiness or attaining Nirvana. The love from his family and friends is strong, but not strong enough to bring him the content and satisfaction that he yearns for. 
• socially: From the beginning of the novel, Siddhartha is introduced as a strongly admired person. From his elders to his peers, he is loved and admired by all. Siddhartha's parents could not be more proud to watch their son grow as he thirsts for knowledge. Once his father hears his son request to leave, he voices his disapproval before he grants his sons request. His childhood friend Govinda is said to love him more than any other and plans to follow Siddhartha in his path to greatness. 

* "But Siddhartha was no joy to himself; he brought no pleasure to himself. Walking on the rosy paths of the fig garden, sitting in the bluish shadows of the meditation grove, washing his limbs in his daily baths of purification, performing sacrifices in the deep shade of the mango wood, perfect in the grace of his gestures, he was beloved of everyone, a joy to all-but still there was no joy in his heart" (4). 

- This quote accurately summarizes Siddhartha's life from where he is first introduced. He is a brahmin and performs all his religions practices that he is expected to do. Through his works he expels admiration and joy to the people around him, but he obtains no love and joy to himself. Siddhartha can now set on his journey to find himself.