Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse Background

Hermann Hesse Born in Calw, Germany, in 1877, he was influenced by his family's mix of background and beliefs. His father, a Pietist-Lutheran, believed that man is basically evil and requires austere discipline.

Hermann Hesse His parents and grandparents had been missionaries in India and the Far East, and their homes yielded the flavors of Indian, Buddhist, and Mohammedan cultures. Hesse said, "From the time I was a child I breathed in and absorbed the spiritual side of India just as deeply as Christianity."

Hermann Hesse Hypersensitive, imaginative, and headstrong, Hermann behaved rebelliously while yearning to be a poet and magician. He left school and stayed at home gardening, assisting in his father's publishing house, and reading books on Eastern philosophy and religion in his grandfather's library.

Hermann Hesse In 1899, Hesse, who had become something of a misfit, moved to Basel, Switzerland, determined to learn the art of living with other people. In 1904, he married and moved to remote Gaienhofen.

Hermann Hesse Seven years later, he left for a trip to the East, expecting to find wisdom in India, which he considered to be a center place of innocence. Finding only poverty and commercialized Buddhism, he returned, suffering from heat exhaustion, dysentery, and disillusionment.

Hermann Hesse World War I left an already unsettled Hesse badly shaken - he abhorred war. Hesse later underwent Jungian psychoanalysis, a process that put him in touch with the irrational forces that lurk beneath both individuals and society at large as well as with the idea of a self-quest through synthesis of these forces.

Hermann Hesse In 1919, he settled alone in Montagnola, where Siddhartha was written. Until his death from leukemia in 1962, he remained in Montagnola, rarely leaving it and never going outside of Switzerland, not even when he was awarded the Goethe Prize of Frankfurt am Main and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.

Setting India (563 BC – 483 BC) The caste system in India has kept social changes to a minimum, making this story as possible today as it was almost 2500 years ago. The immediate setting changes several times as Siddhartha moves throughout civilization as a member of most of the castes. The major settings are the city, the river, the desert, and his parents home.

HINDUISM AND THE NOVEL Possibly the oldest religion in the world. The concept of “perfection” can be related to the idea of reincarnation, which according to Hinduism, is a series of births and deaths. During these successive lives, you accumulate good karma by doing good; being hurtful and selfish accumulates bad karma. Your karma determines your “placement” in the next life. Upon reincarnation, you will be higher or lower on the karmic ladder. The farther up the karmic ladder, the closer you are to perfection or Nirvana.

HINDUISM AND THE NOVEL One of the structures of Hinduism is the caste system which divides people into social classes. Castes are strict and hereditary. People are born into a caste and remain there throughout their lives. There are five classes: 1. Brahmin—the priest class 2. Nobility—royalty 3. Merchants—those who engage in trade 4. Servants 5. Untouchables—those who deal with any type of human waste, disposal of carcasses, etc.

HINDUISM AND THE NOVEL The Four Life Stages 1. the student – This stage is characterized by the individual being engaged in learning. 2. the householder – The individual engages in the domestic duties of maintaining a household. 3. the retired person – An individual is at or near the end of his life. He has already been a householder and a student. 4. the ascetic – This is a stage when the individual dedicates all his energy to spiritual goals and rejects worldly pleasures.

HINDUISM AND THE NOVEL The Four Life Goals 1.DHARMA - the practice of virtue. What is virtuous depends most on your caste and your stage in life. 2. ARTHA is the goal of success and achieving success. This is also relative to caste. It is spiritually significant for you to be successful at your craft or trade. Seen in his work with Kamaswami. 3. KAMA - the pursuit of pleasure. Siddhartha pursues this goal with “Kamala.” 4. MOKSHA - is a rejection of all the life-affirming goals and a pursuit of release from life.

HINDUISM AND THE NOVEL The Four Life Goals and Stages – Meaning Like the first three life stages, the first three life goals are life-affirming goals, and the last in both groups is life-negating. The first three (in both sets) celebrate life and confirm the participation in certain life duties as necessary to spiritual development. The last item in each set, the life-negating item, typically is a rejection of worldly pleasures and goals.

BUDDHISM The story of Hesse’s Siddhartha is similar to what is known about Siddhartha Gotama, the man who came to be known as the Buddha. The real man was born an Indian prince in approximately 623 BC. He was born a Hindu, and many of his teachings have their roots in that religion. Near age 29, Siddhartha Gotama left his family and the comforts of wealth and walked the world for six years as an ascetic where he practiced extreme self-denial and self-mortification

BUDDHISM He decided that there were no known ways that could lead him to himself. He began his own individual path that avoided both extremes of self-mortification and self- indulgence, often referred to as the middle way. Siddhartha Gotama found enlightenment while meditating under the fabled Banyan tree.

BUDDHISM In short, the teachings of Siddhartha Gotama challenged Hinduism in the following ways: Questioned the authority of the Brahmin class Rejected all caste divisions Condemned the developing philosophies regarding “religion” (it is only what one does, not what one believes, that matters). No God, nor any specific ritual, can bring enlightenment

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism 1. Suffering Exists (Life is Suffering): To live means to suffer, because the human nature is not perfect and neither is the world we live in. During our lifetime, we inevitably have to endure physical suffering such as pain, sickness, injury, tiredness, old age, and eventually death; and we have to endure psychological suffering like sadness, fear, frustration, disappointment, and depression.

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism 2. Desire Causes Suffering: The reasons for suffering are desire, passion, ardor, pursuit of wealth and prestige, striving for fame and popularity, or in short: craving and clinging. Because the objects of our attachment are transient, their loss is inevitable, thus suffering will necessarily follow. Objects of attachment also include the idea of a "self" which is a delusion, because there is no abiding self. What we call "self" is just an imagined entity, and we are merely a part of the ceaseless becoming of the universe.

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism 3. Cessation of Suffering is Attainable Suffering can be overcome simply by removing the cause of suffering. Attaining and perfecting dispassion is a process of many levels that ultimately results in the state of Nirvana. Nirvana means freedom from all worries, troubles, complexes, fabrications and ideas. Nirvana is not comprehensible for those who have not attained it.

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism 4. The Cessation of Desire Is Found Through the Eightfold Path: It is the middle way between the two extremes of excessive self-indulgence (hedonism) and excessive self-mortification (asceticism); and it leads to the end of the cycle of rebirth. The path to the end of suffering can extend over many lifetimes, throughout which every individual rebirth is subject to karmic conditioning. Craving, ignorance, delusions, and its effects will disappear gradually, as progress is made on the path.

The Eight Fold Path of Buddhism A. Wisdom 1) Right View – know the truth 2) Right Intention – resist self-centeredness B. Ethical Conduct 3) Right Speech – refrain from unkind, negative speech 4) Right Action – respect all life 5) Right Livelihood – work for the good of others

The Eight Fold Path of Buddhism C. Mental Discipline 6) Right Effort – exert oneself in freeing the mind of evil (egocentric thought) 7) Right Awareness – elevate one’s thoughts beyond the haze of emotion and mood 8) Right Meditation – practice the discipline of meditation D. GOAL = Nirvana (enlightenment) – an end to the cycle of rebirths, release of the Earth-bound self and the Buddhist equivalent of salvation.

Relation Buddhism and Hinduism to the Novel Allegory - a story that represents abstract ideas or morals; both a literal and symbolic meaning. For purposes of Hinduism and Buddhism, Siddhartha operates as a religious allegory.

Relation of Hinduism to the Novel Siddhartha & Hinduism a.The four life stages b.Four life goals c.Journey of Siddhartha and Govinda begins in innocence, followed by knowledge ("sin"), which, together, lead to a higher state of innocence accompanied by increased awareness and consciousness.

Relation of Buddhism to the Novel Siddhartha & Buddhism a. Four Noble Truths and 8 Fold path b. Both Siddhartha and Buddha are logical, scientific, and rational in their approach. c. They do not speak of supernatural phenomena or an afterlife, and they dismiss the possibility of miracles. d. Both are taught self-reliance. e. Love and a deep attachment to anyone or anything is wrong, since it leads to suffering f. Life Journey is similar – from wealth to poverty to wealth and then understanding