Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse
Chapter 3
“‘I have not doubted for a single moment that you are Buddha, that you have reached
the goal, the highest goal towards which so many thousands of Brahmins and
sons of Brahmins are on their way. You have found salvation from death. It
has come to you in the course of your own search, on your own path, through
thoughts, through meditation, through realizations, through enlightenment. It
has not come to you by means of teachings! And—thus is my thought, oh
exalted one,—nobody will obtain salvation by means of teachings! You will
not be able to convey and say to anybody, oh venerable one, in words and
through teachings what has happened to you in the hour of enlightenment!
The teachings of the enlightened Buddha contain much, it teaches many to
live righteously, to avoid evil. But there is one thing which these so clear,
these so venerable teachings do not contain: they do not contain the mystery
of what the exalted one has experienced for himself, he alone among hun-
dreds of thousands. This is what I have thought and realized, when I have
heard the teachings. This is why I am continuing my travels—not to seek
other, better teachings, for I know there are none, but to depart from all teach-
ings and all teachers and to reach my goal by myself or to die’” (Hesse 28-29).
“I have never before seen a person glance and smile, sit and walk this way,
he thought; truly, I wish to be able to glance and smile, sit and walk this
way, too, thus free, thus venerable, thus concealed, thus open, thus child-
like and mysterious. Truly, only a person who has succeeded in reaching the
innermost part of his self would glance and walk this way. Well so, I also will
seek to reach the innermost part of my self.
I saw a man, Siddhartha thought, a single man, before whom I would have
to lower my glance. I do not want to lower my glance before any other, not
before any other. No teachings will entice me any more, since this man’s
teachings have not enticed me” (Hesse 29-30).
Chapter 5
“‘You shall know, Sid-
dhartha has set harder goals for himself than such trifles, and he has reached
them. How shouldn’t I reach that goal, which I have set for myself yester-
day: to be your friend and to learn the joys of love from you! You’ll see that
I’ll learn quickly, Kamala, I have already learned harder things than what
you’re supposed to teach me. And now let’s get to it. You aren’t satisfied
with Siddhartha as he is, with oil in his hair, but without clothes, without
shoes, without money?’” (Hesse 48).
“Suddenly, pride flared up in him. He was no Samana any more, it was no
longer becoming to him to beg. He gave the rice-cake to a dog and remained
without food.
‘Simple is the life which people lead in this world here,’ thought Siddhartha.
‘It presents no difficulties. Everything was difficult, toilsome, and ultimately
hopeless, when I was still a Samana. Now, everything is easy, easy like that
lessons in kissing, which Kamala is giving me. I need clothes and money,
nothing else; this a small, near goals, they won’t make a person lose any
Sleep’” (Hesse 51).
“Siddhartha said, ‘Yesterday, I told you I knew how to think, to wait, and to
fast, but you thought this was of no use. But it is useful for many things,
Kamala, you’ll see. You’ll see that the stupid Samanas are learned and able
to do many pretty things in the forest, which the likes of you aren’t capable
of. The day before yesterday, I was still a shaggy beggar, as soon as yesterday
I have kissed Kamala, and soon I’ll be a merchant and have money and all
those things you insist upon.’
‘Well yes,’ she admitted. ‘But where would you be without me? What would
you be, if Kamala wasn’t helping you?’
‘Dear Kamala,’ said Siddhartha and straightened up to his full height, ‘when
I came to you into your grove, I did the first step. It was my resolution to learn
love from this most beautiful woman. From that moment on when I had made
this resolution, I also knew that I would carry it out. I knew that you would
help me, at your first glance at the entrance of the grove I already knew it.’
‘But what if I hadn’t been willing?’
‘You were willing. Look, Kamala. When you throw a rock into the water,
it will speed on the fastest course to the bottom of the water. This is how
it is when Siddhartha has a goal, a resolution. Siddhartha does nothing, he
waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he passes through the things of the world like a
rock through water, without doing anything, without stirring; he is drawn, he
lets himself fall. His goal attracts him, because he doesn’t let anything enter
his soul which might oppose the goal. This is what Siddhartha has learned
among the Samanas. This is what fools call magic and of which they think it
would be effected by means of the daemons. Nothing is affected by daemons,
there are no daemons. Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his
goals, if he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.’
Kamala listened to him. She loved his voice, she loved the look from his eyes.
‘Perhaps it is so,’ she said quietly, ‘as you say, friend. But perhaps it is
also like this: that Siddhartha is a handsome man, that his glance pleases the
women, that therefore good fortune is coming towards him’” (Hesse 51-52).
Chapter 6
“‘I can think. I can wait. I can fast.’
‘That’s everything?’
‘I believe, that’s everything!’
‘And what’s the use of that? For example, the fasting—what is it good for?’
‘It is very good, sir. When a person has nothing to eat, fasting is the smartest
thing he could do. When, for example, Siddhartha hadn’t learned to fast, he
would have to accept any kind of service before this day is up, whether it
may be with you or wherever, because hunger would force him to do so. But
like this, Siddhartha can wait calmly, he knows no impatience, he knows no
emergency, for a long time he can allow hunger to besiege him and can laugh
about it. This, sir, is what fasting is good for’” (Hesse 57).
“Siddhartha got to know many new things, he heard a lot and
spoke little. And thinking of Kamala’s words, he was never subservient to the
merchant, forced him to treat him as an equal, yes even more than an equal.
Kamaswami conducted his business with care and often with passion, but
Siddhartha looked upon all of this as if it was a game, the rules of which he
tried hard to learn precisely, but the contents of which did not touch his heart”
(Hesse 58).
“Siddhartha knew little about rice and wool, shipping and
trade, but that he acted in a fortunate manner, and that Siddhartha surpassed
him, the merchant, in calmness and equanimity, and in the art of listening and
deeply understanding previously unknown people. ‘This Brahmin,’ he said
to a friend, ‘is no proper merchant and will never be one, there is never any
passion in his soul when he conducts our business. But he has that mysterious
quality of those people to whom success comes all by itself, whether this
may be a good star of his birth, magic, or something he has learned among
Samanas. He always seems to be merely playing with our business-affairs,
they never fully become a part of him, they never rule over him, he is never
afraid of failure, he is never upset by a loss’” (Hesse 58-59).
“When, one day, Kamaswami held against him that he had learned
everything he knew from him, he replied, ‘Would you please not kid me with
such jokes! What I’ve learned from you is how much a basket of fish costs
and how much interest may be charged on loaned money. These are your ar-
eas of expertise. I haven’t learned to think from you, my dear Kamaswami,
you ought to be the one seeking to learn from me’” (Hesse 60).
“‘No,’ said Siddhartha, ‘that’s not the reason why. Kamaswami is just as
smart as I, and still has no refuge in himself. Others have it, who are small
children with respect to their mind. Most people, Kamala, are like a falling
leaf, which is blown and is turning around through the air, and wavers, and
tumbles to the ground. But others, a few, are like stars, they go on a fixed
course, no wind reaches them, in themselves they have their law and their
course. Among all the learned men and Samanas, of which I knew many,
there was one of this kind, a perfected one, I’ll never be able to forget him. It
is that Gotama, the exalted one, who is spreading that teaching. Thousands of
followers are listening to his teachings every day, follow his instructions ev-
ery hour, but they are all falling leaves, not in themselves they have teachings
and a law’” (Hesse 62-63).
Chapter 7
“He had learned to
play with dice and on a chessboard, to watch dancing girls, to have him-
self carried about in a sedan-chair, to sleep on a soft bed. But still he had
felt different from and superior to the others; always he had watched them
with some mockery, some mocking disdain, with the same disdain which a
Samana constantly feels for the people of the world. When Kamaswami was
ailing, when he was annoyed, when he felt insulted, when he was vexed by his
worries as a merchant, Siddhartha had always watched it with mockery”
(Hesse 68).
“These people were all
of the time in love with themselves, with women, with their children, with
honours or money, with plans or hopes. But he did not learn this from them,
this out of all things, this joy of a child and this foolishness of a child; he
learned from them out of all things the unpleasant ones, which he himself
despised” (Hesse 68).
Chapter 8
“Deep was his sleep and without dreams, for a long time he had not known
such a sleep any more. When he woke up after many hours, he felt as if ten
years had passed, he heard the water quietly flowing, did not know where he
was and who had brought him here, opened his eyes, saw with astonishment
that there were trees and the sky above him, and he remembered where he
was and how he got here. But it took him a long while for this, and the
past seemed to him as if it had been covered by a veil, infinitely distant,
infinitely far away, infinitely meaningless” (Hesse 77).
“What a wonderful sleep had this been! Never before by sleep, he had been
thus refreshed, thus renewed, thus rejuvenated! Perhaps, he had really died,
had drowned and was reborn in a new body? But no, he knew himself, he
knew his hand and his feet, knew the place where he lay, knew this self in his
chest, this Siddhartha, the eccentric, the weird one, but this Siddhartha was
nevertheless transformed, was renewed, was strangely well rested, strangely
awake, joyful and curious” (Hesse 78).
“‘Remember, my dear not eternal
is the world of appearances, not eternal, anything but eternal are our garments
and the style of our hair, and our hair and bodies themselves. I’m wearing a
rich man’s clothes, you’ve seen this quite right. I’m wearing them, because I
have been a rich man, and I’m wearing my hair like the worldly and lustful
people, for I have been one of them’” (Hesse 80).
“‘Non-eternal things change quickly, Govinda, you know
It’” (Hesse 80).
Chapter 9
“‘Yes, Siddhartha,’ he spoke. ‘It is this what you mean, isn’t it: that the river
is everywhere at once, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the
ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that
there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow
of the future?’
‘This it is,’ said Siddhartha. ‘And when I had learned it, I looked at my life,
and it was also a river, and the boy Siddhartha was only separated from the
man Siddhartha and from the old man Siddhartha by a shadow, not by some-
thing real. Also, Siddhartha’s previous births were no past, and his death and
his return to Brahma were no future. Nothing was, nothing will be; every-
thing is, everything has existence and is present’” (Hesse 91).
“Oh, was not all suffering time, where not all forms of tormenting oneself and
being afraid time, was not everything hard, everything hostile in the world
gone and overcome as soon as one had overcome time, as soon as time would
have been put out of existence by one’s thoughts?” (Hesse 92).
“For a long time he knew that there was nothing standing between
Gotama and him any more, though he was still unable to accept his teachings.
No, there was no teaching a truly searching person, someone who truly
wanted to find, could accept. But he who had found, he could approve of any
teachings, every path, every goal, there was nothing standing between him
and all the other thousand any more who lived in that what is eternal, who
breathed what is divine” (Hesse 93).
Chapter 10
“‘Oh yes, he too is called upon, he
too is of the eternal life. But do we, you and me, know what he is called upon
to do, what path to take, what actions to perform, what pain to endure? Not
a small one, his pain will be; after all, his heart is proud and hard, people
like this have to suffer a lot, err a lot, do much injustice, burden themselves
with much sin’” (Hesse 101).
“‘But look, how shall I put him, who had no tender heart anyhow, into
this world? Won’t he become exuberant, won’t he lose himself to pleasure
and power, won’t he repeat all of his father’s mistakes, won’t he perhaps get
entirely lost in Sansara?’
Brightly, the ferryman’s smile lit up; softly, he touched Siddhartha’s arm and
said, ‘Ask the river about it, my friend! Hear it laugh about it! Would you
actually believe that you had committed your foolish acts in order to spare your
son from committing them too? And could you in any way protect your son
from Sansara? How could you? By means of teachings, prayer, admonition?’”
(Hesse 102).
“Indeed, he had never been able to lose
or devote himself completely to another person, to forget himself, to commit
foolish acts for the love of another person; never he had been able to do this,
and this was, as it had seemed to him at that time, the great distinction which
set him apart from the childlike people. But now, since his son was here, now
he, Siddhartha, had also become completely a childlike person, suffering for
the sake of another person, loving another person, lost to a love, having
become a fool on account of love. Now he too felt, late, once in his lifetime,
this strongest and strangest of all passions, suffered from it, suffered miserably,
and was nevertheless in bliss, was nevertheless renewed in one respect,
enriched by one thing” (Hesse 103).
Chapter 11
“‘So many, so
many thousands possess this sweetest of good fortunes—why don’t I? Even
bad people, even thieves and robbers have children and love them, and are
being loved by them, all except for me’” (Hesse 110).
“Though he was near
perfection and was bearing his final wound, it still seemed to him as if those
childlike people were his brothers, their vanities, desires for possession, and
ridiculous aspects were no longer ridiculous to him, became understandable,
became lovable, even became worthy of veneration to him. The blind love
of a mother for her child, the stupid, blind pride of a conceited father for his
only son, the blind, wild desire of a young, vain woman for jewelry and ad-
miring glances from men, all of these urges, all of this childish stuff, all of
these simple, foolish, but immensely strong, strongly living, strongly prevail-
ing urges and desires were now no childish notions for Siddhartha any more,
he saw people living for their sake, saw them achieving infinitely much for
their sake, travelling, conducting wars, suffering infinitely much, bearing in-
finitely much, and he could love them for it, he saw life, that what is alive, the
indestructible, the Brahman in each of their passions, each of their acts. Wor-
thy of love and admiration were these people in their blind loyalty, their blind
strength and tenacity. They lacked nothing, there was nothing the knowledge-
able one, the thinker, had to put him above them except for one little thing,
a single, tiny, small thing: the consciousness, the conscious thought of the
oneness of all life. And Siddhartha even doubted in many an hour, whether
this knowledge, this thought was to be valued thus highly, whether it might
not also perhaps be a childish idea of the thinking people, of the thinking and
childlike people. In all other respects, the worldly people were of equal rank
to the wise men, were often far superior to them, just as animals too can,
after all, in some moments, seem to be superior to humans in their tough,
unrelenting performance of what is necessary” ( Hesse 110-111).
“Had his father not also suffered
the same pain for him, which he now suffered for his son? Had his father not
long since died, alone, without having seen his son again? Did he not have to
expect the same fate for himself? Was it not a comedy, a strange and stupid
matter, this repetition, this running around in a fateful circle?
The river laughed. Yes, so it was, everything came back, which had not been
suffered and solved up to its end, the same pain was suffered over and over
again” (Hesse 111-112).
“Siddhartha
looked into the water, and images appeared to him in the moving water; his
father appeared, lonely, mourning for his son; he himself appeared, lonely,
he also being tied with the bondage of yearning to his distant son; his son
appeared, lonely as well, the boy, greedily rushing along the burning course
of his young wishes, each one heading for his goal, each one obsessed by the
goal, each one suffering. The river sang with a voice of suffering, longingly
it sang, longingly, it flowed towards its goal, lamentingly its voice sang”
(Hesse 113).
“Everything was one, everything was intertwined and
connected, entangled a thousand times. And everything together, all voices,
all goals, all yearning, all suffering, all pleasure, all that was good and evil,
all of this together was the world. All of it together was the flow of events,
was the music of life. And when Siddhartha was listening attentively to this
river, this song of a thousand voices, when he neither listened to the suffer-
ing nor the laughter, when he did not tie his soul to any particular voice and
submerged his self into it, but when he heard them all, perceived the whole,
the oneness, then the great song of the thousand voices consisted of a single
word, which was Om: the perfection” (Hesse 114).
Chapter 12
“‘There have been many thoughts, but it
would be hard for me to convey them to you. Look, my dear Govinda, this
is one of my thoughts, which I have found: wisdom cannot be passed on.
Wisdom which a wise man tries to pass on to someone always sounds like
Foolishness’” (Hesse 120).
“‘I have found a thought,
Govinda, which you’ll again regard as a joke or foolishness, but which is my
best thought. It says, The opposite of every truth is just as true! That’s like
this: any truth can only be expressed and put into words when it is one-sided.
Everything is one-sided which can be thought with thoughts and said with
words, it’s all one-sided, all just one half, all lacks completeness, roundness,
oneness’” (Hesse 120).
“‘The sinner, which I am and which you are,
is a sinner, but in times to come he will be Brahma again, he will reach the
Nirvana, will be Buddha—and now see these ‘times to come’ are a decep-
tion, are only a parable! The sinner is not on his way to become a Buddha, he
is not in the process of developing, though our capacity for thinking does not
know how else to picture these things. No, within the sinner is now and today
already the future Buddha, his future is already all there, you have to worship
in him, in you, in everyone the Buddha which is coming into being, the pos-
sible, the hidden Buddha. The world, my friend Govinda, is not imperfect, or
on a slow path towards perfection; no, it is perfect in every moment, all sin
already carries the divine forgiveness in itself’” (Hesse 121).
“‘Perhaps it is this which keeps you from finding peace, perhaps it is the
many words. Because salvation and virtue as well, Sansara and Nirvana as
well, are mere words, Govinda. There is no thing which would be Nirvana;
there is just the word Nirvana’” (Hesse 122).
“‘Let the things
be illusions or not, after all I would then also be an illusion, and thus they are
always like me. This is what makes them so dear and worthy of veneration for
me— they are like me. Therefore, I can love them’” (Hesse 123).
“‘Even with him, even with your
great teacher, I prefer the thing to the words, place more importance on his
acts and life than on his speeches, more on the gestures of his hand than his
opinions. Not in his speech, not in his thoughts, I see his greatness, only in
his actions, in his life’” (Hesse 124).
Citation
Hesse, Hermann. Philosophy.Lander.Edu. Edited by Lee Archie and John G. Archie, 1.0 Edition ed., Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha: An Open Source Reader, https://philosophy.lander.edu/oriental/siddhartha.pdf, Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.