Buddhism as a Thematic Motif in Herman Hesse'sSiddhartha

Abstract

After realizing the Anitya, Siddhartha, protagonist of the Herman Hessie's novel Siddhartha, remains as a ferryman forever. Though he has tested the extreme level of material and sensual pleasure earlier, his lusty andgreedy ego surrenders to the river, when he starts to hear its voice. To reach up to this level, Siddhartha, first, makes himself empty of parental love by renouncing his house for forever. Then, he leaves Govinda his intimate friend like his own shadow,then his Samanas gurus who teache him to control and transform the soul. Siddhartha also listens the awakened one-Gotama-but he decides to make himself empty of teachers and doctrines ahead. Though he learns the art of love from Kamala and business from Kamaswami but leave them behind as well.. At last, by the bank of the river, he gets wisdom, a vision of things from various perspectives. His wisdom is incommunicable because he acquires it through perception, not by teaching of the Samanas. By bracketing himself from the whole phenomenal world, he reaches to the state of “emptiness” and knows that everything is impermanence, a flux.