Buddhism as a Thematic Motif in Herman Hesse'sSiddhartha
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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.