Experiences Over Teachings In Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

Experiences Over Teaching’s in Siddhartha

In Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, a novel about an Indian boy’s life and his pursuit of enlightenment, Siddhartha struggles with the possibility that true enlightenment cannot be taught. Once he accepts this potential hardship, he realizes that he must gain experiences that will allow him to progress as a person. Siddhartha spends time teaching himself to suffer as a Samana, he discovers love with Kamala, and he learns of ordinary people from the river. It is through these events that Siddhartha learns enlightenment without being taught.

Siddhartha’s experiences with the Samanas taught him to endure hardships and to meditate. While experiencing fasting, he begins his journey towards nirvana, “Silently Siddhartha stood in the fierce sun’s rays, filled with pain and thirst, and stood until he no longer felt pain and thirst” (14). His “silen[ce]” indicates that he is not outwardly showing his discomfort, but is containing and reflecting on it, within himself. This containment shows that Siddhartha is not preaching to others or relating his pain to others; he is simply experiencing it alone. Siddhartha became a Samana to learn how to live with only the essentials, and he was not satisfied to just hear of the pain that they endure, thus being drawn to feel it himself. Once he does fast and does suffer, Siddhartha

In one of his final meetings with Kamala, he reflects on what he has experienced of love: “the art of love in which, more than anything else, giving and taking become one” (71). Siddhartha discovers that loving is a balance of giving and taking; that, in true love, they “become one”. This discovery is just one of many that build toward Siddhartha’s gained wisdom. Once he reaches the extent of the version of himself that he becomes in the village he once again decides to