The Theme Of Knowledge And Wisdom In Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” These immortal words were spoken by one of the greatest thinking minds in recent history- none other than Albert Einstein. Many thinkers throughout history have picked up on this discrepancy between knowledge and wisdom, despite the two words often being used interchangeably in everyday life. The divide between knowledge and wisdom is excellently portrayed in the novel Siddhartha written by Hermann Hesse, in which the main character Siddhartha’s journey to find inner peace leads him through the theme of wisdom and knowledge being obtained differently. In Siddhartha, many themes are presented, but the one that is the most important both in influencing the story

In his mind, both the path of knowledge and the path of wisdom have failed him. After contemplating suicide, he meets the ferryman Vasudeva and takes up residence with him as an apprentice. It is here, near the river, that he would learn to combine wisdom and knowledge into true understanding. Vasudeva teaches Siddhartha to listen to the river’s voice, which leads Siddhartha to discover where he had faltered in the past and to uncover the nature of the universe itself. As the two men learn from the river and each other, “Siddhartha felt more and more that this was no longer Vasudeva, no longer a human being, who was listening to him, that this motionless listener was absorbing his confession into himself like a tree the rain, that this motionless man was the river itself, that he was God himself, that he was the eternal itself.” Shortly after, Vasudeva departs, leaving Siddhartha as the new ferryman. He is filled with the river’s teachings and Vasudeva’s wisdom and has learned to combine them both into true enlightenment. He has found what he sought. Eventually, Govinda happens to meet Siddhartha, following rumors of the new enlightened one. He is taken aback by Siddhartha’s smile, noting, “this smile of Siddhartha was precisely the same, was precisely of the same kind as the quiet, delicate, impenetrable, perhaps benevolent, perhaps mocking, wise, thousand-fold smile of Gotama, the Buddha.” Siddhartha imparts some of the enlightenment that he feels, and Govinda realizes that he stands before the Buddha himself, bowing in humility. Siddhartha had acquired all of the knowledge and wisdom he needed in order to combine them into what he sought for so long, true inner peace and enlightenment. This final course of action that he took allowed him to combine knowledge and wisdom in the correct proportions, after having an imbalance for his whole