Overview: The name "Siddhartha" which is a Sanksrit word is composed as "Siddha" + "Artha", Siddha meaning great achievement or perfectiom and Artha Could denote wealth or meaning. All in all it conveys the idea of a man who is a seeker of Truth or even more Accurately one who has acheived Actually the ultimate wealth of the true meaning (of life). Herman Hesse's Siddhartha is one seeking soul who was born with to "unquenchable thirst" - in his own words - to know and realize the meaning of life. Even his early childhood years are spent with at acute suspicion and later -, a deep amounted thatthere is more to life than just what one sees, Eternal Truth Beyond the "Maya" or illusory world of sensory and sensual experience, or even differently put That realization of the True Self is the ultimate goal of a human being. What the author does is trace his Spiritual Journey, the years he spent in forests in practicing the self-denial Shamana way of seeking the Self, his truly momentous meeting with the Englightened One (Gautama Buddha), and his Subsequent conviction thereof did a full immersing experience in the real world is paramount to spiritual ascent, and then his wordly experiences, travails and tragedies, and of his Ultimately finding peace and elusive existential bliss. Synopsis: Young Siddhartha's intellectual consciousness is uneasy and usatisfied in the mundane mantra repeating Brahmin community, and the Upanishads unfailingly sow in him the seeds of passion to discover the Atma or the Universal Soul - Knowing Which all is known, and to attain nirvana (in more conventionally Popular terms) ... The book traces his Subsequent leaving of home and chronicles his years spent in self-denial with the Shamanas in the forest. The Shamanas' doctrine teaches That once the senses are conquered and Their consciousness is transcended, the True Self can be Effectively Communicated with. What he did realize from his experiences that did search terrifyingly numbing "flights" from sense and reality did nothing but take him furtheraway from his Self - Which he was really seeking. Siddhartha's time with the Buddha is very important since he (Siddhartha) realizes True Knowledge That Can not Be Communicated, and indeed it has to be experienced, That it can not be taught by a teacher or written down in a book; It has to be a lone Spiritual Journey Undertaken by the individual soul itself. Siddhartha spurns the Buddha's spirited Following and embarks very determinedly to immerse himself in worldly experience. Firstly, discovering his sexuality by communing at all levels with Kamala - the courtesan, and then living for several years as a successful businessman and productive member of the community - but with the driving goal to still stay detached from material accretions and achievements, and even from ego and satisfactions derived from pure professional or Solely intellectual successes. His gambling tendencies quite perform adequately highlight this very motivation of his - to stay afloat like a Lotus flower even while thriving in gutter water. But several years of prosperous worldly existence dilutes his intellectual acuity, numbs his senses, breeds tremendous ennui, and leads to a spiraling recrudescence of petty and diluting human emotions. His flight from deed comfortable living, his meeting with his son (begottten of Kamala) who he is unable to relate to, and the ensuing heartburn, and his finding of peace and tranquility by the shores of a river, form the rest of this enthralling and thought-provoking tale.
