Siddhartha is a simple but profound tale of a man’s discovery of the purpose of one’s life. Set in the era of the Buddha (referred to as Gotama), it details the myriad experiences of Siddhartha, who feels discontent with what he observes around him and decides to experience the knowledge of the Atman, or Self.

As a young man, he realizes that one cannot learn about the Atman from any teacher, and one has to discover for themselves, it’s true meaning. After hearing of Gotama, he visits him, and although he realizes he has conquered his Self, he explains to him why he cannot be one of his followers, and goes forth in his quest.

Siddhartha embraces different lifestyles, that of a Samana, who learns to think, wait and fast, of a Samsara, where he abandons his austere lifestyle and learns about love and what he considers are frailties of everyday humans, he dabbles in making money through playing dice, learns the trade of a merchant, tries to bridge the gap between himself and others whose capability to love he envies.

He reaches a point where he feels suffocated by it all, and realizes in agony how he is as far as he ever was in discovering the meaning of the Atman. As he returns to the river where he began his journey, and decides to drown himself, a sudden inner awakening with the word “Om”, jostles him back to his senses. He feels liberated and it is then that he gets acquainted with the ferryman Vasudeva, with whom he spends the remainder of his life.

How Siddhartha learns from the “voices of the river” and Vasudeva, about what it means to discover oneself forms the remainder of the story.

Herman Hesse renders the tale by repeatedly reinforcing what Siddhartha learns at various turns of his life, enabling us to also understand the core of discovering the Atman - that all of life, both good and evil, needs to be accepted and loved instead of comparing it with an imaginary world where one experiences Nirvana or soulful bliss.

Siddhartha is one of those books which everyone should read at one point of time, and that which helps them take a step back and put their lives in perspective.

Originally published here.