Siddhartha

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1922

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 2, Chapters 5-7

Part 2, Chapters 8-12

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Part 1, Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “The Brahmin’s Son”

The book opens with a description of Siddhartha’s childhood, spent in a pleasant natural environment under the care of his proud and loving parents. The young Brahmin participates in the learned elders’ debates and learns to meditate and recognize Atman, the true Self according to Hinduism. The intelligent, strong and handsome youth is admired by everyone, including the Brahmins’ daughters, but by nobody more so than his friend Govinda. Govinda is determined not to become an ordinary Brahmin but to follow Siddhartha. Despite the happiness that Siddhartha produces in all those who know him, he himself is not happy. During his daily rituals and under the stars at night, “Dreams and a restlessness of the soul came to him” (4). He questions whether the love of his parents and friend, and the wisdom and knowledge that the Brahmins have passed to him, are enough to satisfy his intellect and his heart. He asks himself whether the gods really created the world and whether they deserve his sacrifices, or whether he should better pay honor to Atman, the Only One. He ponders how he is to find Atman, “this Self, this Innermost?” (5), if even the most learned Brahmins, including his father, with all their holy books, songs and discourses, are not at peace. There was “not one who had completely quenched the eternal thirst” (7).

One evening, after an hour of deep meditation, Siddhartha announces to Govinda that the following morning he will join the Samanas. The Samanas are a group of wandering ascetics, devoid of material possessions, around whom “hovered an atmosphere of still passion, of devastating service, of unpitying self-denial” (7). Govinda immediately realizes that Siddhartha is determined to go his own way and that he will follow him. Siddhartha tells his father of his intention. His father calmly states his displeasure and tells his son not to repeat the idea. However, Siddhartha spends the night without moving, in silence, until his concerned father realizes how determined his son is—and that he has, in fact, already left him. He tells Siddhartha to go into the forest but to come back whether he finds bliss or disillusionment. Govinda joins Siddhartha at daybreak and they leave the town.

Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “With the Samanas”

That same day, Siddhartha and Govinda reach the Samanas, who accept them. Siddhartha takes on their behaviors, including giving away his clothes and fasting for many days. He disdains and ignores women, the rich, and all ordinary people going about their daily lives, which he sees as full of lies and “doomed to decay” (12). Siddhartha’s one aim is to conquer the Self and all its passions and desires, and to let it die. Through extreme self-denial and meditation, Siddhartha learns to negate his physical sensations and to tolerate pain, thirst, hunger, heat, and cold. He follows the Samanas’ teachings, learning to leave his body and become one with his surroundings: “he slipped out of his Self in a thousand different forms” (12). However, despite learning to travel along the path away from the Self, Siddhartha finds that he always returns, to feel again the sun, moon, and rain. Again he feels “the torment of the onerous life cycle” (13). Govinda believes Siddhartha will become a great Samana, but his friend is already starting to question this lifestyle; he says that ordinary people, prostitutes, and drivers of oxen can reach the same “temporary escape from the torment of Self” (14) through rice wine or coconut milk. Siddhartha adds that even the oldest and wisest Samana will not find Nirvana, the term for enlightenment and liberation. He says he has learned nothing from the Brahmins or the Samanas, and that his thirst for a knowledge which cannot be learned from supposedly wise men remains.

After three years with the Samanas, the two friends hear of “Gotama, the Illustrious, the Buddha” (16), who can heal the sick, reached Nirvana, and has many followers. His fame is spreading throughout India, causing wonder in most and suspicion in a few, including the eldest Samana. Govinda tells Siddhartha he wants to hear the Buddha’s teachings, and Siddhartha agrees, although he is no longer convinced that any wise man can teach him anything. The eldest Samana reacts with anger to Siddhartha’s announcement that they will leave, but the young man stares at the older one, hypnotizing him until he is powerless and gives him his blessing. The two friends leave.

Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “Gotama”

Siddhartha and Govinda arrive at the town of Savathi, where a resident offers them food and directs them toward the Buddha’s grove at Jetavana. On their way there, they join a great number of pilgrims. In the morning, they are surprised to see many “believers and curious people” (22). They also see monks meditating, talking, and begging for food. One of them is the Buddha himself, who Siddhartha immediately recognizes. His peaceful countenance and body language impress the two Samanas greatly, as they reflect “a continual quiet, an unfading light, an invulnerable peace” (23). Govinda is eager to hear the Buddha’s teachings, but Siddhartha is skeptical about them, despite recognizing that “[t]his man, this Buddha, was truly a holy man to his fingertips” (23). In the evening, they listen to his teachings about the path to the end of suffering and his claim that by joining him, all will find salvation. Govinda, along with many other pilgrims, asks to join the Buddha and is accepted. He encourages Siddhartha to join the community too, but Siddhartha gently refuses and, announcing that he will leave the next day, gives Govinda his blessing. Govinda does not understand what fault Siddhartha finds in the Buddha’s teachings, but Siddhartha denies any.

The next day, after Govinda becomes a monk and leaves, Siddhartha encounters the Buddha in the forest. He respectfully tells the Buddha that he will continue his pilgrimage. Siddhartha explains that although the Buddha’s teachings are “completely clear and proved” (26) and that the unity of the world “shines clearly from [his] exalted teachings” (27), there is a gap in the doctrine, since it requires followers to rise above this unified world to find salvation. The Buddha responds that the aim of his teachings is salvation from suffering, not to explain the world. Siddhartha counters that despite being totally convinced that the Buddha himself has reached salvation, he doubts that this state can be reached through teachings. He insists that only personal experience can bring about enlightenment and that he will continue to seek release from the Self through his own searching. The imperturbable Buddha warns Siddhartha against “too much cleverness” (29) and dismisses him. Siddhartha thinks about how much he admires and wishes to emulate the Buddha: “I will also conquer my Self” (29).

Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary: “Awakening”

Siddhartha leaves the Buddha’s grove and Govinda behind. He reflects that he has also left behind his youthful search for wise men and their teachings. Siddhartha realizes that he has been trying to flee from his Self and, in doing so, has lost sight of himself. He vows to stop denying himself and instead learn the secret of himself. He perceives the colors and the beauty of nature surrounding him and recognizes that unity and the divine are found in the real and material, contrary to the beliefs of the Brahmins. Siddhartha feels he is awakened and the world is unified: “Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, all of them” (32). Newly reborn, he is “no longer an ascetic, no longer a priest, no longer a Brahmin” (32). This realization leads to him feeling very alone and part of no community, sharing nothing. From this feeling of despair, “the last pains of birth,” he determines to move forward, not backward, nor toward his father’s house. He walks on “quickly and impatiently” (33).

Part 1, Chapters 1-4 Analysis

Part 1 of Siddhartha contains four chapters, and Part 2 eight, a structure which corresponds to the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path of the Buddhist teachings. The Four Noble Truths are considered to be the first teachings of the Buddha and to represent his awakening and liberation, and Siddhartha follows a similar evolution during Part One of the book, with each chapter detailing a step on the beginning of his path toward enlightenment. This path is both spiritual and physical. He moves between towns and forest, encountering individuals, communities, nature, and solitude along the way, each of which have an important role to play in Siddhartha’s experience.

The first Noble Truth is Suffering (Dukkha), which includes a lack of fulfillment. Hesse himself expressed his “sickness with life” or “lebenskrankheit,” and his own search for meaning led him to study the Hindu scriptures, including the philosophy of the Upanishads, written between 1000 and 500 BCE. His understanding of these texts influenced his writing of Siddhartha. The author’s quest, the quest of the actual Buddha, and the character Siddhartha’s journey show many parallels and similarities.

In Chapter 1 , “The Brahmin’s Son” Hesse establishes the protagonist’s background as a member of the Brahmins, the highest of the Hindu castes and traditionally priests. Their knowledge of the Vedas, or holy scripts, along with their intellectual capacities, earned them respect and a wealthy, comfortable position in society. The image Hesse paints of Siddhartha’s childhood from the beginning of the chapter is one where nature and humans conspire to nurture and protect him, and where his life is nothing but ease and love, bathed by a gentle sun and gazed upon by admirers. Later in this chapter, the description of the wandering Samanas, whom Siddhartha decides to join, contrasts sharply with this picture of Siddhartha’s early life: For them, the sun is harsh and the world is hostile. Within his idyllic upbringing, the young Siddhartha learned and absorbed the Brahmin spiritual teachings, meditating on Om, the central Hindu symbol and sound, which represents God, Creation, and Oneness. Yet he feels unconvinced, and his dissatisfaction and restlessness cause him to break away from this doctrine and from his family, in order to begin his personal search for enlightenment. His rejection of his father’s advice to remain at home is the first indication of his refusal to follow authority and the status quo, and this will become a constant feature of his quest. Chapter 1 also introduces Govinda, the loyal and admiring friend whose own spiritual search begins along with Siddhartha’s. Govinda’s soul contains fewer questions, and he is more easily convinced by the alternative doctrines that they encounter together along the path. Govinda is a good friend but an ordinary, simple person, in contrast to Siddhartha’s contemplative and ambitious character. Their varied encounters throughout the book mirror Siddhartha’s conflict with his own attitude to “ordinary people.”

In Chapter 2, “With the Samanas,” Siddhartha learns from the ascetics to negate all physical sensations, urges, and needs, which according to the second Noble Truth are partly the cause of suffering, or Samudaya. Siddhartha attempts to conquer the Self and become empty and pure, in order to reveal the “innermost of Being that is no longer Self—the great secret!” (12). However, these efforts are only temporarily successful. Trying to deny the influence of the passage of time proves impossible, as Siddhartha inevitably finds himself once again aware of sunshine, moonlight, shadow, and rain, the symbolic elements of the “onerous life cycle” (13). Such efforts to escape the “pain and folly of Life” (14) are likened to those of a drunkard, another comparison with ordinary people. Later in the story, Siddhartha will become such a drunkard himself.

The eldest Samana’s inability to attain Nirvana reinforces Siddhartha’s belief that following the examples of holy men and their teachings is not the way to reach enlightenment. However, this experience has informed his spiritual development. Siddhartha learns with the Samanas that the real world and its subsequent effects on one’s body and mind cannot be wholly rejected, and therefore must be taken into account in one’s search for meaning. Siddhartha is evolving, and in his second rejection of an authoritative figure, Siddhartha proves his superiority over the head Samana’s anger through his calm and powerful response. As his quest continues, he remains thirsty for knowledge and is therefore willing to listen to the fabled Buddha, despite his reservations.

The third Noble Truth, Nirodha, or cessation of suffering, informs Chapter 3, “Gotama.” The Buddha’s claim, and the main claim of Buddhism itself, is that it teaches its followers how to release themselves from suffering and reach enlightenment. This is, however, contested by Siddhartha. Despite his admiration and deep respect for the Illustrious One and his belief that the man truly has attained Nirvana, Siddhartha’s argues that rules, words, and examples are not enough and that only personal experience can lead to true salvation. Again, Siddhartha rejects a spiritual leader’s authority and decides to continue his individual quest. This time he leaves without his beloved friend Govinda, who he feels would be a distraction in his efforts to search his soul alone.

In Chapter 4, “Awakening,” Siddhartha reflects deeply on his spiritual journey and what he has learned so far, concluding that he must continue his quest for the divine by learning about and from himself. He acknowledges the beauty and importance of the real world and feels his eyes are open anew. He has reached the point of rebirth into a new phase of his life. The path he sets out upon will, he hopes, lead to the fulfillment he seeks. The last chapter of Part One and the Fourth Noble Truth (Magga) open the way toward the Eight Fold Path.