Question

Brief life and journey of Siddhartha

Answer 1

Siddhartha is a book written by Hermann Hesse. This short novel is a depiction of a journey of a high class Brahmin who sets himself on the journey of self actualization and discovery.

The novel is quite well put, as it showcases the dissonance that an individual encounters when they are bombarded with information and knowledge pertaining to something that seems theoretically all flowers and butterflies, but in praxis ends up failing you. It is the moment of vulnerability: doubt over others and most of all, doubt over self that sets the journey of Siddhartha.

From a worldly life of comfort and pleasure to a life of deprivation (Samanas) to the life of the world again (when he encounters Kamala and the art of love making), but he goes through the entire ordeal of a worldly life with a more detached perspective, which he does not take negatively but with a deeper understanding of self.  

Siddhartha during the length of the book, realizes the sanctuary of his own mind and body that he realized he had been searching for in things, materials and the people of the world, when it all the while it belonged and resided within him.