Siddhartha – Reflection 3*

I need to preface this reflection by saying that it is very difficult to answer the questions when the content was so deep. Particularly when I was in the process of losing my beloved mother. I paralleled the book and experiences Siddhartha had with what my family and I were going through and used it as a guide. Instead of looking for how it compares to the real Buddha and other religions, I was looking for answers to bring my mom and myself peace. There is something words cannot convey about how I happened to be reading this particular book as my mom was slipping from this world.

I was assigned to group four and in our section, we covered: The Son, Om, and Govinda. During the final chapters, life goes full circle. Upon discovering he has a son with Kamala, Siddhartha later realizes he faced the same conflict his father faced when he left as a boy. Upon the darkest of days, when he felt hopeless that he would ever achieve that look of contentment, he returned to Vasudeva, the sage. Finally, near the end of the book, he reached a state of profound awe by listening to the river.

In the last chapters, Siddhartha let his son go, heard the river make the Om, the universal sound, and was once more reunited with his childhood friend, Govinda.

        

Gotama, the real Buddha, but named elsewise in the book, had an interesting encounter with Siddhartha, the fictional character. Surprisingly, the fictional Siddhartha was not overly impressed with Gotama. He later felt that Gotama was the person whom he had encountered on his life’s journey who most closely reflection the serenity he hoped to find. However; after spending his last years with Vasudeva, I feel that he actually was the closest to the Buddha of all the characters in Hesse’s book. I feel that in some way, this rendered his encounter with Gotama less significant compared to the other characters in the book.

Indisputably, the most significant symbol in the book was the river, not to take away from the sense of awe one feels when hearing the Om. The river encompassed Siddhartha’s entire life, in one small, profound moment.

As presented in the opening of this refection, this book spoke to me in a way that is truly indescribable.  Buddhism is a beautiful religion and was wonderfully encapsulated in Hesse’s book.  My mom experienced the darkest of days, as Siddhartha did, both in real life and in the book. More importantly, it gave me hope that my mom, being the beautiful soul that she was, finally found her own peace, enlightenment, and understanding, and is now in a place of awe. If she was on the wheel of Samsara, I believe that she may have gone through a similar journey of desire to hang on, fear of dying, and finally the realization that her earthly duty had been fulfilled and she could move on and achieve Moksha. She saw the Four Passing Sights, in her too short life, followed the Four Noble

                                                                                                        

Truths, and ultimately passed on to a place of serenity. In closing, I believe that there was a reason that I read this book during and after her final days. I think that is the true depth of the book to me.