Siddhartha

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (Goodreads).

This is one of the books I received from my book-club for their Secret Santa event. Thank you BookCrushClub and my secret Santa and dear friend Ashui Marv!

This book is also part of the books to read in your 20s list shared by my friend Yash.

I did not do any prior research about Siddhartha than reading the front and back cover. The cover page said the author is a Nobel Prize winner. So I had some high hopes.

This book is about a person named Siddhartha in ancient India in the period when The Buddha was alive. Siddhartha is a Brahmin, knows to read and write. He is curious about life and universe and wants to seek answers to his philosophical questions. So he leaves his home along with his friend Govinda on a spiritual journey. The story is then about the different moments in his life where he changes his interpretation of things time to time because of unsatisfaction with his current understanding.

The entire story, without any philosophical thoughts can be explained under two or three pages, and it is not that interesting or adventurous too. However, if you are someone who is spiritual and is into the concepts of enlightenment etc. then the book would be gold for you.

I’m not a spiritual person (not because I do not like it, just because I do not understand it). So most of the book is filled with words I simply skimmed through. One GoodReads review summarizes the book for people like me as:

Brahmin blah blah blah Samana blah blah blah Merchant blah blah blah Ferryman.

The book was also written in 1900s, may be that explains the incomprehensible language. Anyway the story is small, approximately 150 pages. I read like 20 to 30 pages a day and was able to finish it.

As I expected a story from the book, most of the chapters were boring, except the middle ones where he becomes a merchant.

However, I liked this one thought having profound effect throughout Siddhartha’s journey. He tells Buddha during a meet that whatever he teaches is from his own enlightenment and one can reach enlightenment only through their own quest, not by simply listening to others. Siddhartha firmly follows this by trying to follow what others are doing and then leaves it alone to walk his own way. May be that explains why I found the book boring. May be the book will be amazing to me once I also face the curiosity Siddhartha faced and wish to seek answers.

Conclusively, this book is good if you are into spiritualism, otherwise it might bore you.