Siddhartha is an absolutely profound book. It tells us how different people go through the journey of life which are absolutely distinct and unlike each other. There is a person who lives through his own experiences and learns, through each joy and each pain that life has to offer. The other lives life by the principles given to him by someone else. A life that promises that if they live by those principles, they will not have any suffering in life. And these two people crossroads at various points in life and exchange experiences.
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
While reading Siddhartha, I tried to map these two ways of living. I found myself stuck between the two extremes. I want to live my life with my independence and my experiences. All my beliefs come from my very own experiences. These at times, have come my way, and some which I have gone ahead and grabbed. At the same time, my conditioning from my growing up days is grounded in all the value systems that I inherited from the social system around me.
There are lots of times when I have to let go of experiences coming my way for my value system. There are so many ‘shoulds’ that are deeply engraved in my mind. And any deviation from these ‘shoulds’ is an aberration and hence leaves a sense of guilt. And at times it’s just the fear of guilt which holds me back. I have broken away from lots of that conditioning and learned to listen to my heart and told my mind to ‘Shut UP’. I can continue living with my heart without any of the conditioning, and call myself totally free, only when a lot of cobwebs are cleared.
Amen 🙂
You may buy the book at Amazon.
Recommend you read The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse by Jack Zipes review on AnuReviews
Hey Anuradha. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope ‘interesting’ meant readable 🙂 I have read this book a while back. Didn’t the author win the Nobel prize too? I’d have to agree that the book was really profound. I think your second paragraph quoted the unique Indian problem. Aren’t we social animals weighed down in tradition, accustomed to the ways of life as dictated by generations previous to us? Yes, we are. At the same time, there is a rebellious streak that prods us to live life on our own terms. As always, equilibrium is somewhere midway. Interesting stuff, I’ll be visiting often.
hi anuradha,
wandering on the web i came across your blog. though i zipped through it i wanted to write to you. it was during my college days made 2 friends from b’lore called rubina and shailja. haven’t been in touch but b’lore holds a special place for me.
sidhartha was one book which touched me to the core. it actually opens you up to the fact that what we call life is actually an illusion. life and death is a great continum and somehow in the process of so called development we have got all confused. we tend to give emphasis to things which are irrelevant.
as soon as we start living in now and the past and future hold no relevance we can realize true joy. though this involves a phenomenal mind control.
anyway will be in touch.
cheers/abhay
Hi Anuradha,
I've been following your blog for the past few weeks. I'm very interested and keen to read more of your blogs. You've also posted some of the books regarding Travel. Nice. If you can give some travel information like transport, accommodation, etc. would help others to travel. Keep going. If you have interest please read my blog and post your comments about how good or bad it is. And suggestions to improve. Thank you,
I have not read the book the the movie is really nice. It is available on you tube.