Siddharta

Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Story to Describe The Subjective Non-Descriptive
Review: A great book that had me completely subjective to the storyline, into the journey of Siddhartha and the many other characters: his childhood friend - Govinda, his father, his later lover - Kamala, his son, his acquaintance with the Buddha, his friend and teacher - Vasudeva the ferryman and others.

It's a very interesting story of a spiritual seeker who at the very end of the novel manifests his enlightenment, as his childhood friend, Govinda, experiences. The journey of spiritual seeking, of learning and taking in knowledge, of asceticism, of sexuality and love, of power seeking and money making, of both poor homelessness and luxuriant living and its eventual culmination, the outcome of the spiritual enlightenment: the subjective experience beyond all knowledge and teachings, transcending all the relative and transitory existence into a unity of Being.

Now it's the way Hesse writes and his descriptive and artistic style that weigh his story of the enlightened soul and I found it outstanding. Similar to his other book, Journey to the East, the story leads up to the final outcome, the ending of the novel, the last chapter, explains what can not be explained culminating from the entire story line.

The story itself depends on the readers individual experiential spiritual seeking and both external and internal search. The external eventually leads to the internal where all lies in mystical experience and the internal and personal spiritual development.

I can't help but continue visualizing the last scene of the book with the sudden flash of Siddhartha's translucent smiling face overseeing the realm of multifaceted relativity in its complete unity under the mystical kiss of Govinda on Siddhartha's farhead and his perceived subjectivity of consciousness and marvel at Hesse's attempted descriptive undertaking of the Nirvana and subjective experience. What an awesome attempt to convey such a non-thing and Hesse is a great and unique writer.

Rating:
Summary: Life Changing
Review: I had read "Demian" by Hesse several years ago, and did not care for it. But I thought I would give him another try and picked up this book. I couldn't have made a better decision. This book has changed my life in ways, well, you only read about. Hesse gives a wonderful story about Siddharta from his earlier days through his old age. The book is a very quick, easy read. It makes the reader think about his/her own life in ways never before imagined.

Rating:
Summary: Life Changing
Review: I had read "Demian" by Hesse several years ago, and did not care for it. But I thought I would give him another try and picked up this book. I couldn't have made a better decision. This book has changed my life in ways, well, you only read about. Hesse gives a wonderful story about Siddharta from his earlier days through his old age. The book is a very quick, easy read. It makes the reader think about his/her own life in ways never before imagined.