Siddhartha By Hermann Hesse

In the story of Siddhartha, written by Hermann Hesse, we see the main character discover lots of things on his journey to enlightenment. The story takes place around 500 BC where we find Siddhartha, the main character, and how perfect his life is. We see the prerogatives he gains just by being the son of a Brahmin, and being handsome and smart.. However, Siddhartha is not content even though he’s got everything, so he decides to disobey his father, a Brahmin priest, and leave to find enlightenment. His father does try to expostulate his son, but in the end finds how his son’s heart has already left. Through his journey we see him go through many things, but in the end, all of these experiences added up to one person leads him to enlightenment. Even though this took place about two millennia ago, we can still see how the lessons he learned relevant to people living in this day and age.
First, we see Siddhartha discover the meaning of patience by one of his early teachers, the samanas.
The samanas are monks who have no possessions and abominate people, who the samanas think are childlike and annoying. They say to find enlightenment you must be able to fast, wait, and think, which lets Siddhartha learn these from them. The essence of this teaching is patience, where one man is hungry and does whatever he can to get money, the other man trained in fasting can wait and get his food eventually. Then the ability to wait is having the patience to do nothing until the opportunity arrives. Lastly is to think and thinking is a patient game for people don’t always find what they want right away, so they think for a long time. Overall the lesson he learned from the samanas is patience, which we must also practice in our
lives.
Second, we see Siddhartha learn from another teacher how to listen carefully. In this teaching, we can see how it is already able to be applied to today. All people need to listen carefully for the answer might be there or far behind it. In general, we need to see the big picture which is to listen to everyone who speaks to us. We can’t pretend like we’re listening when we aren’t we need to pay attention to our surroundings and learn from all that we do. All in all, the second lesson that can be applied to today is to listen fully.
Lastly, the most significant lesson learned that we all use today and how Siddhartha found enlightenment, and it is love. Love is a propensity that we all have learned to do, be it loving food or loving a family member we all learned to love. However, the love that Siddhartha discovers from his last teacher, his son, we see how powerful it is. Love is not merely a gratification we get from something or the “love” that we feel for someone else. This powerful love is all-arching, and it surrounds all of us. This love knows no gender or races it only knows the people it loves. We all must use this love in our lives, whether it be to our neighbors or friends or family members. That is the final lesson he learned how to love, truly love no fake love or love that doesn’t exist, but true love.
Overall the lessons Siddhartha learned that we could take into account are to be patient, to listen fully, and love truly. Siddhartha has learned many things on his journey, and we have learned many things from him. Even though this is a fictional story that took place in 500 BC, we can still see how it is applied to us today. That is the great thing about this story and why it is well respected. Always remember we must be patient, we must listen fully, and we must love truly.