The Hero's Journey In Siddhartha

Siddhartha, a young man from the Brahmin caste, goes through many stages during his quest to pursue deeper understanding and it is what he learns at each stage that brings him closer to wisdom whilst shedding previous aspects of himself. Siddhartha takes place in ancient India where all life is shaped by the scenery and culture of that time and the hero being influenced by such leaves his home to find spiritual enlightenment. The sole purpose of his journey is to find the wisest way to live and to achieve the Atman within. It becomes clear that he is dissatisfied with his life and also the knowledge he began to suspect was not full.
“He had started to suspect that his venerable father and his other teachers, that the wise Brahmans had already
revealed to him the most and best of their wisdom, that they had already filled his expecting vessel with their richness, and the vessel was not full, the spirit was not content, the soul was not calm, the heart was not satisfied."

Separation is the first stage of Siddhartha and it is at this stage that Siddhartha begins to feel dissatisfied with his life.
This results in him wanting to separate from his old life to seek a greater spiritual fulfillment through a Journey towards Nirvana by the rules of himself, this much is true when states that “On the great journey of life, if a man cannot find one who is better or at least as good as himself, let him journey joyfully alone.” Even though he was well appreciated by everybody and was the source of joy for all, he was not content himself. This is what finally led him to the decision that he wanted to leave his home to become a Samana. Though, with that decision came the responsibility of having to ask his father for approval. When the time has come for Siddhartha to tell his father of his decision his father’s initial response was “Not proper it is for a Brahman to speak harsh and angry words. But indignation is in my heart. I wish not to hear this request for a second time from your mouth.” The next morning, however, Siddhartha’s father agreed to let him go and study the ways of the
Samana’s.

In the second stage; the stage of the discovery, Siddhartha is forced to deal with the unknown, with Kamala the beautiful woman that he met, and the son he had no knowledge of.
During his quest to find spiritual enlightenment Siddhartha is reunited with Kamala with a child whom he soon finds out that the boy is his. Although, shortly after the reunion with Kamala, she dies and Siddhartha feels obliged to look after his child. Although Siddhartha cares for his impolite and overindulged son and countlessly tries to win him over. The son doesn’t share the same interests with his estranged father nor does he care about him at all, being more like Kamala in a sense whereby being more attracted to city environment with all its materialism. The son decides to run away, resentful towards Siddhartha and after Siddhartha and the Vasudeva follow after him but not to catch him as the ferryman implied, but to observe him and then retrieve the boat on which he departed on. It is during these moments that Siddhartha discovers that letting go of his son is necessary for the both of them in order to reach enlightenment for himself and for the son to find his own way, by
himself.

The final stage is that of transcendence, after being exposed to the world of lust and greed by Kamala, Siddhartha ended up despising the man he had become and recognizes that he has wasted many years of his life so he decides to discard all material possessions and tries to further flee his own body and control his other needs. Siddhartha is now a Bodhisattva, someone who is on his way to enlightenment. Siddhartha actively sets out to let himself die, in hopes of escaping his Ego. This is prevalent when he says, "He killed his senses, he killed his memory, he slipped out of his Self in a thousand different forms." After attempting to return to his journey on the Eightfold Path by committing suicide he begins his life as a ferryman and subsequently attains enlightenment by listening to the river.

Siddhartha was a young man from the Brahmin caste who went through many stages during his quest to pursue deeper understanding and it is what he learned at each stage that brought him closer to wisdom whilst shedding previous aspects of himself thus achieving what he sought out for and that is enlightenment and he did so by cultivating his relationship with nature. The natural world also represents a middle ground between both asceticism and the physical world. Siddhartha is finally capable of seeing the unity of life after paying attention to the natural world.