Herman Hesse: Siddhartha

I read the book in my younger days, and I hesitated to reread it. It is said to be a book for hippies, together with Steppenwolf.

Well when i read it now it seems to more of a parable, it has a didactic smell from the beginning to the end. But it is still worth reading (Steppenwolf is more complex).

And the end of Siddharta it has a likeness of what people who have had an NDE mentions. I will come to that, but first a short summary of the plot in Siddhartha 

The main character has the same name as is used on Buddha and some other things are also quite similar. He is born in a rich family in India but leaves to live in asceticism. He does this with a man called Govinda who soon leaves to follow the real Buddha and to follow the middle way.

Siddhartha wants to go his own way, so he stays with Kamala, a rich woman who becomes his lover. He even works so he can buy fancy clothes and presents to her. But he leaves her after a while not satisfied, even if Kamala is pregnant.

Even if he admires Buddha who he even meets he doesn't want to just a follower. 

In the end of the book his lover, Kamala, dies and his son comes to live with Siddhartha who now stays with an old ferry mean. The son goes runs to Kamala's house and the ferry man leaves and Siddharta takes over his job.

Govinda comes by and Siddhartha explains what to he have learned from the river and the ferry man:

You have to love the world, not hate or or despise it, even it it is Maya, as the Buddha means. Siddhartha tells Govinda that Buddha also feels love to people, as he tries to teach them:  its how we act that is important. 

Govinda also sees that Buddha and Siddharta has the same kind of smile.

So who is right Buddha or Siddharta/Hesse? 

It seems that Siddhartha says that we should stay in the world, but in a quiet and handsome way and with a meaningful job, and as a ferry men let everyone over the river with a small smile.

Buddha would say that its better to stay in monastery with other monks, away from the rest of the worlds temptations - except when begging for food.

Maybe there are not some right or wrong here, you can do what you want, but if  an ordinary life means suffering maybe Buddha is right.

Its not possible to avoid suffering in the world, but there are suffering even in a monastery, I guess. In the ordinary world we may suffer more but we also learn. The people who have had an NDE, means that we are here to learn how to love unconditionally. It can be a hard school but we learn when we suffer after the mistakes we make 

I don't know if Hesse ever learned that, But I know that as Siddhartha he didn't take care of his children. He had three children with his first wife. When the wife was mentally sick he leaved the children to other families and divorced from  her. (he had contact with the children later on though).

In the book Siddhartas son goes back to the house of his dead mother and Siddharta after a while accepts it. 

In his later years Hesse wrote to a young man about the mening of life: be true to your self and good to other people (its a quote from Konfucius). 

But its not easy to be good. Hesse was mad at strangers who wanted to visit him and sometimes walked around the house (especially after the Nobel prize). But he tried to answer  the many letters that people sent to him.

I'm a bit like Hesse in that way. I like to chat a bit with  people, but not to long. But use to nice words. I wouldn't like to hide in a monastery but like to have an easy and meaningful work.  

This resonates with how people who had an NDE acts. After the NDE they look for meaningful works where they can help people. 

But sometimes its more possible to find peace in nature than among people. 

Someone wrote; we all have to be more like trees, and I agree. Here are some old trees I met recently (and Buddha was enlightened under a tree, as the story goes):