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Examples Of Enlightenment In Siddhartha

1139 Words5 Pages

Aya B. Jenna Berry & Brian McWilliams World History
Love
Herman Hesse’s novel Siddhartha is a philosophical novel that follows Siddhartha, a young man on his path to enlightenment. Siddhartha’s journey to enlightenment took nearly his whole life, and on his journey he met many people and had many relationships that helped him reach enlightenment. The most critical of these relationships, however, was Siddhartha's relationship with his son. Of all the things he learned, what he learned from his relationship with his son was a turning point for him because his love for his son, unlike other relationships, forced him to think of others for the first time, rather than his inward quest for enlightenment, and reflecting on that failed …show more content…

For example, even though he told Kamala that he loved her, he knew that he would leave her for his journey. Kamala knew this, telling him “[y]ou do not really love me–you love nobody” which Siddhartha admitted may be true. Pg. 73. This shows that before his son, he was able to leave those of whom he “loved” to seek enlightenment. That meant that previous to his son, the most important thing to Siddhartha was his journey to enlightenment; he was focused on it. Similarly, Siddhartha loved his father, but he also left his father to seek enlightenment. Towards the end of the novel, Siddhartha remembered how “as a youth, he had compelled his father to let him go and join the ascetic, how he had taken leave of him, how he had gone and never returned.” Pg. 131-132. This shows that he had already set his journey to enlightenment above his own …show more content…

Kamala taught Siddhartha love indirectly; she birthed own son. Even though she told Siddhartha he would never truly love her, or for that matter anyone, she also showed him that he isn’t so different from everyone else. Love was no longer absurd to him, as he understood it himself. In my life, the people I love are one of the most important things to me. Making a difference in someone else’s life is what gives such emotions such power, and when I think of times someone has changed my life for the better, I realize I want to do the same for them. I am at my happiest with friends I can be myself around. And to me, true love comes with a cost/risk, if love has none then it isn’t true. If it wouldn’t hurt to lose someone did you truly love

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