Theme Of Knowledge And Wisdom In Siddhartha

The distinction between knowledge and wisdom is a prominent theme in Siddhartha. While knowledge is simply the accumulation of information, wisdom is the application and a deeper understanding of the information and experiences one has gathered throughout their life. Siddhartha did not attain enlightenment through merely the collection of information, but through contextualizing his actions, thus he is able to have a personal and deep connection to his ego and the world around it. At the beginning of the novel we read of Siddhartha 's Brahmin upbringing. He excelled in the scriptures and rituals, yet he grew to find such practices problematic. He wondered why man prayed to the gods if all gods came from the one “Atman”(5). Siddhartha questioned the effectiveness of studying the scriptures. Shouldn’t his father, a man who possesses an incredible wealth of knowledge about the creation of all that is be enlightened? Not a man still searching for knowledge. Siddhartha does not look down upon the scriptures, they have taught him a lot about the world and those that have attained enlightenment. But those that have been transcended did more than read and perform rituals “...were the wise men or penitents, who had succeeded in not just knowing this deepest of all knowledge but also to live it?”(6) The rituals he performed worked for those that first enacted them, but that was only because they performed the act in an earnest and true fashion. They did not go through a