The Importance Of Wisdom In Hesse's Siddhartha

Hermenn Hesse once said, “Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else.” The classic literature novel Siddhartha by Hesse is about wisdom and reveals that it cannot be taught and must come from within. The importance of learning for one’s self rather than relying on the teachings of others is effectively illustrated through the success and failure of characters to reach enlightenment. The success of Gotama and Siddhartha and the failure of Gotama’s disciples and the ascetics in attaining enlightenment clearly show the necessity of learning for one’s self when searching for wisdom. The Buddha who is known as Gotama in the novel illuminates the necessity of learning on one’s own when searching for wisdom through his success in attaining enlightenment. Gotama is the first person the reader meets in the novel that has attained enlightenment, but we do not see how he attains it. When Siddhartha points out the flaw in Gotama’s teachings saying, “it does not contain the secret of what the Illustrious One himself experienced” and that enlightenment must be found on one’s own as it is something personal for everyone, Gotama accepts this criticism which suggests that

Gotama’s disciples and the ascetics fail to attain Nirvana as they are too focused on the teachings they follow and fail to learn for themselves which leads to a lack of understanding. It is only Gotama and Siddhartha who are able to attain enlightenment as they keep themselves open to learn and do not limit themselves to the teachings of what others have learned. Knowledge can be learnt, but not wisdom. One can find and use wisdom but one cannot teach or communicate