Story of mankind Essay Example for Free

Story of mankind Essay Siddhartha is the story of mankind; the continuous search for knowledge and the understanding that what people know, no matter how old, experienced, and knowledgeable they might be, is smaller than what there is to discover and is insufficient to reach the complete comprehension and satisfaction that are, according to the main character of the story, obtainable. In the beginning of his life, and of his journey, he is the son of a Brahmin; a wealthy man who wanted his son to have the best knowledge about everything of life. This fact is evident when we see Siddhartha absorbing all the knowledge that was being passed to him from his teacher and that he was able to discuss the deepest and most important of subjects with the elders; those whom were considered to be the most knowledgeable. â€Å"Joy leapt in his father’s heart for his son who was quick to learn, thirsty for knowledge; he saw him growing up to become a great wise man and priest, a prince among the Brahmans† (Archie, Baggett, Poston, and G. Archie, 2). Siddhartha realizes that his need to know is much higher than anything else; he understood that staying in his village, living the same life as others, would not make him comprehend the essence of life and the meaning of everything. â€Å"Siddhartha, was not a source of joy for himself, he found no delight in himself† (Archie, et al. , 3). He felt that his soul would not be in peace if he would not take the right step in the pursuit of knowledge: To become a Samana. What he was aiming at was to be able to free himself from all human weaknesses, such as thirsts, sorrows, pleasures and desires. But even after learning from the Samanas, he found that he was still empty; he needed more than what they offered. He did not want to hear about the various experiences of life, and about the great things to comprehend, he needed to pass through all the experiences himself and to be a part of everything that is there to know and understand. This was the main reason why he decided to take the next step: The step of setting out on a journey, and to become a Saman himself. Meeting Gotama, the Buddha, and learning from him was not enough for Siddhartha, he wanted even more than that, he wanted to reach the absolute knowledge about one’s self, about one’s soul, and about the whole meaning of everything. In this stage, he discovered one of the most significant facts about himself: â€Å"That I know nothing about myself, that Siddhartha has remained thus alien and unknown to me, stems from one cause, a single cause: I was afraid of myself, I was fleeing from myself† (Archie, et al., 36). He left his companion, Govinda, with Gotama, and continued on his journey by himself. The story he lived afterwards with a woman (Kamala) whom he thought that he loved was another step. He became a merchant and started to love money, but then he realized that money, love and the various pleasures he was having were not what he wanted in life. He began, once again, to realize that this is not what made him set on that journey, and that even though he possessed many material things, he really had nothing. From there, he decided to go back to the river, to become a ferryman as he was when he learned everything from Vasuedeva about the river and about the roads and meanings of each step in that direction. He left everything and started again hoping to find the truth and hoping to reach his original objective, which was lost in the midst of pleasures and money. All the previous experiences led him to think of taking his life, but then the sacred word ‘Om’ saved him and put him back in the right path. And with the help of Govinda, he understood what he wanted; he went back, found a wife, and made a family. His son, shortly after his death, set on a journey to find knowledge and to reach the truth. Who is Siddhartha? He is every one of us from the beginning of time. He is every man and woman that walked the earth. He represents all the questions and doubts and suspicions that each individual has about life; his/her life, and the lives of everyone else. He stands for life itself, with its pleasures, pains, and happy moments. He was a Brahmin’s son, a student, a rebel, a Samana, a merchant, and a ferryman, but in the same time, he was none of them and all of them. Because he is the symbol of every living experience that anyone of us can have in his/her life. Siddhartha was simply a human being. Works Cited Archie, L. , Baggett, J. , Poston, B. , and Archie, J. (Eds. ). (2004). Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha. Retrieved October 03, 2006, from the World Wide Web: http://philosophy.lander.edu/oriental/siddhartha.pdf