Along in the process, Siddhartha got dragged into a bad habit.
When Siddhartha becomes distressed by his son's rebellion, Vasudeva encourages him to listen to the river and reminds him that he, too, left his own father to begin his path through life. After the young boy runs away, Vasudeva brings Siddhartha to the river so that he can hear that the "great song of a thousand voices consisted of one word: Om—perfection." When Vasudeva sees the look of serenity and knowledge shining in Siddhartha's eyes, he knows that it is time for him to go. "I have waited for this hour, my friend. Now that it has arrived, let me go. I have been Vasudeva, the ferryman, for a long time. Now it is over. Farewell hut, farewell river, farewell Siddhartha." Vasudeva then departs for the woods and the unity of all things.
Repeated calls for equality and people’s overwhelming response to it also propelled the wheels of change in India but one of Siddhartha’s least recognized contributions to social and political development could be seen from his call for democracy.
Raised without a father as a rich and spoiled mama's boy, young Siddhartha meets his father for the first time just before the death of his mother, Kamala. Disdaining his father's piety and simple lifestyle, the boy is arrogant and disrespectful. Finding his father's unconditional love and patience impossible to accept, he runs away. When Vasudeva reminds Siddhartha that his son must follow his own path, Siddhartha makes peace with his spirit.
Siddhartha was heartbroken, but the river gave him answers.
During the peak of Siddhartha’s life, Buddhism saw one of the greatest growths of its time. In fact, it is said that at Siddhartha’s peak, his philosophies reached some of the highest points of spiritual, moral and religious peaks (Bhikku, 1996).
This does not however mean that democracy was absent in India before his death (because it was); rather, it implied that he called for the strengthening of democratic principles to uphold the good of the general public. In this regard, Siddhartha is accredited for his call for democracy as a phenomenal contribution of his time because, at the time, India was going through a lot of political and social unrests (Bhikku, 1996).
In other words, Buddhism is more a way of life than a religion. The relationship between Siddhartha’s teachings and Buddhism can be evidenced from the fact that Siddhartha’s philosophies were not based on theological doctrines but rather on basic life principles.
At this late stage of the story, after Siddhartha has already repudiated at length the possibility of transferring knowledge, it may seem contradictory that he flippantly speaks of knowledge as transferable and so distinct from wisdom. This very flippancy, however, is significant because it demonstrates Siddhartha’s distrust of words and his customary conflation of knowledge, wisdom and spiritual enlightenment. The focus, here, is thus on the impossible process of transfer from one to another of that which occurs through self-discovery and personal experience. This is the acclaim of the highly individualistic path. In sum, but in no simple way, this text asserts a rejection of learning—of guidance, of teaching and of being taught, and of training—in all its aspects and for all its goals, including knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual enlightenment.
Siddhartha essay enlightenment.
Nonetheless, his teachings slowly turned into a religious movement. From Siddhartha’s teachings, we can easily see the link between his philosophies and Buddhism because Buddhism is among one of the most liberal religions in the word where followers are not forced to believe in something, unless they want to (Hooker, 1996, p. 8).
Siddhartha Essay by Catelin Dziuba Teachers Pay Teachers.
However, is not this assertion—of the rejection of learning—a lesson? Does not Siddhartha teach individualism? Considering the historical moment of the Counterculture, this text, this »indische Dichtung«, which rejects learning, became itself a guide to a movement. Often regarded as a Bildungsroman, if this text not only rejects Bildung, but rejects itself, as Roman, should not Siddhartha, too, have been rejected by the Counterculture?
Siddhartha Visual Essay Project.
Vasudeva is another name for Krishna, who is the teacher of Arjuna, the principal hero of the and a human incarnation of Vishnu, a Hindu deity. Vasudeva's name means "he in who all thinks abide and who abides in all." Siddhartha's first encounter with Vasudeva, the ferryman, occurs just after he departs from Gotama and Govinda. When Siddhartha remarks on the river's beauty, Vasudeva responds, "I love it above everything. I have often listened to it, gazed at it, and I have always learned something from it. One can learn much from a river." He predicts Siddhartha's return.
Siddhartha Essay: Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Journeys.
Siddhartha greatly contributed to the field of Buddhist metaphysics in the sense that he objected to the metaphysics theory that events are usually predetermined, or occur at random (Bhikku, 1996, p. 45). His philosophy greatly underpins the Buddhist objections to the theory of direct causation as underlined by the metaphysics approach. In place of such a theory, he notes that things often happen in the presence of certain conditions.
Siddhartha essay conclusion outline.
In fact, some scholars note that Siddhartha’s philosophies cannot be easily conceptualized in western philosophies, or in a religious text, because evidently, he was not interested in the theological aspects of his teachings, but rather on devising a way for human beings to alleviate suffering (Hooker, 1996, p. 8).