Siddhartha Research Paper

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Virtuous Desires Have you ever abstained yourself from your desires? This is something many people struggle with in today’s world. In Hermann Hesse's novel, Siddhartha, the protagonist goes on a journey for enlightenment. In Siddhartha’s journey, he undergoes many desires, but makes an attempt to ignore or shun them. Following him is his childhood friend and companion, Govinda, while he attempts to mimic Siddhartha. As the novel progresses, Siddhartha tries see the world in its reality as opposed to believing the world to be an illusion that has a deeper meaning. He strays away from depending on the knowledge of others and tries to find his own path to enlightenment. In doing, so Siddhartha is presented with several desires, which he ultimately…show more content…
Siddhartha immerses himself in desires in an attempt to gain more clarity of the world, for this will better guide him on the path to his enlightenment, Siddhartha also attempts to gain experience by his trials of many different walks of life, and ways of living. Siddhartha becomes engrossed with his desires, for he understands that in doing so, his enlightenment will be achieved. Throughout the novel, Siddhartha encounters many of his desires. Ultimately, his greatest desire was to achieve Nirvana. In his path towards his enlightenment, Siddhartha encounters several of his other desires. Siddhartha says, “It was the ego that I wanted to get rid of, to overcome. But I was unable to overcome it, I could only trick it, could only elude it, could only hide from it” (Hesse 40). One of Siddhartha’s life-goals was to overcome his ego by the teachings of others. He soon realizes that he can only overcome his ego if he truly understands himself and the world around him. The teachings he embraced from the Shramanas and his own family of Brahmins were all ideas of others that could only temporarily make his ego reside. Siddhartha states, “What is meditative absorption? What is leaving the body? What is fasting? What is holding

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