SIDDHARTHA: PHILOSOPHY OF NIRVANA IN SANSARA

Abstract

Siddhartha, the Goutam Buddha, since centuries not only in India, but in world is a question, a challenge, an answer and a God. The saga of a man achieving divinity at one side makes one dumbstruck. But his waking up during night and abandoning young wife and the child on bed and going on his mission to search the truth has made the feminists raise question.

The novella Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse presents a parallel hero Siddhartha. And presents a different philosophy.  He grows as a soul-mate of Kamala, as a son, as a father and as a spiritual person the character makes the reader think again. One gets salvation under the Bodhivruksha. The other in the complete experience of life with his soul mate and with a ferryman and at last with his son learns the lessons of life and realizes the ultimate truth of life.

The two stories of Siddhartha stand face to face in this novella; as a question and as an answer. Siddharthas steps in his life are driven by the questions arose in him. His search for his own self leads to his relations with several people in his life. Every relation helps him explore his own self.  Buddha becomes Buddha under Bodhi tree. Siddhartha becomes childlike through the life lead under the grove. In his questions there was a fear of not attaining Nirvana. In his question there was a fear of losing his son.