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Siddhartha

An Indian Tale (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Part of Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition

Author Hermann Hesse
Introduction by Ralph Freedman
Translated by Joachim Neugroschel
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On sale Dec 31, 2002 | 176 Pages | 978-0-14-243718-6
| Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
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  • English Language Arts > Genre: Fiction > People & Places by Region > Asia
  • English Language Arts > Genre: Fiction > Social Themes > Religion & Faith
  • English Language Arts > Literature: Comparative & World > 20th Century
  • Religious Studies & Spirituality > Buddhism > Fiction
  • About
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  • Praise
A bold translation of Nobel Prize-winner Herman Hesse's most inspirational and beloved work, which was nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition

Hesse's famous and influential novel, Siddartha, is perhaps the most important and compelling moral allegory our troubled century has produced. Integrating Eastern and Western spiritual traditions with psychoanalysis and philosophy, this strangely simple tale, written with a deep and moving empathy for humanity, has touched the lives of millions since its original publication in 1922. Set in India, Siddhartha is the story of a young Brahmin's search for ultimate reality after meeting with the Buddha. His quest takes him from a life of decadence to asceticism, through the illusory joys of sensual love with a beautiful courtesan, and of wealth and fame, to the painful struggles with his son and the ultimate wisdom of renunciation. This new translation by award-winning translator Joachim Neugroschel includes an introduction by Hesse biographer Ralph Freedman.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Hermann Hesse was born in 1877 in Calw, Germany. He was the son and grandson of Protestant missionaries and was educated in religious schools until the age of thirteen, when he dropped out of school. At age eighteen he moved to Basel, Switzerland, to work as a bookseller and lived in Switzerland for most of his life. His early novels included Peter Camenzind (1904), Beneath the Wheel (1906), Gertrud (1910), and Rosshalde (1914). During this period Hesse married and had three sons. During World War I Hesse worked to supply German prisoners of war with reading materials and expressed his pacifist leanings in anti-war tracts and novels. Hesse's lifelong battles with depression drew him to study Freud during this period and, later, to undergo analysis with Jung. His first major literary success was the novel Demian (1919). When Hesse's first marriage ended, he moved to Montagnola, Switzerland, where he created his best-known works: Siddhartha (1922), Steppenwolf (1927), Narcissus and Goldmund (1930), Journey to the East (1932), and The Glass Bead Game (1943). Hesse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. He died in 1962 at the age of eighty-five. View titles by Hermann Hesse
Introduction

1. The Brahmin's Son
2. With the Samanas
3. Gotama
4. Awakening
5. Kamala
6. Amongst the People
7. Samsara
8. By the River
9. The Ferryman
10. The Son
11. Om
12. Govinda



 

Chapter 1

The Son of the Brahmin

In the shade of the house, in the sunlight on the riverbank where the boats were moored, in the shade of the sal wood and the shade of the fig tree, Siddhartha grew up, the Brahmin’s handsome son, the young falcon, together with his friend Govinda, the son of a Brahmin. Sunlight darkened his fair shoulders on the riverbank as he bathed, performed the holy ablutions, the holy sacrifices. Shade poured into his dark eyes in the mango grove as he played with the other boys, listened to his mother’s songs, performed the holy sacrifices, heard the teachings of his learned father and the wise men’s counsels. Siddhartha had long since begun to join in the wise men’s counsels, to practice with Govinda the art of wrestling with words, to practice with Govinda the art of contemplation, the duty of meditation. He had mastered Om, the Word of Words, learned to speak it soundlessly into himself while drawing a breath, to speak it out soundlessly as his breath was released, his soul collected, brow shining with his mind’s clear thought. He had learned to feel Atman’s presence at the core of his being, inextinguishable, one with the universe.

Joy leaped into his father’s heart at the thought of his son, this studious boy with his thirst for knowledge; he envisioned him growing up to be a great wise man and priest, a prince among Brahmins.

Delight leaped into his mother’s breast when she beheld him, watched him as he walked and sat and stood, Siddhartha, the strong handsome boy walking on slender legs, greeting her with flawless grace.

Love stirred in the hearts of the young Brahmin girls when Siddhartha walked through the streets of their town with his radiant brow, his regal eye, his narrow hips.

But none of them loved him more dearly than Govinda, his friend, the Brahmin’s son. He loved Siddhartha’s eyes and his sweet voice, loved the way he walked and the flawless grace of his movements; he loved all that Siddhartha did and all he said and most of all he loved his mind, his noble, passionate thoughts, his ardent will, his noble calling. Govinda knew: This would be no ordinary Brahmin, no indolent pen pusher overseeing the sacrifices, no greedy hawker of incantations, no vain, shallow orator, no wicked, deceitful priest, and no foolish, good sheep among the herd of the multitude. Nor did he, Govinda, have any intention of becoming such a creature, one of the tens of thousands of ordinary Brahmins. His wish was to follow Siddhartha, the beloved, splendid one. And if Siddhartha should ever become a god, if he were ever to take his place among the Radiant Ones, Govinda wished to follow him, as his friend, his companion, his servant, his spear bearer, his shadow.

Thus was Siddhartha beloved by all. He brought them all joy, filled them with delight.

To himself, though, Siddhartha brought no joy, gave no delight. Strolling along the rosy pathways of the fig garden, seated in the blue-tinged shade of the Grove of Contemplation, washing his limbs in the daily expiatory baths, performing sacrifices in the deep-shadowed mango wood, with his gestures of flawless grace, he was beloved by all, a joy to all, yet was his own heart bereft of joy. Dreams assailed him, and troubled thoughts—eddying up from the waves of the river, sparkling down from the stars at night, melting out of the sun’s rays; dreams came to him, and a disquiet of the soul wafting in the smoke from the sacrifices, murmuring among the verses of the Rig-Veda, welling up in the teachings of the old Brahmins.

Siddhartha had begun to harbor discontent. He had begun to feel that his father’s love and the love of his mother, even the love of his friend Govinda, would not always and forever suffice to gladden him, content him, sate him, fulfill him. He had begun to suspect that his venerable father and his other teachers, all wise Brahmins, had already given him the richest and best part of their wisdom, had already poured their plenty into his waiting vessel, yet the vessel was not full: His mind was not content, his soul not at peace, his heart restless. The ablutions were good, but they were only water; they could not wash away sin, could not quench his mind’s thirst or dispel his heart’s fear. The sacrifices and the invocations of the gods were most excellent—but was this all? Did the sacrifices bring happiness? And what of the gods? Was it really Prajapati who had created the world? Was it not rather Atman, He, the Singular, the One and Only? Weren’t the gods mere shapes, creations like you and me, subject to time, transitory? And was it then good, was it proper, was it meaningful, a noble act, to sacrifice to the gods? To whom else should one sacrifice, to whom else show devotion, if not to Him, the Singular, Atman? And where was Atman to be found, where did He reside, where did His eternal heart lie beating? Where else but within oneself, in the innermost indestructible core each man carries inside him. But where, where was this Self, this innermost, utmost thing? It was not flesh and bone, it was not thought and not consciousness, at least according to the wise men’s teachings. Where was it then, where? To penetrate to this point, to reach the Self, oneself, Atman—could there be any other path worth seeking? Yet this was a path no one was showing him; it was a path no one knew, not his father, not the teachers and wise men, not the holy songs intoned at the sacrifices! They knew everything, these Brahmins and their holy books, everything, and they had applied themselves to everything, more than everything: to the creation of the world, the origins of speech, of food, of inhalation and exhalation; to the orders of the senses, the deeds of the gods—they knew infinitely many things—but was there value in knowing all these things without knowing the One, the Only thing, that which was important above all else, that was, indeed, the sole matter of importance?

To be sure, many verses in the holy books, above all the Upanishads of the Sama-Veda, spoke of this innermost, utmost thing: splendid verses. “Your soul is the entire world” was written there, and it was written as well that in sleep, the deepest sleep, man entered the innermost core of his being and dwelt in Atman. There was glorious wisdom in these verses; all the knowledge of the wisest men was collected here in magic words, pure as the honey collected by bees. It was not to be disregarded, this massive sum of knowledge that had been collected here by countless generations of wise Brahmins.

But where were the Brahmins, where the priests, where the wise men or penitents who had succeeded not merely in knowing this knowledge but in living it? Where was the master who had been able to transport his own being-at-home-in-Atman from sleep to the waking realm, to life, to all his comings and goings, his every word and deed?

Siddhartha knew a great many venerable Brahmins, above all his father, a pure, learned, utterly venerable man. Worthy of admiration was his father, still and regal his bearing, his life pure, his words full of wisdom; fine and noble thoughts resided in his brow. But even he, who was possessed of such knowledge, did he dwell in bliss, did he know peace? Was not he too only a seeker, a man tormented by thirst? Was he not compelled to drink again and again from the holy springs, a thirsty man drinking in the sacrifices, the books, the dialogues of the Brahmins? Why must he, who was without blame, wash away sin day after day, labor daily to cleanse himself, each day anew? Was not Atman within him? Did not the ancient source of all springs flow within his own heart? This was what must be found, the fountainhead within one’s own being; you had to make it your own! All else was searching, detour, confusion.

Such was the nature of Siddhartha’s thoughts; this was his thirst, this his sorrow.

Often he recited to himself the words of a Chandogya Upanishad: “Verily, the name of the Brahman is Satyam; truly, he who knows this enters each day into the heavenly world.” It often seemed near at hand, this heavenly world, but never once had he succeeded in reaching it, in quenching that final thirst. And of all the wise and wisest men he knew and whose teachings he enjoyed, not a single one had succeeded in reaching it, this heavenly world; not one had fully quenched that eternal thirst.

“Govinda,” Siddhartha said to his friend. “Govinda, beloved one, come under the banyan tree with me; let us practice samadhi.”

To the banyan they went and sat down beneath it, Siddhartha here and Govinda at a distance of twenty paces. As he sat down, ready to speak the Om, Siddhartha murmured this verse:

“Om is the bow; the arrow is soul.

Brahman is the arrow’s mark;

Strike it with steady aim.”

When the usual time for the meditation exercise had passed, Govinda arose. Evening had come; it was time to begin the ablutions of the eventide. He called Siddhartha’s name; Siddhartha gave no answer. Siddhartha sat rapt, his eyes fixed unmoving upon a far distant point; the tip of his tongue stuck out from between his teeth; he seemed not to be breathing. Thus he sat, cloaked in samadhi, thinking Om, his soul an arrow on its way to Brahman.

One day, Samanas passed through Siddhartha’s town: ascetic pilgrims, three gaunt lifeless men, neither old nor young, with bloody, dust-covered shoulders, all but naked, singed by the sun, shrouded in isolation, foreign to the world and hostile to it, strangers and wizened jackals among men. The hot breath of air that followed them bore the scent of silent passion, a duty that meant destruction, the merciless eradication of ego.

In the evening, when the hour of contemplation had passed, Siddhartha said to Govinda, “Tomorrow morning, my friend, Siddhartha will go to the Samanas. He will become a Samana.”

Govinda turned pale when he heard these words and saw in his friend’s impassive face a resolve as unwavering as an arrow shot from the bow. At once, with a single glance, Govinda realized: Now it is beginning, now Siddhartha is on his way, now his destiny is beginning to bud and, along with it, mine as well. And he turned as pale as a dried-out banana peel.

“Oh, Siddhartha,” he cried, “will your father permit this?”

Siddhartha glanced over at him like a man awakening. Swift as an arrow he read Govinda’s soul, read the fear, read the devotion.

“Oh, Govinda,” he said softly, “let us not squander words. Tomorrow at daybreak I begin the life of a Samana. Speak no more of it.”

Siddhartha went into the room where his father was seated upon a mat made of bast fiber; he came up behind him and remained standing there until his father felt there was someone behind him. “Is that you, Siddhartha?” the Brahmin said. “Then say what you have come here to say.”

Said Siddhartha, “With your permission, my father. I have come to tell you that it is my wish to leave your house tomorrow and join the ascetics. I must become a Samana. May my father not be opposed to my wish.”

The Brahmin was silent and remained silent so long that the stars drifted in the small window and changed their shape before the silence in the room reached its end. Mute and motionless stood the son with his arms crossed, mute and motionless upon his mat sat the father, and the stars moved across the sky. Then the father said, “It is not fitting for a Brahmin to utter sharp, angry words. But my heart is filled with displeasure. I do not wish to hear this request from your lips a second time.”

Slowly the Brahmin rose to his feet. Siddhartha stood in silence with his arms crossed.

“Why do you wait here?” the father asked.

“You know why I wait,” Siddhartha replied.

Full of displeasure, the father left the room; full of displeasure, he went to his bed and lay down.

An hour later, as no sleep would enter his eyes, the Brahmin got up, paced back and forth, and went out of the house. He looked through the small window of the room and saw Siddhartha standing there, his arms crossed, unmoving. The light cloth of his tunic was shimmering pale. His heart full of disquiet, the father went back to bed.

An hour later, as no sleep would yet enter his eyes, the Brahmin got up once more, paced back and forth, and went out of the house. The moon had risen. He looked through the window into the room; there stood Siddhartha, unmoving, his arms crossed, moonlight gleaming on his bare shins. His heart full of apprehension, the father returned to bed.

An hour later, and again two hours later, he went out and looked through the small window to see Siddhartha standing there: in the moonlight, in the starlight, in the darkness. He went again from hour to hour, in silence, looked into the room, and saw his son standing there unmoving, and his heart filled with anger, with disquiet, with trepidation, with sorrow.

And in the last hour of night before day began, he got up once more, went into the room, and saw the youth standing there; he looked tall to him and like a stranger.

“Siddhartha,” he said, “why do you wait here?”

“You know why.”

“Will you remain standing here, waiting, until day comes, noon comes, evening comes?”

“I will remain standing here, waiting.”

“You will grow tired, Siddhartha.”

“I will grow tired.”

“You will fall asleep, Siddhartha.”

“I will not fall asleep.”

“You will die, Siddhartha.”

“I will die.”

“And you would rather die than obey your father?”

“Siddhartha has always obeyed his father.”

“So you will give up your plan?”

“Siddhartha will do as his father instructs him.”

The first light of day fell into the room. The Brahmin saw that Siddhartha’s knees were trembling quietly. In Siddhartha’s face he saw no trembling; his eyes gazed into the distance straight before him. The father realized then that Siddhartha was no longer with him in the place of his birth. His son had already left him behind.

The father touched Siddhartha’s shoulder.

“You will go,” he said. “Go to the forest and be a Samana. If you find bliss in the forest, come and teach it to me. If you find disappointment, return to me and we will once more sacrifice to the gods side by side. Now go and kiss your mother; tell her where you are going. It is time for me to go to the river and begin my first ablutions.”

He took his hand from his son’s shoulder and went out. Siddhartha lurched to one side when he tried to walk. Forcing his limbs into submission, he bowed before his father and went to find his mother to do as his father had instructed.

In the first light of dawn, as he was slowly leaving the town on his stiff legs, a shadow rose up beside the last hut, a shadow that had been crouching there and now joined the pilgrim: Govinda.

“You came,” said Siddhartha, and smiled.

“I came,” Govinda said.
Copyright © 2006 by Hermann Hesse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

About

A bold translation of Nobel Prize-winner Herman Hesse's most inspirational and beloved work, which was nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition

Hesse's famous and influential novel, Siddartha, is perhaps the most important and compelling moral allegory our troubled century has produced. Integrating Eastern and Western spiritual traditions with psychoanalysis and philosophy, this strangely simple tale, written with a deep and moving empathy for humanity, has touched the lives of millions since its original publication in 1922. Set in India, Siddhartha is the story of a young Brahmin's search for ultimate reality after meeting with the Buddha. His quest takes him from a life of decadence to asceticism, through the illusory joys of sensual love with a beautiful courtesan, and of wealth and fame, to the painful struggles with his son and the ultimate wisdom of renunciation. This new translation by award-winning translator Joachim Neugroschel includes an introduction by Hesse biographer Ralph Freedman.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author

Hermann Hesse was born in 1877 in Calw, Germany. He was the son and grandson of Protestant missionaries and was educated in religious schools until the age of thirteen, when he dropped out of school. At age eighteen he moved to Basel, Switzerland, to work as a bookseller and lived in Switzerland for most of his life. His early novels included Peter Camenzind (1904), Beneath the Wheel (1906), Gertrud (1910), and Rosshalde (1914). During this period Hesse married and had three sons. During World War I Hesse worked to supply German prisoners of war with reading materials and expressed his pacifist leanings in anti-war tracts and novels. Hesse's lifelong battles with depression drew him to study Freud during this period and, later, to undergo analysis with Jung. His first major literary success was the novel Demian (1919). When Hesse's first marriage ended, he moved to Montagnola, Switzerland, where he created his best-known works: Siddhartha (1922), Steppenwolf (1927), Narcissus and Goldmund (1930), Journey to the East (1932), and The Glass Bead Game (1943). Hesse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. He died in 1962 at the age of eighty-five. View titles by Hermann Hesse

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Brahmin's Son
2. With the Samanas
3. Gotama
4. Awakening
5. Kamala
6. Amongst the People
7. Samsara
8. By the River
9. The Ferryman
10. The Son
11. Om
12. Govinda



 

Excerpt

Chapter 1

The Son of the Brahmin

In the shade of the house, in the sunlight on the riverbank where the boats were moored, in the shade of the sal wood and the shade of the fig tree, Siddhartha grew up, the Brahmin’s handsome son, the young falcon, together with his friend Govinda, the son of a Brahmin. Sunlight darkened his fair shoulders on the riverbank as he bathed, performed the holy ablutions, the holy sacrifices. Shade poured into his dark eyes in the mango grove as he played with the other boys, listened to his mother’s songs, performed the holy sacrifices, heard the teachings of his learned father and the wise men’s counsels. Siddhartha had long since begun to join in the wise men’s counsels, to practice with Govinda the art of wrestling with words, to practice with Govinda the art of contemplation, the duty of meditation. He had mastered Om, the Word of Words, learned to speak it soundlessly into himself while drawing a breath, to speak it out soundlessly as his breath was released, his soul collected, brow shining with his mind’s clear thought. He had learned to feel Atman’s presence at the core of his being, inextinguishable, one with the universe.

Joy leaped into his father’s heart at the thought of his son, this studious boy with his thirst for knowledge; he envisioned him growing up to be a great wise man and priest, a prince among Brahmins.

Delight leaped into his mother’s breast when she beheld him, watched him as he walked and sat and stood, Siddhartha, the strong handsome boy walking on slender legs, greeting her with flawless grace.

Love stirred in the hearts of the young Brahmin girls when Siddhartha walked through the streets of their town with his radiant brow, his regal eye, his narrow hips.

But none of them loved him more dearly than Govinda, his friend, the Brahmin’s son. He loved Siddhartha’s eyes and his sweet voice, loved the way he walked and the flawless grace of his movements; he loved all that Siddhartha did and all he said and most of all he loved his mind, his noble, passionate thoughts, his ardent will, his noble calling. Govinda knew: This would be no ordinary Brahmin, no indolent pen pusher overseeing the sacrifices, no greedy hawker of incantations, no vain, shallow orator, no wicked, deceitful priest, and no foolish, good sheep among the herd of the multitude. Nor did he, Govinda, have any intention of becoming such a creature, one of the tens of thousands of ordinary Brahmins. His wish was to follow Siddhartha, the beloved, splendid one. And if Siddhartha should ever become a god, if he were ever to take his place among the Radiant Ones, Govinda wished to follow him, as his friend, his companion, his servant, his spear bearer, his shadow.

Thus was Siddhartha beloved by all. He brought them all joy, filled them with delight.

To himself, though, Siddhartha brought no joy, gave no delight. Strolling along the rosy pathways of the fig garden, seated in the blue-tinged shade of the Grove of Contemplation, washing his limbs in the daily expiatory baths, performing sacrifices in the deep-shadowed mango wood, with his gestures of flawless grace, he was beloved by all, a joy to all, yet was his own heart bereft of joy. Dreams assailed him, and troubled thoughts—eddying up from the waves of the river, sparkling down from the stars at night, melting out of the sun’s rays; dreams came to him, and a disquiet of the soul wafting in the smoke from the sacrifices, murmuring among the verses of the Rig-Veda, welling up in the teachings of the old Brahmins.

Siddhartha had begun to harbor discontent. He had begun to feel that his father’s love and the love of his mother, even the love of his friend Govinda, would not always and forever suffice to gladden him, content him, sate him, fulfill him. He had begun to suspect that his venerable father and his other teachers, all wise Brahmins, had already given him the richest and best part of their wisdom, had already poured their plenty into his waiting vessel, yet the vessel was not full: His mind was not content, his soul not at peace, his heart restless. The ablutions were good, but they were only water; they could not wash away sin, could not quench his mind’s thirst or dispel his heart’s fear. The sacrifices and the invocations of the gods were most excellent—but was this all? Did the sacrifices bring happiness? And what of the gods? Was it really Prajapati who had created the world? Was it not rather Atman, He, the Singular, the One and Only? Weren’t the gods mere shapes, creations like you and me, subject to time, transitory? And was it then good, was it proper, was it meaningful, a noble act, to sacrifice to the gods? To whom else should one sacrifice, to whom else show devotion, if not to Him, the Singular, Atman? And where was Atman to be found, where did He reside, where did His eternal heart lie beating? Where else but within oneself, in the innermost indestructible core each man carries inside him. But where, where was this Self, this innermost, utmost thing? It was not flesh and bone, it was not thought and not consciousness, at least according to the wise men’s teachings. Where was it then, where? To penetrate to this point, to reach the Self, oneself, Atman—could there be any other path worth seeking? Yet this was a path no one was showing him; it was a path no one knew, not his father, not the teachers and wise men, not the holy songs intoned at the sacrifices! They knew everything, these Brahmins and their holy books, everything, and they had applied themselves to everything, more than everything: to the creation of the world, the origins of speech, of food, of inhalation and exhalation; to the orders of the senses, the deeds of the gods—they knew infinitely many things—but was there value in knowing all these things without knowing the One, the Only thing, that which was important above all else, that was, indeed, the sole matter of importance?

To be sure, many verses in the holy books, above all the Upanishads of the Sama-Veda, spoke of this innermost, utmost thing: splendid verses. “Your soul is the entire world” was written there, and it was written as well that in sleep, the deepest sleep, man entered the innermost core of his being and dwelt in Atman. There was glorious wisdom in these verses; all the knowledge of the wisest men was collected here in magic words, pure as the honey collected by bees. It was not to be disregarded, this massive sum of knowledge that had been collected here by countless generations of wise Brahmins.

But where were the Brahmins, where the priests, where the wise men or penitents who had succeeded not merely in knowing this knowledge but in living it? Where was the master who had been able to transport his own being-at-home-in-Atman from sleep to the waking realm, to life, to all his comings and goings, his every word and deed?

Siddhartha knew a great many venerable Brahmins, above all his father, a pure, learned, utterly venerable man. Worthy of admiration was his father, still and regal his bearing, his life pure, his words full of wisdom; fine and noble thoughts resided in his brow. But even he, who was possessed of such knowledge, did he dwell in bliss, did he know peace? Was not he too only a seeker, a man tormented by thirst? Was he not compelled to drink again and again from the holy springs, a thirsty man drinking in the sacrifices, the books, the dialogues of the Brahmins? Why must he, who was without blame, wash away sin day after day, labor daily to cleanse himself, each day anew? Was not Atman within him? Did not the ancient source of all springs flow within his own heart? This was what must be found, the fountainhead within one’s own being; you had to make it your own! All else was searching, detour, confusion.

Such was the nature of Siddhartha’s thoughts; this was his thirst, this his sorrow.

Often he recited to himself the words of a Chandogya Upanishad: “Verily, the name of the Brahman is Satyam; truly, he who knows this enters each day into the heavenly world.” It often seemed near at hand, this heavenly world, but never once had he succeeded in reaching it, in quenching that final thirst. And of all the wise and wisest men he knew and whose teachings he enjoyed, not a single one had succeeded in reaching it, this heavenly world; not one had fully quenched that eternal thirst.

“Govinda,” Siddhartha said to his friend. “Govinda, beloved one, come under the banyan tree with me; let us practice samadhi.”

To the banyan they went and sat down beneath it, Siddhartha here and Govinda at a distance of twenty paces. As he sat down, ready to speak the Om, Siddhartha murmured this verse:

“Om is the bow; the arrow is soul.

Brahman is the arrow’s mark;

Strike it with steady aim.”

When the usual time for the meditation exercise had passed, Govinda arose. Evening had come; it was time to begin the ablutions of the eventide. He called Siddhartha’s name; Siddhartha gave no answer. Siddhartha sat rapt, his eyes fixed unmoving upon a far distant point; the tip of his tongue stuck out from between his teeth; he seemed not to be breathing. Thus he sat, cloaked in samadhi, thinking Om, his soul an arrow on its way to Brahman.

One day, Samanas passed through Siddhartha’s town: ascetic pilgrims, three gaunt lifeless men, neither old nor young, with bloody, dust-covered shoulders, all but naked, singed by the sun, shrouded in isolation, foreign to the world and hostile to it, strangers and wizened jackals among men. The hot breath of air that followed them bore the scent of silent passion, a duty that meant destruction, the merciless eradication of ego.

In the evening, when the hour of contemplation had passed, Siddhartha said to Govinda, “Tomorrow morning, my friend, Siddhartha will go to the Samanas. He will become a Samana.”

Govinda turned pale when he heard these words and saw in his friend’s impassive face a resolve as unwavering as an arrow shot from the bow. At once, with a single glance, Govinda realized: Now it is beginning, now Siddhartha is on his way, now his destiny is beginning to bud and, along with it, mine as well. And he turned as pale as a dried-out banana peel.

“Oh, Siddhartha,” he cried, “will your father permit this?”

Siddhartha glanced over at him like a man awakening. Swift as an arrow he read Govinda’s soul, read the fear, read the devotion.

“Oh, Govinda,” he said softly, “let us not squander words. Tomorrow at daybreak I begin the life of a Samana. Speak no more of it.”

Siddhartha went into the room where his father was seated upon a mat made of bast fiber; he came up behind him and remained standing there until his father felt there was someone behind him. “Is that you, Siddhartha?” the Brahmin said. “Then say what you have come here to say.”

Said Siddhartha, “With your permission, my father. I have come to tell you that it is my wish to leave your house tomorrow and join the ascetics. I must become a Samana. May my father not be opposed to my wish.”

The Brahmin was silent and remained silent so long that the stars drifted in the small window and changed their shape before the silence in the room reached its end. Mute and motionless stood the son with his arms crossed, mute and motionless upon his mat sat the father, and the stars moved across the sky. Then the father said, “It is not fitting for a Brahmin to utter sharp, angry words. But my heart is filled with displeasure. I do not wish to hear this request from your lips a second time.”

Slowly the Brahmin rose to his feet. Siddhartha stood in silence with his arms crossed.

“Why do you wait here?” the father asked.

“You know why I wait,” Siddhartha replied.

Full of displeasure, the father left the room; full of displeasure, he went to his bed and lay down.

An hour later, as no sleep would enter his eyes, the Brahmin got up, paced back and forth, and went out of the house. He looked through the small window of the room and saw Siddhartha standing there, his arms crossed, unmoving. The light cloth of his tunic was shimmering pale. His heart full of disquiet, the father went back to bed.

An hour later, as no sleep would yet enter his eyes, the Brahmin got up once more, paced back and forth, and went out of the house. The moon had risen. He looked through the window into the room; there stood Siddhartha, unmoving, his arms crossed, moonlight gleaming on his bare shins. His heart full of apprehension, the father returned to bed.

An hour later, and again two hours later, he went out and looked through the small window to see Siddhartha standing there: in the moonlight, in the starlight, in the darkness. He went again from hour to hour, in silence, looked into the room, and saw his son standing there unmoving, and his heart filled with anger, with disquiet, with trepidation, with sorrow.

And in the last hour of night before day began, he got up once more, went into the room, and saw the youth standing there; he looked tall to him and like a stranger.

“Siddhartha,” he said, “why do you wait here?”

“You know why.”

“Will you remain standing here, waiting, until day comes, noon comes, evening comes?”

“I will remain standing here, waiting.”

“You will grow tired, Siddhartha.”

“I will grow tired.”

“You will fall asleep, Siddhartha.”

“I will not fall asleep.”

“You will die, Siddhartha.”

“I will die.”

“And you would rather die than obey your father?”

“Siddhartha has always obeyed his father.”

“So you will give up your plan?”

“Siddhartha will do as his father instructs him.”

The first light of day fell into the room. The Brahmin saw that Siddhartha’s knees were trembling quietly. In Siddhartha’s face he saw no trembling; his eyes gazed into the distance straight before him. The father realized then that Siddhartha was no longer with him in the place of his birth. His son had already left him behind.

The father touched Siddhartha’s shoulder.

“You will go,” he said. “Go to the forest and be a Samana. If you find bliss in the forest, come and teach it to me. If you find disappointment, return to me and we will once more sacrifice to the gods side by side. Now go and kiss your mother; tell her where you are going. It is time for me to go to the river and begin my first ablutions.”

He took his hand from his son’s shoulder and went out. Siddhartha lurched to one side when he tried to walk. Forcing his limbs into submission, he bowed before his father and went to find his mother to do as his father had instructed.

In the first light of dawn, as he was slowly leaving the town on his stiff legs, a shadow rose up beside the last hut, a shadow that had been crouching there and now joined the pilgrim: Govinda.

“You came,” said Siddhartha, and smiled.

“I came,” Govinda said.
Copyright © 2006 by Hermann Hesse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Praise

By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Additional formats

  • Siddhartha
    Siddhartha
    An Indian Tale
    Hermann Hesse
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 01, 1999
  • Siddhartha
    Siddhartha
    An Indian Tale
    Hermann Hesse
    $13.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 01, 1999

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  • The Wonderful O
    The Wonderful O
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    James Thurber, Marc Simont
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 06, 2017
  • The African Trilogy
    The African Trilogy
    Things Fall Apart; Arrow of God; No Longer at Ease
    Chinua Achebe
    $25.00 US
    Paperback
    May 02, 2017
  • War and Peace
    War and Peace
    Leo Tolstoy, Coralie Bickford-Smith
    $30.00 US
    Hardcover
    Mar 14, 2017
  • Collected Essays
    Collected Essays
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Arthur Miller
    $35.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 22, 2016
  • Lord of the Flies
    Lord of the Flies
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    William Golding
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 15, 2016
  • The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
    The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
    (Penguin Orange Collection)
    H. P. Lovecraft
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 18, 2016
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
    (Penguin Orange Collection)
    Ken Kesey
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 18, 2016
  • The Haunting of Hill House
    The Haunting of Hill House
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Shirley Jackson
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 27, 2016
  • The 13 Clocks
    The 13 Clocks
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    James Thurber, Marc Simont
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 02, 2016
  • Storm of Steel
    Storm of Steel
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Ernst Junger, Neil Gower
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    May 31, 2016
  • A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
    A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
    Centennial Edition (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    James Joyce, Roman Muradov
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    May 24, 2016
  • The Master and Margarita
    The Master and Margarita
    50th-Anniversary Edition (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Mikhail Bulgakov, Christopher Conn Askew
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    May 03, 2016
  • Middlemarch
    Middlemarch
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    George Eliot
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 17, 2015
  • The Penguin Arthur Miller
    The Penguin Arthur Miller
    Collected Plays (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Arthur Miller
    $35.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 13, 2015
  • Emma
    Emma
    200th-Anniversary Annotated Edition (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Jane Austen
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 29, 2015
  • The Road Not Taken and Other Poems
    The Road Not Taken and Other Poems
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Robert Frost
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 18, 2015
  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
    150th-Anniversary Edition (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Lewis Carroll, John Tenniel
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 07, 2015
  • Les Miserables
    Les Miserables
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Victor Hugo, Jillian Tamaki
    $25.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 24, 2015
  • Anna Karenina
    Anna Karenina
    Leo Tolstoy, Coralie Bickford-Smith
    $30.00 US
    Hardcover
    Sep 30, 2014
  • Frankenstein
    Frankenstein
    Mary Shelley, Coralie Bickford-Smith
    $23.00 US
    Hardcover
    Sep 30, 2014
  • Candide
    Candide
    Or Optimism
    Francois Voltaire, Jessica Hische
    $27.00 US
    Hardcover
    Aug 20, 2014
  • Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm
    Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm
    A New English Version (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 29, 2013
  • The Collected Poems
    The Collected Poems
    A Dual-Language Edition with Parallel Text (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Marcel Proust
    $30.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 26, 2013
  • The Divine Comedy
    The Divine Comedy
    Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Dante Alighieri, Eric Drooker
    $28.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 26, 2013
  • The Death of King Arthur
    The Death of King Arthur
    The Immortal Legend (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Thomas Malory, Stuart Kolakovic
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 30, 2012
  • Travels with Charley in Search of America
    Travels with Charley in Search of America
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    John Steinbeck
    $17.00 US
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    Oct 02, 2012
  • Heart of Darkness
    Heart of Darkness
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Joseph Conrad, Mike Mignola
    $15.00 US
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    Aug 28, 2012
  • The Wizard of Oz
    The Wizard of Oz
    And Other Wonderful Books of Oz: The Emerald City of Oz and Glinda of Oz (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    L. Frank Baum, Rachell Sumpter
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 24, 2012
  • The Wind in the Willows
    The Wind in the Willows
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    Kenneth Grahame, Rachell Sumpter
    $18.00 US
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    Apr 24, 2012
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    The Greek Myths
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    Robert Graves, Ross Macdonald
    $27.00 US
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    Apr 24, 2012
  • Titanic, First Accounts
    Titanic, First Accounts
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    Various
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    Frances Hodgson Burnett, Jillian Tamaki
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    Oct 25, 2011
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    Anna Sewell, Jillian Tamaki
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    Oct 25, 2011
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    Sense and Sensibility
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    Jane Austen
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    Oct 25, 2011
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    Gustave Flaubert
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    Roald Dahl, Ivan Brunetti, Joseph Schindelman
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    Aug 30, 2011
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    Roald Dahl, Jordan Crane, Nancy Ekholm Burkert
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    Aug 30, 2011
  • Persuasion
    Persuasion
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    Jane Austen
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    Paperback
    Jun 28, 2011
  • The Communist Manifesto
    The Communist Manifesto
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    Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Killoffer
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    Mar 01, 2011
  • Great Expectations
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    Dec 28, 2010
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    Virgil
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    Dec 28, 2010
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    Bram Stoker, Ruben Toledo
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    Geoffrey Chaucer, Ted Stearn
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    D. H. Lawrence, Coralie Bickford-Smith
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    Hardcover
    Mar 10, 2010
  • Keith Haring Journals
    Keith Haring Journals
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    Keith Haring
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    Jan 26, 2010
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    The Prince
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    Niccolo Machiavelli
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    Nov 24, 2009
  • Wuthering Heights
    Wuthering Heights
    Emily Bronte, Coralie Bickford-Smith
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    Mark Twain, Lilli Carre
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    Herman Melville, Tony Millionaire
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    Huey P. Newton, Ho Che Anderson
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    Sep 29, 2009
  • The Qur'an
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    $23.00 US
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    Pride and Prejudice
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    Jane Austen, Ruben Toledo
    $18.00 US
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    Aug 25, 2009
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    The Scarlet Letter
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    Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ruben Toledo
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    Aug 25, 2009
  • The Art of War
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    Sun-tzu
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    Apr 28, 2009
  • Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories
    Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories
    Ryunosuke Akutagawa
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 03, 2009
  • The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
    The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
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    John Steinbeck
    $20.00 US
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    Dec 30, 2008
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    On the Road: the Original Scroll
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    Jack Kerouac
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    Aug 26, 2008
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    Metamorphosis and Other Stories
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    Franz Kafka
    $17.00 US
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    Feb 26, 2008
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    The Three Musketeers
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    Alexandre Dumas, Tom Gauld
    $21.00 US
    Paperback
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  • Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
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    Dual-Language Edition
    Pablo Neruda
    $14.00 US
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    Dec 26, 2006
  • Ceremony
    Ceremony
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Leslie Marmon Silko
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    Paperback
    Dec 26, 2006
  • The Odyssey
    The Odyssey
    Homer
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 31, 2006
  • The Complete Novels
    The Complete Novels
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Jane Austen
    $28.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 28, 2006
  • Fairy Tales
    Fairy Tales
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Hans Christian Andersen, Anders Nilsen
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 28, 2006
  • The Portable Dorothy Parker
    The Portable Dorothy Parker
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Dorothy Parker, Seth
    $24.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 28, 2006
  • The Jungle
    The Jungle
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Upton Sinclair, Charles Burns
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 28, 2006
  • Leaves of Grass
    Leaves of Grass
    The First (1855) Edition (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Walt Whitman
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 28, 2005
  • The Quiet American
    The Quiet American
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Graham Greene
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 31, 2004
  • The Sagas of Icelanders
    The Sagas of Icelanders
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Various
    $28.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 01, 2001
  • The Iliad
    The Iliad
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Homer
    $20.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 01, 1998

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