Siddhartha

“Siddhartha” – Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse’s most famous and influential book has given a totally different insight to seekers of the higher self. (Bantam Books)

Young Siddhartha, along with his friend Govinda, is on a long search for the truth, for enlightenment. After years of travelling, exploration and searching, they come into the august presence of Gotama the Buddha. And after getting convinced that he is indeed the Enlightened One, after being mesmerized by his sermon …… he decides to leave him and move on!

When everyone is shocked by Siddhartha’s decision not to stay back at the feet of this great soul, he says, “Not for one moment did I doubt that you were the Buddha, that you have reached the highest goal …. you have done so by your own seeking, in your own way, through thought, through knowledge. You have learned nothing through teachings …. nobody finds salvation through teachings. That is why I am going on my way – not to seek another and better doctrine, but to leave all doctrines and all teachers and to reach my goal alone – or die. If I were one of your followers, I fear that it would only be on the surface, that I would deceive myself that I was a peace and had attained salvation …..”

How many of us deceive ourselves that we are receiving education through the teachings of our teachers? If any teacher, any book, any lecture can make you sit up and think (even in direct opposition to what is being said), then you are on your way to learning !