Siddartha

Just like the Buddha, Siddhartha had to go through life and achieve enlightenment alone. He had to obtain enlightenment through experiences and not teachings. He knew form his very first days with Gotama that he would not reach truth and Nirvana by listening to Gotama’s teachings and instructions. He would have to experience all life had to offer lust, denial, happiness, and suffering on his own to realize his enlightenment to its full capacity. Siddhartha told Gotama,

“I did not doubt you for one moment. Not for one moment did I doubt that you were the Buddha, that you have reached the highest goal, which so many thousands of Brahmins and Brahmins’ sons are striving to reach. You have done so by your own seeking, in you own way, through thought, through meditation, through knowledge, through enlightenment. You have learned nothing through teachings, and so I think

O Illustrious One, that nobody finds salvation through teachings. To nobody, O Illustrious One, can you communicate in words and teachings what happened to you in the hour of your enlightenment.”

Siddhartha tries to share his knowledge with Govinda in the end of the novel. He tells Govinda of all he has learned from loving things one would not think of loving, like stones, to seeing the value and meaning in each object of nature. He also informs Govinda that “each one is different and worships Om.” Even as Siddhartha was informing Govinda of all of his knowledge, he knew that he didn’t quite comprehend and understand what Siddhartha was saying or what he had accomplished, Nirvana. Just like in the beginning of the novel when Siddhartha realizes that Gotoma will never be able to teach him what he had learned in his hour of enlightenment, neither will Siddhartha be able to completely teach Govinda. Siddhartha wanted to share this life with his good friend, so he had him kiss his forehead. When Govinda did this “he saw other faces, many faces, a long series, a continuous stream of faces… He saw all these forms and faces in a thousand relationships to each other, all helping each other, loving, hating, destroying each other and become newly born… Yet none of them died, they only changed…” At this moment, Govinda realizes exactly what Siddhartha has reached and he has great love for Siddhartha. Govinda then bows low to Siddhartha. Without the river, Siddhartha would never have been able to share this love and compassion with Govinda.

In the end Siddhartha is enlightened because he does realize he has reached Nirvana by awakening and becoming one with the knowledge of truth. However, this may have its limits in that he didn’t do it completely on his own. He had a lot of help from Vasudeva. Vasudeva was the man who was constantly telling him to listen to the river and to do as it instructed. He told him to let the river be his teacher. Therefore, he is considered enlightened but without Gotama and Vasudeva’s help one will never know if Siddhart

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