Siddhartha, the handsome and respected son
of a Brahmin, lives with his father in ancient India. Everyone in the village
expects Siddhartha
to be a successful Brahmin like his father. Siddhartha
enjoys a near-idyllic existence with his best friend, Govinda,
but he is secretly dissatisfied. He performs all the rituals of religion, and
he does what religion says should bring him happiness and peace. Nonetheless,
he feels something is missing. His father and the other elders have still not
achieved enlightenment, and he feels that staying with them will not settle the
questions he has about the nature of his existence. Siddhartha believes his
father has already passed on all the wisdom their community has to offer, but
he longs for something more.
One day, a group of wandering ascetics
called Samanas passes through town. They are starved and almost naked and have
come to beg for food. They believe enlightenment can be reached through
asceticism, a rejection of the body and physical desire. The path the Samanas
preach is quite different from the one Siddhartha has been taught, and he
believes it may provide some of the answers he is looking for. He decides to
follow this new path. Siddhartha’s
father does not want him to join the Samanas, but he cannot dissuade Siddhartha.
Govinda also wants to find a path to enlightenment, and he joins Siddhartha in
this new life.
Siddhartha adjusts quickly to the ways of
the Samanas because of the patience and discipline he learned in the Brahmin
tradition. He learns how to free himself from the traditional trappings of
life, and so loses his desire for property, clothing, sexuality, and all
sustenance except that required to live. His goal is to find enlightenment by
eliminating his Self, and he successfully renounces the pleasures of the world.
Sunburned and half-starved, Siddhartha soon
ceases to resemble the boy he used to be. Govinda is quick to praise the
Samanas and notes the considerable moral and spiritual improvements they both
have achieved since joining. Siddhartha, however, is still dissatisfied. The
path of self-denial does not provide a permanent solution for him. He points
out that the oldest Samanas have lived the life for many years but have yet to
attain true spiritual enlightenment. The
Samanas have been as unsuccessful as the Brahmins Siddhartha and Govinda
left behind. At this time, Siddhartha and the other Samanas begin to hear about
a new holy man named Gotama
the Buddha who has attained the total spiritual enlightenment called Nirvana.
Govinda convinces Siddhartha they both should leave the Samanas and seek out
Gotama. Siddhartha and Govinda inform the leader of the Samanas of their
decision to leave. The leader is clearly displeased, but Siddhartha silences
him with an almost magical, hypnotizing gaze.
Siddhartha and Govinda find Gotama’s camp of
followers and are taken in. Siddhartha is initially pleased with Gotama, and he
and Govinda are instructed in the Eightfold Path, the four main points, and
other aspects of Buddhism. However, while Govinda is convinced to join Gotama
and his followers, Siddhartha still has doubts. He has noticed a contradiction
in Gotama’s teachings: Siddhartha questions how one can embrace the unity of
all things, as the Buddha asks, if they are also being told to overcome the
physical world. Siddhartha realizes Buddhism will not give him the answers he
needs. Sadly, he leaves Govinda behind and begins a search for the meaning of
life, the achievement of which he feels will not be dependent on religious
instruction.
Siddhartha decides to embark on a life free
from meditation and the spiritual quests he has been pursuing, and to instead
learn from the pleasures of the body and the material world. In his new
wanderings, Siddhartha meets a friendly ferryman,
fully content with his simple life. Siddhartha crosses the
ferryman’s river and comes to a city. Here, a beautiful courtesan named Kamala
entrances him. He knows she would be the best one to teach him about the world
of love, but Kamala will not have him unless he proves he can fit into the
material world. She convinces him to take up the path of the merchant. With her
help, Siddhartha soon finds employment with a merchant named Kamaswami
and begins to learn the trade. While Siddhartha learns the wisdom of the
business world and begins to master the skills Kamaswami teaches him, Kamala
becomes his lover and teaches him what she knows about love.
Years pass, and Siddhartha’s business acumen
increases. Soon, he is a rich man and enjoys the benefits of an affluent life.
He gambles, drinks, and dances, and anything that can be bought in the material
world is his for the taking. Siddhartha is detached from this life, however,
and he can never see it as more than a game. He doesn’t care if he wins or
loses this game because it doesn’t touch his spirit in any lasting way. The
more he obtains in the material world, the less it satisfies him, and he is
soon caught in a cycle of unhappiness that he tries to escape by engaging in
even more gambling, drinking, and sex. When he is at his most disillusioned, he
dreams that Kamala’s rare songbird is dead in its cage. He understands that the
material world is slowly killing him without providing him with the
enlightenment for which he has been searching. One night, he resolves to leave
it all behind and departs without notifying either Kamala or Kamaswami.
Sick at heart, Siddhartha wanders until he
finds a river. He considers drowning himself, but he instead falls asleep on
the riverbank. While he is sleeping, Govinda, who is now a Buddhist monk,
passes by. Not recognizing Siddhartha, he watches over the sleeping man to
protect him from snakes. Siddhartha immediately recognizes Govinda when he
wakes up, but Govinda notes that Siddhartha has changed significantly from his
days with the Samanas and now appears to be a rich man. Siddhartha responds
that he is currently neither a Samana nor a rich man. Siddhartha wishes to become
someone new. Govinda soon leaves to continue on his journey, and Siddhartha
sits by the river and considers where his life has taken him.
Siddhartha seeks out the same content
ferryman he met years before. The ferryman, who introduces himself as Vasudeva,
radiates an inner peace that Siddhartha wishes to attain. Vasudeva says he
himself has attained this sense of peace through many years of studying the
river. Siddhartha expresses a desire to likewise learn from the river, and
Vasudeva agrees to let Siddhartha live and work beside him. Siddhartha studies
the river and begins to take from it a spiritual enlightenment unlike any he
has ever known. While sitting by the river, he contemplates the unity of all
life, and in the river’s voice he hears the word Om.
One day Kamala the courtesan approaches the
ferry along with her son on a pilgrimage to visit Gotama, who is said to be
dying. Before they can cross, a snake bites Kamala. Siddhartha and Vasudeva
tend to Kamala, but the bite kills her. Before she dies, she tells Siddhartha
that he is the father of her eleven-year-old son. Siddhartha does his best to
console and provide for his son, but the boy is spoiled and cynical.
Siddhartha’s son dislikes life with the two ferrymen and wishes to return to
his familiar city and wealth. Vasudeva believes Siddhartha’s son should be
allowed to leave if he wants to, but Siddhartha is not ready to let him go. One
morning, Siddhartha awakens to find his son has run away and stolen all of his
and Vasudeva’s money. Siddhartha chases after the boy, but as he reaches the
city he realizes the chase is futile. Vasudeva follows Siddhartha and brings
him back to their home by the river, instructing him to soothe the pain of
losing his son by listening to the river.
Siddhartha studies the river for many years,
and Vasudeva teaches Siddhartha how to learn the many secrets the river has to
tell. In contemplating the river, Siddhartha has a revelation: Just as the
water of the river flows into the ocean and is returned by rain, all forms of
life are interconnected in a cycle without beginning or end. Birth and death
are all part of a timeless unity. Life and death, joy and sorrow, good and evil
are all parts of the whole and are necessary to understand the meaning of life.
By the time Siddhartha has learned all the river’s lessons, Vasudeva announces
that he is through with his life at the river. He retires into the forest,
leaving Siddhartha to be the ferryman.
The novel ends with Govinda returning to the
river to seek enlightenment by meeting with a wise man who lives there. When
Govinda arrives, he does not recognize that the wise man is Siddhartha himself.
Govinda is still a follower of Gotama but has yet to attain the kind of
enlightenment that Siddhartha now radiates, and he asks Siddhartha to teach him
what he knows. Siddhartha explains that neither he nor anyone can teach the
wisdom to Govinda, because verbal explanations are limited and can never
communicate the entirety of enlightenment. Instead, he asks Govinda to kiss him
on the forehead, and when Govinda does, the vision of unity that Siddhartha has
experienced is communicated instantly to Govinda. Govinda and Siddhartha have
both finally achieved the enlightenment they set out to find in the days of
their youth.