Book Review: Siddhartha

I quite enjoyed re-reading this book. I had read it many decades ago. Since then, I had taken up, and left behind, whitewater kayaking. So the thing that really struck me about the book on this reading was the discussions about rivers.

I have always felt that the rivers and the woods hold great secrets - that are ours to find.

Siddhartha also found great secrets in the rivers. His teacher was Vasudeva, a ferryman on the river. Vasudeva had this to say: “The river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere, and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future.”

Siddhartha had also learned that lesson and applied it to his own life. He said that the different ages of his life were only separated by shadows, not through reality. He also said: “Nothing was, nothing will be, everything has reality and presence.” Siddhartha was happy to discover this, and felt that all sorrows, self-torment, and fear, were conquered as soon as one conquered time, or dispelled time. There was no such thing as time.

The river spoke to him with many voices. The voices of all living creatures were in it’s voice. And when they listened to all the voices of the river, they heard the holy OM. When you can hear the voices of the river and really listen to it, the river is no longer an obstacle or a hindrance to cross, it is instead a holy place to be treasured.

The river laughed.

This book was written by Herman Hesse in 1922. The notes say that WWI came as a terrific shock to Hesse, and he worked with the pacifists to end the war.