The story Siddhartha follows the journey of Siddhartha and his various journeys, each of which affected him in different ways but were nevertheless equally important to achieving his goal of nirvana. Each of his journeys taught him something new and distinct and explored the importance of each of the different aspects of life. His spirituality varies just like the definition of the word itself, and although this is the key theme of the tale, it is sometimes lost on both the reader and Siddhartha himself. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay When we are first introduced to Siddhartha, he is in his childhood home, surrounded by nature, by the river in a city full of love. Siddhartha immediately stands out from the rest of the people he lives with and proves to be somewhat superior in terms of spirituality and abilities. He learned quickly and was an attractive young man that every girl wanted to be with. He often meditated and participated in tribal rituals with Brahmin elders, yet he still felt something was missing that forced him to leave the near-perfect utopia. Although he wanted to leave he did not give up the love and care his family had provided him and did not want to leave without his father's blessing and when he asked his father the response he received was passive but not what he wanted but he felt that his father wasn't entirely convinced and it was at this point that his character first developed. All his life he was a sheep and therefore considered himself weak, but after a conversation with his father he felt the need to prove himself to his father and therefore protested for hours. This form of protest showed the total respect he had for his father as he knew that his father cared for him and therefore he knew that he would have to prove himself: which he did. When he moves on to join the Samana with Govinda, he learns to separate the mind from the body, yet continues to return to consciousness in a complete cycle. The main goal of the Samanas was to silence "all passions and desires" and they did this by fasting for days and giving up all possessions they possessed as they believed that the mind and soul should be separated from the body. While this seemed logical to him at first, he soon learned that it is not possible to live in extreme deprivation and be whole, just as the great Buddha did on his journey to enlightenment, and just as all Abrahamic religions preach. He then distanced himself from the Samanas but when he did so, he did not want to leave on bad terms and taught the elder what he had learned by hypnotizing him. This showed that he had already learned more about spirituality as the Samana saw it than people who had practiced it all their lives. The fact that he didn't want to leave on bad terms also revealed that he was a good person at heart, especially thanks to his parents and his early roots. When he began to learn about the Buddha, although he was initially skeptical, he kept an open mind, and when he met the Buddha, despite his skepticism, he felt more connected to the Buddha than anyone else. The fact that he was able to identify the Buddha in a group of identical monks showed how spirituality was not only felt by yourself but by the people around you, when he disagreed with the Buddha, it was clear that it was due to the his ego as seen in the sentence: "This is what Gotama teaches, nothing else." This shows his self-centeredness at this time. . When he moves away from this group, now without his shadow, the next person he meets is the ferryman, the one whohad the greatest impact on Siddhartha. The ferryman had managed to reach nirvana without making the same journey as Siddhartha, but simply by listening to the voice of the river. While this might not make sense to many people, it did to me. Water is a calming element and rivers or beaches are where I feel most at peace, although still far from achieving any form of nirvana, it is where I most comfortably channel my thoughts, floating on the surface of the salt water, far away from the stress and problems of the material world and this is just how the ferryman felt. The ferryman was away from the influence of society and therefore was truly at peace, which presented the idea that society clouds judgment and takes away from enlightenment, an idea that will be explored in depth later. As she moves away from the ferryman and reaches the city, she tries to learn about the body and love, believing that her goal can be achieved through love and when she met Kamala she believed that her goal can be achieved, however, Kamala is depicted as a symbol of lust and clouds his judgment which he does not learn until he feels he is losing control over worldly possessions. As he begins to play, he gains more and more possessions, and although he did not care about money, he became obsessed with winning just as he had won over Kamala, thus feeding his ego and “like moisture entering the trunk of a dying tree… . thus the world and inertia have crept into Siddhartha's soul” clouding his purity and all the work he has done to remove the impurity is undone and his soul is portrayed as poisoned by society and wealth. Although in modern society this is not always true, I have personally seen the less fortunate helping others without questioning those in difficulty because this is what they have been taught by Islam, however more fortunate people become obsessed with money and then they do everything to get it. get more by showing one of the seven deadly sins in action: greed, which I've seen in my family. As the story progresses, he meets Govinda when he hits rock bottom, which shows the cyclical process of story and life. Govinda has not recognized the rest of the man he once knew as a friend, yet he still helps him, not out of pity but out of kindness, showing how it is not just the act of doing something good that is important but the source from which it comes. stems. Siddhartha was once again isolated from society and it was then that he began to find himself, again with the ferryman, learning their ways and the wisdom of the river, slowly restoring the man he once was. When he hit rock bottom was when he lost his ego because that was what was holding him back and once it no longer had him anchored to the ground was when he could achieve his goal. Years later, he meets Kamala again, but this time she had a child, Siddhartha's son. In the same way that Siddhartha left his father, he faces the same problem with his son when his son leaves, but this time full of hatred: “I hate you; you are not my father even if you have been my mother's lover a dozen times!' Siddhartha's son was poisoned by society and wealth in the same way that Siddhartha once was. When his son left him, a complete cycle was once again shown which is referenced throughout the book, to show everyone's connection. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay When the son left, he learned to overcome the pain and when he is faced with Govinda again, he is again unrecognizable to the friend but this time to the person.