Siddhartha book Summary

Siddhartha 

(don't call him Sidd; he hates that) grows up in a prosperous Brahman family. He’s well-loved, but unhappy despite his popularity. He is spiritually dissatisfied and believes the elders in his community have nothing more to teach him. Siddhartha decides to join the Samanas, who are a group of wandering ascetics. His best friend, Govinda, accompanies him, and the two men spend three years with the Samanas learning how to withstand pain and hunger in an effort to flee the body’s limitations. 

Although the two friends learn quite a bit from the Samana way of life, they are still dissatisfied and decide to hear the teachings of Gotama Buddha. Govinda is impressed and chooses to join Gotama’s community of monks. Despite Govinda’s urgings and despite recognizing Gotama as the Holiest Man Ever, Siddhartha opts not to follow Gotama. He decides instead that he’s an independent learner and is done with doctrine. The friends part ways. 

Siddhartha travels to a nearby town where he is entranced by the beauty of a well-known courtesan named Kamala. He offers himself to her as a student in the art of love, but is gently rebuffed. Kamala says he needs money, clothes, and shoes. Siddhartha begins working for a wealthy merchant named Kamaswami and becomes Kamala’s lover. For a time, Siddhartha is content with his life and is able to maintain a Samana-like distance from material concerns. Eventually, however, wealth and lust prove too much for Siddhartha. He develops anxiety, self-hatred, and a high-stakes gambling habit. One morning, overwhelmed by his own depression and troubling dreams, Siddhartha walks out of his fancy home and never returns.

After considering suicide and briefly encountering his old friend, Govinda, Siddhartha finds a ferryman and asks to become his apprentice. The ferryman, named Vasudeva, accepts Siddhartha as his companion and together the two men listen to the river. With the river as a spiritual guide, Siddhartha gradually grows wiser and wiser. After allowing his son (by Kamala) to leave the river and follow his own path, Siddhartha achieves enlightenment. Vasudeva passes into Nirvana, and Siddhartha continues to ferry people across the river. He then helps Govinda reach enlightenment.

• Chapter 1

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  • The novel opens with this guy named Siddhartha in ancient India. He and his best friend, Govinda, belong to the elite Brahman caste, which means that they're top of the heap and super-rich.
  • Siddhartha is the Golden Boy of his community: men want to be him and women want to be with him.
  • Even though Siddhartha participates in holy sacrifices, meditation practices, and discussions with the adult Brahmans, he’s not satisfied. He seeks enlightenment (otherwise known as Inner Peace) and feels that he has learned all he can from his teachers and books. 
  • In times like this, meditation under the banyan tree is the only solution.
  • Siddhartha and Govinda sit and meditate.
  • At dinnertime, Govinda gets up, but Siddhartha remains deep in contemplation. He reflects on the word "Om," which means "the completion." It is the word that concludes all Brahman prayers.
  • He’s thinking about a group of Samanas (wandering ascetics) who once came into his town. 
  • He leaves the banyan tree and tells his parents about his new career path.
  • As soon as Siddhartha tells his father about his plans to become a Samana, his father gets upset and leaves the room. 
  • Siddhartha remains in the room, standing in the same position. 
  • The following morning, Siddhartha is still standing there.
  • His father recognizes Siddhartha’s determination and gives the young man permission to go.
  • We call this the traumatic version of leaving for college, except instead of  "college," it's "wandering around with no food for weeks on end."
  • Siddhartha meets up with Govinda and they leave to find the ascetics.

• Chapter 2

  • Govinda and Siddhartha find some Samanas and join them in their Who Can Go the Longest Without Eating contest.
  • Siddhartha gives away his clothes, begins fasting for long periods, and eats only once a day when he’s not fasting. 
  • Through self-torture, Siddhartha aims to completely empty himself in order to identify with the world around him. 
  • He engages in a number of Feats of Strength (not to be attempted at home): standing in the burning sun without water, standing in the freezing rain without an umbrella, standing in a thorny bush without… well, just standing in a thorny bush. Essentially, he stands until he loses feeling and escapes himself. 
  • Siddhartha likes losing himself, but he always finds himself again. The self-denial of the Samanas isn’t enough to enlighten him. 
  • Siddhartha asks Govinda (remember him?) if they’re making any progress.
  • Govinda says they’re making lots of progress. 
  • Siddhartha doesn’t think so. If the point of all the Feats of Strength is to lose himself, he argues, he could just as easily lose himself in prostitutes and drinking. He tells Govinda that he will leave the Samanas.
  • Siddhartha and Govinda have spent three years with the Samanas. They learn of a man named Gotama Buddha who has achieved enlightenment. Everyone is gossiping about him.
  • Govinda thinks they should hear the Buddha’s teachings. Siddhartha and Govinda nag each other for a while and then decide to leave the Samanas. 
  • Siddhartha informs the oldest Samana of their decision. The old man gets angry, but Siddhartha hypnotizes him with a powerful glance. The old Samana politely permits them to leave. 
  • Govinda is impressed. Siddhartha has learned a lot from the Samanas. Govinda argues that Siddhartha could have learned to walk on water if he had continued with the Feats of Strength.

  Chapter 3
• • Siddhartha and Govinda arrive in a Jetavana grove, which is the happening spot for Gotama Buddha. 
  • They spend the night; in the morning they find that a massive crowd has gathered to hear the Buddha speak. Siddhartha and Govinda are immediately able to identify the Buddha (he’s the godly one) among the crowd of Yellow-Robed Men. There are a lot of Yellow-Robed Men.
  • The Buddha appears endlessly peaceful, light, quiet, and contented. 
  • Although Siddhartha feels there is little new information he can learn from the Buddha’s teachings, he intently studies the Buddha’s behavior. 
  • The Buddha teaches all the usual stuff, including the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold path. Govinda asks to be accepted into his community of followers. 
  • Govinda is accepted and urges Siddhartha to join him. 
  • While Siddhartha recognizes the Buddha’s holiness, he believes enlightenment must be experienced, not taught.
  • he two men stop in the woods to speak with the Buddha. 
  • Siddhartha admires the Buddha’s teaching that the world is a complete, unbroken chain of cause and effect. However, he doesn’t understand the doctrine of salvation and escape from the world if in fact the world is eternally one. 
  • The Buddha admits the flaw, but reminds Siddhartha that the goal of his teachings is to relieve suffering, not to describe the universe.
  • Siddhartha argues the impossibility of reaching enlightenment via others’ teachings. Enlightenment, Siddhartha says, is something a man must do alone.

  • Chapter 4

    • As he walks away from Govinda, Siddhartha realizes that he is embarking on a new stage of life. He has walked away from all his teachers, even Buddha, because they cannot teach the nature of the self. 
    • Siddhartha decides to learn from himself alone. 
    • As he walks, Siddhartha sees his surroundings as real and beautiful, rather than an illusion that causes suffering.
    • For the first time, Siddhartha is experiencing the world on its own terms, rather than scorning what it has to teach him. This is his awakening.
    • Siddhartha decides he has to start anew on his quest for enlightenment. Concurrent to this decision is the realization that he is completely alone. He has left his father, he has left the Samanas, and he has left Govinda with the Yellow-Robed Men. He can no longer define himself in relation to other men because he has no community. 

    Chapter 5

    Siddhartha continues to appreciate his surroundings and decides to always obey his inner voice and to seek experience.
  • • He comes to a river and befriends the ferryman. 
    • He crashes for the night at the ferryman’s bachelor pad and dreams about Govinda. 
    • Let’s check out this dream.
    • Govinda, wearing a yellow robe, approaches Siddhartha and hugs him.
    • Two seconds later, Govinda transforms into a woman.
    • Siddhartha nurses from the woman’s beautiful breast and experiences the world. The woman has some seriously intense milk.
    • The next morning, a ferryman takes Siddhartha across the river. 
    • The ferryman tells Siddhartha about learning from the river, which is the Most Beautiful River Ever.
    • Siddhartha expresses regret that he cannot pay the ferryman.
    • The ferryman tells him that he can chalk it up as pro bono work. But more importantly, the ferryman has faith that Siddhartha will someday return. 
    • Siddhartha continues walking until he reaches a village. Everyone stays away from the weird ascetic (him).
    • Siddhartha comes to a stream where he meets a young woman washing clothes.
    • They flirt, and then she invites him to have sex with her by stepping on his foot. We’re not sure how this works, to be honest, but Siddhartha bends down and kisses her nipple. (He’s still thinking about his dream.)
    • Although he wants to sleep with her, he’s never touched a woman before and gets cold feet. His inner voice says "no," so he leaves. 
    • Siddhartha arrives at the outskirts of a city in a beautifully fenced grove. He sees a woman ride by on a sedan chair with a whole entourage of servants. 
    • She’s gorgeous. 
    • He makes eye contact with her. She smiles and nods. Chemistry? Yes, definitely. 
    • She and her servants go inside the grove.
    • Siddhartha wants to follow her, but then realizes that he still looks like a Samana, i.e., a dirty beggar.
    • He learns that the woman’s name is Kamala and that she is a famous courtesan. He now has a goal. We don’t know what this goal is yet, but Siddhartha has it.
    • He bathes, shaves, oils his hair, and arranges an appointment with her. 
    • Siddhartha asks Kamala to be his friend and teacher (in the art of Sexual Healing). Ah. Could this be his goal? 
    • Kamala finds it vaguely ridiculous that an ascetic from the forest wearing a loincloth has come to her for a sexual education. 
    • Kamala tells Siddhartha to get a job, lots of money, nice clothes, some perfume, and some nice presents for her. Then he can try talking to her again. 
    • Siddhartha asks Kamala for some advice on where to get clothes, shoes, and money. 
    • He gives her an overview of his resume: the ability to think, starve, and compose poetry. 
    • Siddhartha composes a poem for Kamala on the spot. She loves it, so she offers him one kiss. One super-hot kiss.
    • Siddhartha is stunned and wants more. 
    • We learn that knowing how to read and write is rare in ancient India.
    • Another visitor arrives; Siddhartha is quickly ushered out and offered a long, white robe.
    • Although he is hungry, Siddhartha feels it isn’t right to beg for food now that he is no longer a Samana. 
    • The next day, he goes to see Kamala. She has set up a job interview for him with a wealthy merchant. 
    • Siddhartha tells Kamala that he is determined to have her, and that the Samanas taught him how to single-mindedly focus on a goal. 

    Chapter 6
  • • Siddhartha goes to see Kamaswami, the wealthy merchant.
    • The merchant questions him about his skills and needs. 
    • Siddhartha has no needs and argues that his ability to fast is an asset: he’s not troubled by the lack of food, therefore no one can force him to do something for food. It has also taught him patience.
    • When the merchant sees that Siddhartha can read and write well, he offers Siddhartha both a job and shelter. 
    • Siddhartha begins to live a good life: food, baths, clothes.
    • Siddhartha learns quickly and is well-respected by Kamaswami. However, he looks at his job as a game; his real interests lie with Kamala. 
    • Kamaswami keeps trying to get Siddhartha to be more passionate about business, but Siddhartha remains indifferent. 
    • Siddhartha visits Kamala daily and she instructs him in the physical act of love. Go read that part; we can’t do it justice. 
    • Although he takes great pleasure in the people around him, his experience as a Samana keeps Siddhartha from fully empathizing with them. He sees their lives as if from a distance; their pains, discomforts, and problems seem completely trivial to him. 
    • Siddhartha feels understood and satisfied only with Kamala. 
    • Siddhartha sees that Kamala has the same stillness that he has. He points out that this quality has nothing to do with intelligence, but everything to do with the resolving to have Inner Peace.
    • Kamala tells Siddhartha that he is the best lover she’s had. She wants to eventually have a child with him.
    • The lovers note that because they share this special sanctuary and distance from the normal ups and downs of life, they can never truly love each other the way other people do.

    Chapter 7
  • • As the years go by and Siddhartha accrues more and more wealth, his Samana-like qualities begin to fade. 
    • They are replaced with more material girl -like qualities. He grows increasingly greedy, troubled by everyday problems, and unhappy. He feels trapped by pleasure, pain, and a sense of self-hatred. 
    • Siddhartha engages in a lot of high-stakes gambling as way of expressing his hatred of wealth. 
    • He feels himself and Kamala aging. He suddenly starts associating sex with death. 
    • One evening, Siddhartha drinks heavily, watches dancers, and feels profoundly nauseated with himself. Finally, he falls asleep and dreams about a songbird that belongs to Kamala. In the dream, he finds the bird dead and he tosses it into the street. 
    • He becomes scared that he has just tossed out all the goodness in himself. 
    • In despair, Siddhartha recalls his life. He tries to remember the moments when he felt true joy and a sense of direction. He concludes that nothing in his life is of value to him. Even the pleasures of his shared passion with Kamala have worn off (and this is saying something… Kamala’s got skills). Everything has been a game to him.
    • He leaves his home and his riches. 
    • Kamaswami sends people out to look for Siddhartha, thinking that he has been captured by robbers.
    • Kamala does not search for him. She knows Siddhartha is, at heart, a wandering Samana. She releases her songbird from its cage.
    • We learn Kamala is pregnant with Siddhartha’s child.

    Chapter 8
  • • Siddhartha heads for the forest, determined never to go back to his life of wealth. 
    • He is depressed. 
    • He wanders.
    • He is depressed some more.
    • Siddhartha approaches the same river where he met the ferryman years before. 
    • In utter despair he clings to a coconut tree along the bank. He dreams about dropping and submerging himself into the water. He sees the water as mirroring the emptiness within him.
    • About to slip into the water, the word "Om" emanates from his soul.
    • Siddhartha realizes that destroying his body will not end his suffering, and he sits down. Thoroughly exhausted, he falls asleep. 
    • Siddhartha wakes up with a sense of rebirth and repeats "Om" to himself over and over. 
    • Behind him, Siddhartha notices a monk in a yellow robe. 
    • It’s Govinda! 
    • Govinda has not recognized Siddhartha but merely sat beside him while he slept in order to protect him from snakes. 
    • Siddhartha’s like, "dude, it’s me," and Govinda’s like, "dude, what’s with the rich-man outfit?"
    • Siddhartha explains he has left the world of wealth and is now on a pilgrimage. Govinda leaves to get back to being a monk.
    • Siddhartha forces himself to think. He has no possessions and thus feels joyful and childlike.
    • Siddhartha finds himself amused at the course his life has taken and sees his life’s path reflected in the flow of the river. 
    • Siddhartha concludes that in order to return to himself, he has had to experience profound sorrow.
    • He realizes that life as a Samana fueled his intellectual growth and arrogance, allowing him to thrive rather than to perish. 
    • Siddhartha remains entranced by the beauty and flow of the river. 

    Chapter 9
  • • Siddhartha observes the river and realizes that every movement of the water is new. 
    • He is painfully hungry and finds the ferryman he met years before. The man’s name is Vasudeva. 
    • Siddhartha asks for a ride across the river. He has no money to offer the ferryman, but asks if Vasudeva will accept his fine clothes. The ferryman is confused, but agrees.
    • Siddhartha asks if can move in with Vasudeva and learn about the river as the ferryman’s apprentice. 
    • Vasudeva graciously invites Siddhartha to stay in his home and offers him a meal. 
    • Siddhartha eats a simple plate of bread and mango and recounts his life to Vasudeva. He is astounded by the Ferryman’s profound ability to listen. 
    • Vasudeva remarks that he cannot teach, but that he can help Siddhartha to learn from the river—to learn how to be devout and to listen. 
    • Vasudeva rarely speaks, but the men work hard together and focus on listening to the river. 
    • It says to them, "Come in for a dip!"
    • More accurately, the river teaches the two men about life. 
    • For instance, one day Siddhartha realizes that the river exists only in the present: it is everywhere at once, upstream, downstream, at the sea, and at the source. Life is the same way. Siddhartha realizes that his existence as a boy and his existence as an old man are not separate. Everything has its existence in the present. 
    • In the voice of the river Siddhartha hears the holy word "Om" being repeated over and over again. 
    • Vasudeva and Siddhartha live joyously on the river, listening to its stories and finding silent companionship in one another. Travelers begin mistaking the two for brothers. 
    • One day Siddhartha learns from traveling monks that Gotama Buddha is gravely ill and will die. 
    • Meanwhile, Kamala has joined the followers of the Buddha and is making a pilgrimage to see the holy man. She rests on the riverbank with her son, who is tired and wants to eat. While resting, Kamala is bitten by a snake. 
    • Vasudeva hears her scream and brings her home. 
    • Siddhartha immediately recognizes Kamala (she’s still gorgeous). 
    • He also realizes that the boy is his son.
    • They clean her wound but she is badly poisoned. Siddhartha calms his crying son. 
    • When she regains consciousness, Kamala recognizes Siddhartha but sees how profoundly he has changed. 
    • She dies before she is able to tell Siddhartha that finding him was as good as it would have been to find Gotama Buddha. 
    • Siddhartha sits with Kamala for a long time after she dies. Later he sits awake and listens to the river. While he suffers, the river offers him a sense of unity. Siddhartha becomes peaceful. 
    • In the morning, Vasudeva helps him construct a funeral pyre.

    Chapter 10
  • • Siddhartha’s son grieves for Kamala. Siddhartha treats him with consideration and respect although he realizes the boy has been spoiled by a wealthy lifestyle. 
    • Siddhartha struggles to try to win his son’s love and acceptance with kindness, but his efforts are in vain.
    • His son came to the river out of necessity, not desire. The kid wants out of the boondocks. 
    • Siddhartha wishes desperately to protect his son from pain and suffering, but is reminded by Vasudeva and the wisdom of the river that one cannot teach certain things. They must be learned through experience. 
    • Although Siddhartha understands the concept, his love for his son is overwhelming. He cannot bear to let the boy go. 
    • Siddhartha’s son feels trapped by his father’s endless kindness. After a huge you-just-don’t-get-me-Dad! outburst, the young man steals money and a boat and runs away. 
    • Siddhartha and Vasudeva construct a raft to rescue the boat. 
    • Vasudeva advises Siddhartha to let the boy return to the city, but Siddhartha wants to bring his son back. 
    • Siddhartha searches the forest. He enters the town sad, but no longer worried, and stands near the gate where he first saw Kamala. He relives the moments of his life and feels a sense of profound emptiness.
    • He crouches by the gate in meditation on the hot, dusty road.
    • A monk from Kamala’s garden places two bananas in front of him (which, it seems, is a generous meal by the book’s standards), but Siddhartha is deep in meditation and doesn’t notice. 
    • Vasudeva finds Siddhartha. Siddhartha greets him happily and they return home. Neither speaks of the boy. 

    Chapter 11
  • • Siddhartha feels warm toward the ordinary people whom he transports across the river. Rather than the contempt that he previously felt, he now sees their troubles as understandable and honorable.
    • Siddhartha considers the possibility that his awareness of the unity of the universe, too, is mere childishness, but this idea doesn’t bother him. 
    • Although Siddhartha grows wiser and wiser, he still feels wounded by his son.
    • One day, Siddhartha intends to go into the town to look for his son. Then Siddhartha remembers that he himself wasn’t exactly a model son. He had left his own father the way his son left him. 
    • He hears the river laugh at the repetition of life’s patterns. 
    • Siddhartha returns to his hut and tells Vasudeva of his experience in the town where Vasudeva had found him and about his intention of going into the town earlier that day. 
    • Siddhartha recognizes Vasudeva as God himself. Whoa. 
    • Vasudeva brings Siddhartha out to the river and tells him there is something he has still not heard. 
    • With Vasudeva’s guidance, Siddhartha listens intently. For the first time he hears all the voices of the river as one single continuum of all life. 
    • Siddhartha feels his soul merge into unity.
    • Vasudeva touches Siddhartha on the shoulder. 
    • MNow that Siddhartha has reached enlightenment, Vasudeva plans to leave the river and enter into the unity of all things.
    • Vasudeva takes off for the forest, leaving Siddhartha as the ferryman.

    Chapter 12
  • • Govinda is still traveling with the men in yellow robes. They look up to him now because he’s wise and old, but Govinda is still unsatisfied and seeks enlightenment.
    • Govinda hears about this wise ferryman and decides to go talk to him. 
    • That ferryman is Siddhartha. 
    • Govinda doesn’t realize this.
    • Siddhartha tells Govinda that because he is orienting himself toward a single goal, he is missing everything. 
    • Okay we know that’s counter-intuitive. Siddhartha is arguing that because Govinda is focused so much on the search, he cannot find what he is searching for. Mull that over.
    • Siddhartha identifies himself to Govinda.
    • Govinda is startled. 
    • The following morning, Govinda questions Siddhartha about whether he follows a doctrine. Siddhartha explains that although he has had many teachers, he follows no doctrine. 
    • Siddhartha explains his belief that although knowledge can be communicated, wisdom cannot. 
    • He argues that in every truth, the opposite is also true, that time is illusory, that suffering is necessary to learning, and that there is no division between the world and perfection.
    • Siddhartha uses a stone as an example for Govinda. The stone, because of its profound stone-like nature, is everything. And everything is enough. 
    • Siddhartha does not dwell on ideas, and does not fight to understand reality. 
    • Although Siddhartha’s words contradict Gotama Buddha’s, that doesn’t matter. Words are meaningless. 
    • Huh? Govinda is confused. Before leaving, he asks Siddhartha for any final words of wisdom.
    • Siddhartha tells Govinda to kiss him on the forehead. 
    • Govinda kisses his friend’s forehead and suddenly sees a continuous, unending stream of faces and people and images of painful and joyous things all shifting into one another.
    • After kissing Siddhartha, he is unsure if a single second or eternity has passed. 
    • Govinda identifies Siddhartha’s smiling, radiant face as that of the Buddha and bows down in veneration.