Siddhartas Path To Enlightement Essay, Research Paper

Siddharta’s Path to Enlightement Siddhartha revealed a lot to me that I did not know about Indian/Hindu culture and the caste system and how Buddhism tries to get away from the norm. It revealed things such as how class structure and the religious climate. The religious climate has an impact on the choices people might even make in their life. Ironically, the Buddha is also known as Siddhartha and our Siddhartha s life sort of mirrors.

In India there are five castes in which you were born into according to Buddhist tradition. There were the Brahmins, which was the priest class. The Kshatriyas was the second class from the top it was the warrior class. The third group the Valsya were the commoners. The Sudras are the farmers and the Pariahs are slaves and outsiders people rarely came in contact with.

Through the caste system is how you would reach enlightenment or Nirvana in Hinduism. It is something that takes many life times. This creates a cycle of life that Siddhartha wanted to brake away from; this mirrors the feelings of the Buddha. At the time that Siddhartha met the Buddha, the Buddha had already broken off the wheel of life. Under the teachings of Buddha you could reach Nirvana in one lifetime. This is radical because it not only goes against Hindu teachings but it also challenges the social structure, where Brahmins could only reach enlightenment.

The whole caste system of Hinduism causes problems in society especially at the lower class. It is as if people are more likely to commit immoral acts if they are not going to be able to reach enlightenment for many lifetimes anyway. There is also a color system slightly noticeable in the description of Siddhartha in Chapter One where he described as light and slightly tanned. The classifications originally were race/color based.

Siddhartha s entire goal is to break away from the all of these worldly ideas and concepts. His original fault though is automatically seeking enlightenment through plain knowledge and intelligence. He is sort of trying to rush on his enlightenment because he has experienced a lot of what is thought to give you wisdom. He even looks at the Semanas and rightfully doubts their tactics of gaining enlightenment. So after meeting Buddha, who himself was a Semana but broke off to find enlightenment for himself. After conversation with Guatama the Buddha, Siddhartha and his best friend Govinda leave the Semanas. Govinda chooses to follow the Buddha and Siddhartha goes to experience life on his own.

Siddhartha experiences life on his own. He partakes in lots of worldly things. He even finds a woman. Women in the book and to the Buddha were another evil and worldly thing. Siddhartha meets Kamala. Kamala s beauty and intelligence were very attracting to Siddhartha and he is drawn to her. Kamala actually teaches him in lectures. With her help Siddhartha gains the combination of simplicity and intelligence. In the things he partakes in are drinking, sex and gambling. These things numb people s senses of the world. Though deemed evil they furthered him in his process for enlightenment. A person who had a major impact on Siddhartha was the ferryman Vasudeva. Vasudeva teaches Siddhartha to listen to river to hear the voice of the universe and if you listen carefully all the voices blend together to make one sound, Om. Siddhartha took a job as a river man. While working as a river man he finds out Kamala had a son from him. Kamala dies and Siddhartha and his son do not get a long after that. But from his son Siddhartha learns the love and brotherhood of human experience and also the rejection of it.

Through all of these ups and downs Siddhartha learned that you are not just enlightened by knowing all of these good things it is also the bad that change you. Also, it is an experience that can not be achieved by learning teachings, this is why the Buddha and Siddhartha broke off on there own journey from the Samanas. This is a reason why he could not achieve this wisdom at a young age. But, it took him a lifetime of experience as it would have taken others lifetimes. At the end of the book you have something to measure Siddhartha by and that is his friend Govinda. Govinda is exactly where Siddhartha would be had he not broke off and not been a follower. Govinda is smart but not enlightened.