Siddhartha Asceticism Played a Major

Siddhartha

Asceticism played a major role in the psychological, social, and spiritual evolution of Siddhartha, the titular protagonist in Herman Hesse's novel. Modeled partly after the historical Gautama Buddha, Siddhartha begins his quest for enlightenment by following in the Brahmin footsteps of his fathers and forefathers. Finding little satisfaction in the rites and traditions of Brahmanism, Siddhartha starts to study the ways of the Samanas. The Samanas are forest-dwelling ascetics, rejecting all types of material comforts including sex, material goods, and any food except that which is required for the survival of the body. The Samanas beg for food and demand a rigorously disciplined lifestyle that Siddhartha finds relatively easy to follow. His experience with the Samanas does not yield lasting spiritual fruits, however, and Siddhartha becomes involved in the emerging Buddhist movement. The Gotama Buddha teaches a middle path between embracing all life and rejecting material desires but Siddhartha still fails to find the enlightenment he seeks. Finally, Siddhartha rejects asceticism itself to embark on a self-made independent journey of the soul. Instead of asceticism, Siddhartha embraces unabashed materialism and sensuality. Siddhartha ultimately achieves his goal of enlightenment after spending many years with Vasudeva the ferryman and learning how to find peace by observing the river. His wisdom becomes Siddharrtha's own middle path between the unnecessary stringency of asceticism and the meaninglessness in a materialistic existence.

Asceticism is a universal component of religious quests. Few religions are devoid of at least some type of ascetic tradition, either posed as a way of life or as a temporary means to achieve liberation. The religions of India, like the religions of the Fertile Crescent, boast rich traditions of self-abnegation. Miles points out the role of asceticism in benefiting the "whole person." Siddhartha, before he joined the group of Samanas in the forest knew that asceticism was one of the universal features of religious practice. Although not as strident as the Samanas in their integration of asceticism into daily life, the Brahmans nevertheless did advocate a lifestyle free from excess material attachments. The Brahman lifestyle incorporated a rigorous set of ablutions and meditation practices: "He already knew how to speak the Om silently, the word of words, to speak it silently into himself while inhaling, to speak it silently out of himself while exhaling, with all the concentration of his soul, the forehead surrounded by the glow of the clear-thinking spirit," (Chapter One). However, the Brahman lifestyle and its attendant practices failed to offer Siddhartha lasting spiritual satisfaction.

The Samanas would not seem to offer a young man much to satisfy his soul, either. Described as "ascetics on a pilgrimage, three skinny, withered men, neither old nor young, with dusty and bloody shoulders, almost naked, scorched by the sun, surrounded by loneliness, strangers and enemies to the world, strangers and lank jackals in the realm of humans," the Samanas did present Siddhartha with a new, novel spiritual practice (Chapter One). Interestingly, Siddhartha already seemed to possess the self-discipline that becoming an ascetic would require. For instance, he convinced his father to offer approval for his move by standing still for hours through the night. He was not put off by the emaciated appearance of the Samanas. Siddhartha had already used informal means of self-abnegation and self-discipline to achieve his goals as the son of a Brahman. Asceticism was like a natural part of Siddhartha's life.

As a result Siddhartha's asceticism came relatively easy to him when he finally did join the Samanas. Siddhartha's dissatisfaction with the Samana lifestyle at least in part stems from his not having to work hard enough to gain the fruits that asceticism does offer: it is possible that asceticism is meaningful only insofar as it is coupled with emotional fervor and effort (Cort 2002). Asceticism is significant for training the seeker's mind away from material attachments; a seeker already disillusioned with the world gains little from asceticism because the act of giving up or letting go loses its meaning. What Siddhartha gained from his encounter with the ascetics was, ironically, a lesson about how asceticism is insufficient on its own to aid the quest for enlightenment. Asceticism was for Siddhartha like a drug: a means to escape the world or a promise of inner peace. The author describes Siddhartha's asceticism like an addiction in Chapter Two, describing the intense lifestyle as a predictable, perpetual cycle that leads the practitioner nowhere (Chapter 2). Siddhartha then describes asceticism explicitly like a drug, comparing meditation and fasting to drinking and gambling. Asceticism is "a short escape of the agony of being a self, it is a short numbing of the senses against the pain and the pointlessness of life," (Chapter 2). Siddhartha notes that the "same escape, the same short numbing is what the driver of an ox-cart finds in the inn, drinking a few bowls of rice-wine or fermented coconut-milk," (Chapter 2). Asceticism is similar to anorexia, a self-imposed starvation imposed as a means to escape from the world. or, as Miles puts it, "When we try to understand asceticism we have to overcome a stereotype of the emaciated ascetic with the tortured face of a determined but inexperienced jogger."

His realization of the limitations of asceticism is more important than the meditations themselves. Siddhartha's wisdom grows when he admits that giving up the world is no different from indulging it. The former Brahman knows that a Middle Path is the most challenging one: to learn how to live in the world but not of it becomes Siddhartha's new spiritual goal. Gotama gives Govinda what he is looking for but not Siddhartha, who sees in Gotama another unnecessary obstacle. As a guru, Gotama is one who can lead seekers to truth. At the same time, Gotama becomes an obstacle for Siddhartha. Hesse first describes Gotama as a "myth," suggesting that the Buddha is not the ultimate answer. Siddhartha admits to Govinda too that "in my heart I believe that we've already tasted the best fruit of these teachings," (Chapter 2). The Buddha is an obstacle on the path toward Enlightenment; the Buddha is a symbol of the goal and not the goal itself.