Monday, January 7, 2013

Siddhartha


Passage:

Siddhartha answered: "How old, would you think, is our oldest Samana, our venerable teacher?"

Quoth Govinda: "Our oldest one might be about sixty years of age."

And Siddhartha: "He has lived for sixty years and has not reached the nirvana. He'll turn seventy and eighty, and you and me, we will grow just as old and will do our exercises, and will fast, and will meditate. But we will not reach the nirvana, he won't and we won't. Oh Govinda, I believe out of all the Samanas out there, perhaps not a single one, not a single one, will reach the nirvana. We find comfort, we find numbness, we learn feats, to deceive others. But the most important thing, the path of paths, we will not find."

Interpretation:

This passage seemed to be my favorite because of Siddhartha's cynical and pessimistic outlook on how his people train as Samanas to achieve nirvana. Although he has some doubt, he doesn't disregard the meaning of his faith, but does question the traditional practices that have long been overdue for change. He mentions the long amount of time spent meditating, fasting, and exercising which leads only to failure of nirvana. He is merely trying to think of alternative methods that he and others could practice to reach their ultimate goal of nirvana. He seems hopeless though because he doesn't have the answers which is why he's questioning his current techniques of repetition to no avail. He mentions the path of paths which represents the only possible way to achieve nirvana, but he doesn't believe one exists at the moment. He doubts himself and his peers, but this is the foreshadowing clue which leads to his experience with Buddha and nirvana later in the story. This passage is very Nihilistic in the sense that he's a contrarian to his own beliefs and is skeptical of his own faith. He is against following the practices that have shown time and time again failure upon failure even for those who grow old and die. He wants to see a change. Siddhartha seems to ridicule and forsake his teacher by saying that all the time spent devoted to praying is worthless and is only deceiving others into believing their doing something meaningful and worthwhile, but in reality it is all a waste of time if they don't attain nirvana. It is a very harsh thing to say to one's mentor, but it is a perfectly valid argument. Siddhartha found no value in what he and his colleagues were doing.

I chose this passage because of Siddhartha's resilient antics and questionable state of mind which he confronts bluntly to his teacher about everything they are doing and why. I liked the boldness and honesty of Siddhartha in this passage. I personally love when things are questioned because finding validity and an understanding for everything is worth knowing instead of just believing everything we are told. The best way I can describe this is like when something gets popular and a bandwagon is created, but no one dares to ask why and everyone joins in on conformity. Clarity matters in every aspect of life.

No comments:

Post a Comment