Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Siddhartha

'Siddhartha' is one of my favourite books. I've read it a few times already yet everytime I read it, I discover something I did not see earlier.

One of my favourite parts of the book is towards the end when Siddhartha's friend, Govinda meets him while crossing the river. A great disciple of the Enlightened Gotama, Govinda discloses that though he has searched all his life, he has still not achieved his goal of Realisation. When he asks Siddhartha for the secret of his Peace, Siddhartha gives this brilliant reply.

'When someone is seeking, it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worth one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.'

If this little excerpt has intrigued you and you haven't read 'Siddhartha' by Hermann Hesse, you're missing out on the read of a lifetime. To know more, here's the Wiki entry for Siddhartha

6 comments:

Satandit said...

Ajeya...my dear..I can see how well you are relating to the exerpt..its kinda like how you are feeling nowadays...I did read the book, and the funny part is I got ready to blog about it when I came online today - And read your post...eeerily coincidental huh ??

Hugsss

ramblingmuse said...

Ok, this one hits home for a 'seeker' like myself. I might check out this book. It reminds me of what the teacher wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes:
2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless."
We seek so long and hard for meaning, but maybe there really isn't any and this really is as good as it gets!

Ajeya said...

satandit... scary huh? :) some sort of synergistic thinking going on. and yeah, it is how I'm feeling these days.

RM... honestly, i've been a seeker from since I was in high school. I spent a year at an ashram, what you might call a seminary but not exactly like it, immediately after 12th grade. and since then i've been searching for it outside of me. and it just isn't there. i really think this is as good as it gets

Alexys Fairfield said...

I have known about Siddhartha for years, never got around to reading it, but it is on my reading list.

Queenmatrai said...

Hows work going?

noojes

Ajeya said...

noojes... thx for asking. the new job hasn't started yet. i start on thurs.