Siddhartha

These winter red holly berries are growing everywhere around our apartment,picked some when I went for a walk. Was not sure what to do with them, put them in a tiny vase. Kinda cute non?
I was so smitten when I read Siddhartha by Herman hesse, I walked one and half miles to buy all his other works(I walked, not because I did not know how to drive the damn car, but because I thought I was also on a path like siddhartha was in this story). Yeah, thats right.. I am a weak character, I become the characters from the book I am reading, I like the most horrible movies if the crowd I am watching with likes it....did I just get off on my narcissistic track here? okay. Siddhartha, Very taken by Hesse's writing, I walked to the Barnes and Nobles. 

That day I brought 'Demian', 'Steppen wolf' and 'The glass bead game' . I loved Demian and The glass bead game but could not relate to steppen wolf. Even though they say that 'The glass bead game' is his Magnum opus I disagree, I think Siddhartha is his best works ever. 

I challenge them to reconsider Siddhartha.

and when I challenge, the noble prize committee, they take it very seriously. okay we are getting a little distracted here again.

Coming back to Herman Hesse, I worshipped him so much, I read every book,article,essay he wrote.

Now about Siddhartha, about which I actually sat down to write about.

This book had a poetic,meditative effective on me. It would make richard bach and his seagull look like a cheap knock off any time of the week. It would not take more than a couple of hours to read this book, but it consumed more of my time, since I found myself stopping after each chapter, deeply thinking what just happened and how it related to me.

No matter how I try, I cannot describe the magical writing of herman hesse, here is some excerpt :

"By this river I want to stay,  thought Siddhartha, it is the same which I have crossed a long time ago on my way to the childlike people, a friendly ferryman had guided me then, he is the one I want to go to, starting out from his hut, my  path had led me at that time into a new life, which had now grown old and is dead - my present path, my present new life, shall also take its start there!

Tenderly, he looked into the rushing water, into the transparent green, into the crystal lines of its drawing,so rich in secrets. Bright pearls he saw rising from the deep, quite bubbles of air floating on the reflecting surface, the blue of the sky being depicted in it. With a thousand eyes, the river looked at him, with green ones,with white ones, with crystal ones, with sky-blue ones.

How did he love this water, how did it delight him, how grateful was he to it! In his heart he heard the voice talking, which was newly awaking, and it told him: Love this water! Stay near it! Learn from it! Oh yes, he wanted to learn from it, he wanted to listen to it. He who would understand this water and its secrets, so it seemed to him, would also understand many other things, many secrets, all secrets.

But out of all secrets of the river, he today only saw one, this one touched his soul. He saw: this water ran and ran, incessantly it ran, and was nevertheless always there, was always at all times the same and yet new in every moment! Great be he who would grasp this, understand this! He understood and grasped it not, only felt some idea of it stirring, a distant memory, divine voices."

You can read the e-book here.