For a long time, this book ‘Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse’ was on my must-read list and I finally did read it, recently. I usually do not read books to change my thinking but only to know of a perspective; to gain a thread through which I can think and form an opinion. Probably that is a reason why I am not a great fan of self-help books like “You can win”, “How to win friends” genre or biographies, like “Iacocca”.

Anyway I am not here to review the book Siddhartha. I am here to put forth what I loved about it – ideas so simple and powerful. For instance, the most powerful sentence when a rich merchant asks Siddhartha what he knows to be employed. Siddhartha answers - “I can think. I can wait. I can fast." Just three attributes that can make a man achieve all that he wants to – in whatever stream of endeavor.

When I read it, my immediate impression, I can understand Thinking and Waiting but Fasting? Siddhartha answers - "It is very good, sir. When a person has nothing to eat, fasting is the smartest thing he could do. When, for example, Siddhartha hadn"t learned to fast, he would have to accept any kind of service before this day is up, whether it may be with you or wherever, because hunger would force him to do so. But like this, Siddhartha can wait calmly, he knows no impatience, he knows no emergency, for a long time he can allow hunger to besiege him and can laugh about it. This, sir, is what fasting is good for."

Apart from multiple such beautiful sentences, here is a summary of why I loved the book. This is the final perspective presented which is what reflects my thoughts about life.

Siddhartha bent down, picked up a stone from the ground, and weighed it in his hand.

"This," he said playing with it, "is a stone, and will, after a certain time, perhaps turn into soil, and will turn from soil into a plant or animal or human being. In the past, I would have said: This stone is just a stone, it is worthless, it belongs to the world of the Maya; but because it might be able to become also a human being and a spirit in the cycle of transformations, therefore I also grant it importance. Thus, I would perhaps have thought in the past. But today I think: this stone is a stone, it is also animal, it is also god, it is also Buddha, I do not venerate and love it because it could turn into this or that, but rather because it is already and always everything-- and it is this very fact, that it is a stone, that it appears to me now and today as a stone, this is why I love it and see worth and purpose in each of its veins and cavities, in the yellow, in the gray, in the hardness, in the sound it makes when I knock at it, in the dryness or wetness of its surface. There are stones which feel like oil or soap, and others like
leaves, others like sand, and everyone is special and prays the Om in its own way, each one is Brahman, but simultaneously and just as much it is a stone, is oily or juicy, and this is this very fact which I like and regard as wonderful and worthy of worship. But let me speak no more of this. The words are not good for the secret meaning, everything always becomes a bit different, as soon as it is put into words, gets distorted a bit, a bit silly--yes, and this is also very good, and I like it a lot, I also
very much agree with this, that what is one man"s treasure and wisdom always sounds like foolishness to another person.”

I have read that paragraph innumerable number of times now – every time I read it, I feel it contains everything that I am searching for. It defines a goal of a feeling that I have to reach and constantly want to be with all the time. That paragraph seems to contain every thread I thought through, listened to and experienced ever: Of Space-Time Warps and Singularity in black holes, Time collapse as in power of Now to myriad inspirations that prick human spirit to produce works of outstanding artistic quality, of free will, of respect for nature, of love for fellow humans, of Advaitha to the religious and moral stories my mother taught me as a kid – of a brahman being asked to eat meat and of a prostitute who attained Nirvana – Everything.

I cannot write more about it. I don’t want to - for more words would only spoil the beauty of it and as Siddhartha said – “What is one man"s treasure and wisdom always sounds like foolishness to another person” And I am sure, it would mean different things to each of you too, a reason why I shared this with you.