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Siddhartha is a novel written by Hermann Hesse that explores the journey of self-discovery and spiritual enlightenment. The book follows the life of Siddhartha, a young man who embarks on a quest to find true meaning and purpose in life. With its timeless themes and thought-provoking philosophy, Siddhartha has inspired countless essays and discussions in academic settings. If you are looking for inspiration for your own Siddhartha essay, look no further. Here are 115 Siddhartha essay topic ideas and examples to get you started:

• The theme of self-discovery in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's journey towards enlightenment
• The significance of the river in Siddhartha
• The role of nature in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's quest for spiritual fulfillment
• Siddhartha's relationship with Govinda
• The influence of the Buddha on Siddhartha's journey
• Siddhartha's rejection of material wealth
• The concept of unity in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's search for inner peace
• The symbolism of the ferryman in Siddhartha
• The contrast between Siddhartha and his father
• The importance of love in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's struggle with desire
• The theme of rebirth in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's encounter with Kamala
• The role of suffering in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's rejection of the teachings of the Samanas
• The influence of the river on Siddhartha's spiritual awakening
• The significance of the om in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's realization of the interconnectedness of all things
• The symbolism of the lotus flower in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's rejection of traditional religion
• The theme of detachment in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's search for enlightenment through meditation
• The symbolism of the shadow in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's rejection of the material world
• The role of suffering in Siddhartha's spiritual growth
• Siddhartha's realization of the impermanence of life
• The symbolism of the wheel of life in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's rejection of societal norms
• The theme of duality in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's rejection of the teachings of the Brahmins
• The role of the river in Siddhartha's spiritual awakening
• Siddhartha's realization of the unity of all things
• The symbolism of the bird in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's search for enlightenment through self-denial
• The significance of the forest in Siddhartha
• Siddhartha's realization of the interconnectedness of all beings
• The role of the river in Siddhartha's spiritual growth

These 115 Siddhartha essay topic ideas and examples cover a wide range of themes and concepts found in the novel. Whether you are interested in exploring Siddhartha's journey towards enlightenment, the symbolism of the river, or the significance of self-discovery, there is plenty of material to inspire your own essay. Happy writing!

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49 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 2, Chapters 5-7

Part 2, Chapters 8-12

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Why do you think Siddhartha became very popular in the 1960s amongst young Westerners who were seeking alternatives to the culture and way of thinking of their parents’ and previous generations?

To what extent is it true to say that the river in Siddhartha is itself a character in the book?

What questions and ideas does Hesse raise about education and learning in Siddhartha?

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Most Interesting Siddhartha Topics to Write About

• The Timelessness and the Cyclic Nature of Life in the Novel Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
• The Symbol of the River in Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
• The Themes and Motifs of Time, Love, and Morality in Siddhartha, a Novel by Herman Hesse
• The Four Noble Truths in Siddhartha’s Journey to Self-Enlightenment
• The Philosophy in a Novel Siddhartha About a Life of a Man Named Siddhartha
• Uniting Mind, Body, and Spirit in Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha
• The Symbolic Use of Rivers Towards Enlightenment in the Divine Comedy and Siddhartha
• The Spiritual Journeys of Siddhartha and Jed Cavalcanti in Castello Cavalcanti Greatly Differ
• The Power of the River in Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha
• The Mythemes and Literary Devices Used in Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
• Hesse’s Siddhartha as It Parallels Maslow’s Hierarchy of Demands
• The Search for Enlightenment in Siddhartha, by Hermann
• The Similarities and Differences between Jesus Christ and Siddhartha Gautama
• Internal Conflict in Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha
• Comparing the Theme of Self Discovery in Demian and Siddhartha
• Different Paths of Enlightenment in Siddhartha by Herman

Good Research Topics About Siddhartha

• The Path of Enlightenment and the Philosophy of Truth in Siddhartha, a Novel by Hermann Hesse
• The Use of Hesse Siddhartha to Reflect the Legendary Atmosphere of Buddha
• The Concept of Choosing a Dangerous Path Over Subjugation in the Novel Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
• The Evil Disease of Cancer as Portrayed in the Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
• The Impact of Choices on Spirituality in Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha
• The Differences of Suffering in Siddhartha and in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
• The Teachers in the Book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
• Buddhism and the Life of Siddhartha Gautama or Buddha
• Govinda’s Importance in Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
• The Life and Journey to Enlightenment of Gautama Siddhartha
• The Search for Wisdom in Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse
• The Reasons Why Philosophy Is Important in Siddhartha and in Our Daily Lives
• The Siddhartha’s Journey Definition in the Dao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
• The Importance of Surroundings in Siddhartha by Herman Hesse and the Stranger by Albert Camus
• The Crucible by Arthur Miller and the Novel Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
• The Spiritual Enlightenment in Siddhartha, a Book by Hermann Hesse
• Finding Enlightenment in Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha
• Hermann Hesse’s Disillusionment with Society Revealed in Siddhartha
• The Role of Teachers in Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha
• The Lives of Confucius and Guatama Siddhartha
• Enlightenment and Siddhartha’s Reunion with Vasudeva

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Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse Essay

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Characters and Theme

Works cited.

The work was written in 1922 in Germany just after the First World War, which brought a lot of trouble to the Germans. After this war, they felt unfairly humiliated and decided to take revenge, which happened a few years later. Hate turned out to be cruel, and in the meantime, a writer like Hesse preached in his book the love of everything. After all, everything that surrounds people is all of them, and this is a series of reincarnations called Samsara. However, the Germans preferred to indulge in human passions and sorrows than to delve into an alien religion – Buddhism. The work is not religious literature, no, but it contains many references relevant to this topic.

The main character of the given adventure and self-discovery story is Siddhartha. This is a young man who decided to go in search of his “I” because he wished to know the essence of the world and acquire wisdom. The story clearly outlines that he is highly patient, smart, and he is used to severe hardship. For instance, the main character says: “The sinner, which I am and which you are, is a sinner, but in times to come he will be Brahma again, he will reach the Nirvana, will be Buddha—and now see: these “times to come” are a deception, are only a parable!” (Hesse 149). It is critical to note that indeed – he devotes his thoughts to his whole life, which cannot be said about the people around him. Hesse endowed the protagonist with his worldview, which even Buddha cannot influence. In the seemingly constant desire to achieve the ideal of Hesse, overheating is laid, as a result of which the main character instead of spiritual searches indulges in a worldly fuss. Thus, it is essential to note the fact that the given self-discovery journey is the manifestation of Siddhartha’s philosophical development.

The work tells how Siddhartha goes through a series of reincarnations. To do this, he does not even need to die in the natural (biological) sense of the word. The main character tries different roles and tries to find himself among them. He understands that he is different from other people. He is sometimes sorry that he cannot live with passions like other people. However, he tirelessly seeks his path, the truth, to which he must necessarily go on his own. That is why he does not accept single teaching on faith. He meets different people on his way, gets confused, almost decides to commit suicide, but in the end comes to new thoughts, conclusions. He begins to learn from the river – that infinite power that seethes in its depths.

He smuggles many people from one coast to another, plunges into many lives through their stories. In fact, this is a solid description – how a person learns from the river, begins to relate differently to people’s stories. It takes a very long time to think about it. Moreover, the result of these searches is the enlightenment of the hero, he himself becomes a Buddha who has cognized the world and, most importantly, himself. He looks back – and sees all his rebirths, all his guises (Kumar 14). The line between the past, the future is erased, and in fact, there is nothing but a sense of unity.

An analysis of this work by Hesse reveals the figurative and value components of the concepts of spirit and soul in a complex picture of the writer’s world. The idea of vision is attributed to specifically expressed value characteristics. The essence contains the cognitive activity of man, and it is his intellect. Hesse saw the difficult paths of the formation of human mental activity, showed puzzling constructions of a contradictory organized human soul.

Hesse in the novel calls to love life in all its manifestations, to live without seeking the meaning of life. In general, an analysis of the works of Hesse allows concluding that the author turns to Indian spirituality due to a crisis of spirituality in Western society. The Western world has become less interested in the ideas of “Truth,” “Good,” and “Beauty” (Sinha 72). For example, the main character says: “I wish that you would go this path up to its end, that you shall find salvation” (Hesse 34). Castalia has ceased to be a full part of the big world. Hesse gave this phenomenon the name “feuilleton era,” the main features of which are adherence to deep individualism and philistinism, the loss of thought of its purity and acuity, the dominance of mass culture and consumer society. However, on the other hand, in the formed conditions of cultural disorder, an irresistible thirst is born to think again, to establish order, to speak the same language again, to return to good morals, to unshakable foundations that cannot be subordinated to anyone and are not prone to frivolous change.

Therefore, Hesse postulates the primacy of the value of spiritual life. At the same time, he believes that the intellectual elite should not be locked in its imaginary world, it should change this world in terms of morality, morality, and culture ( Study Guide 31). Indian spirituality is attractive with a wise and sensitive attitude of mentors to the moral education of their students, a desire to discover and develop their abilities and spiritual aspirations, to carefully help with doubts in various matters of life. Spiritual knowledge must go along with the practice of life, with experience, only he improves the person.

In conclusion, it is plausible to assume that by solving the problem of Hesse how to combine the existence of art with the presence of inhuman civilization, how to protect the great world of art from the destructive influence of mass culture, it concludes that the desire to create art outside of society turns art into a pointless, aimless game. An important feature in the action of the game principle is the social ideals of the community, revealing the spiritual life of people. At specific moments in history, the game plays the role of a dramatic basis in the realization of a higher social plot, social and moral idea. Social ideals undoubtedly include a lot of play, since they are combined with the realm of fantasy, dream, utopian representations and can only be shown in the play space of culture. In accordance with the concept, entire eras “play” the embodiment of the ideal, for example, the Renaissance culture, which tended to revive the ideals of antiquity, and not to create fundamentally new, its own landmarks.

Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha . New Directions, 1952.

Kumar, Raman. “Dialectic of Being and Becoming in Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha.” The Achievers Journal , vol. 2, no. 4, 2016, pp. 1–19.

Sinha, Rohit. “Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.” NHRD Network Journal , vol. 9, no. 3, 2016, pp. 71–73.

Study Guide for Hermann Hesse’s “Steppenwolf” . Gale, Cengage Learning, 2016.

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IvyPanda. (2019, December 3). Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. https://ivypanda.com/essays/siddhartha-by-hermann-hesse/

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by Hermann Hesse

Siddhartha summary and analysis of part i.

Part One: Siddhartha

The Brahmins Son

Siddhartha, the son of a Brahmin (a Hindu Priest), and his best friend, Govinda , have grown up learning the ways of the Brahmins. Everyone in their village loves Siddhartha. But although he brings joy to everyone's life, Siddhartha feels little joy himself. He is troubled by restless dreams and begins to wonder if he has learned all that his father and the other Brahmins can teach him. As Hesse says, "...they had already poured the sum total of their knowledge into his waiting vessel; and the vessel was not full, his intellect was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace, his heart was not still" (5).

Siddhartha is dissatisfied with the Brahmans because despite their knowledge, the Brahmins are seekers still, performing the same exercises again and again in order to reach their goal‹Nirvana: the peace of oneness with Atman the Divine within‹without ever finding it. But if Atman is within, then oneness with it must proceed by focusing on the world within. As Siddhartha says, "One must find the source within one's Self, one must possess it. Everythig else was seeking‹a detour, error" (7). It is Siddhartha's search for this new path that leads him to the ascetic Samanas.

When Siddhartha announces his intention to join the Samanas, his father becomes very upset and forbids Siddhartha's departure. In respectful defiance, Siddhartha does not move. His frustrated father leaves him, gazing out of his window periodically to see if Siddhartha has left. The obstinate youth, though, remains motionless. Night passes. In the morning, Siddhartha's father returns to his intransigent son and realizes that while Siddhartha's body remains is present, his mind had already departed. Siddhartha's father acquiesces to his son's wishes and allows him to leave, reminded him that he is welcome back should he find disillusionment with the Samanas. Govinda joins Siddhartha as they disappear into the forest in search of the Samanas.

With the Samanas

As Samanas, Siddhartha and Govinda relinquish all their possessions and dedicate themselves to meditation, fasting, and other methods of mortification. As a result of this, the normal human world becomes anathema to Siddhartha. It is all illusory and destined to decay, leaving those who treasure it in great pain. With the Samanas, "Siddhartha had one goal - to become empty, to become empty of thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure, and sorrow‹to let the Self die" (14). His path to self-negation was through physical pain, pain he endured until he no longer felt it as pain. When pain is gone, the Self fades into oblivion and peace is attained. But while pain became a memory for Siddhartha, peace did not come.

After having been with the Samanas for some time, Siddhartha expresses concern that he is no closer to his goal than he was before joining the Samanas. Govinda replies that while they have grown in spirit, they still have much to learn. In response, Siddhartha derisively comparesthe Samanas' life to that of a drunkard, a series of temporary respites from the pains of existence. Ultimately, Siddhartha reasons, one cannot really learn anything from teachers or the doctrines they espouse. As Siddhartha tells Govinda, "There is, my friend, only a knowledge‹that is everywhere, that is Ataman, that is in me and you and every creature, and I am beginning to believe that this knowledge has no worse enemy than the man of knowledge, than learning" (19). Siddhartha is unsettled by the implications of his thoughts but feels certain that the Samanas have nothing for to teach him. For this reason, Siddhartha declares that he will leave the Samanas soon.

Three years after joining the Samanas, Siddhartha and Govinda hear intriguing rumors of a great man, Goatama, the Buddha, who, having attained enlightenment, teaches others the way to peace. Govinda is immediately entranced by this tale and tells Siddhartha of his intent to seek out Goatama. Siddhartha, surprised by Govinda's uncharacteristic initiative, wishes his friend well. Govinda, though, wishes Siddhartha to seek the Buddha with him. Siddhartha expresses his doubt that anything new can be learned from this man, but surrenders to Govinda's enthusiasm and agrees to go. The leaders of the Samanas scolds Siddhartha and Govinda for their departure. Siddhartha then demonstrates his mastery of the Samana ways by hypnotizing the old master.

Siddhartha and Govinda travel to Savathi, where they discover that the Buddha is staying in Jetavana, in the garden of Anathapindika. Arriving in Jetavana, Siddhartha recognizes Goatama immediately despite his nondescript dress: "he wore his gown and walked along exactly like the other monks, but his face and his step...spoke of peace, spoke of completeness,...an unfading light, an invulnerable peace."(28). And while Siddhartha is not terribly interested in what the Buddha has to say, he is completely taken with the Buddha's demeanor.

The two men hear Gotama's sermon, after which Govinda announces his intention to join in Goatama's discipleship. Siddhartha commends Govinda for his decision, but says that he will not join up. Govinda asks Siddhartha what fault he finds in the Buddha's program that makes him resist pledging his allegiance. Siddhartha says that he finds no fault; he just does not want to join. The next day Govinda takes his monk's robe and bids Siddhartha a sad farewell.

As Siddhartha is leaving, he runs into Goatama in the woods and questions the Buddha about his teachings. Siddhartha compliments the theoretical coherence of Gotama's worldview, the ultimate unity of creation and the incessant chain of causes and effects, but remarks that Goatama's doctrine of salvation, the transcendence of causation, calls into question the consistency of his position. Goatama responds by saying that he goal of his teaching is not "to explain the world to those who are thirsty for knowledge. It's goal is quite different; its goal is salvation from suffering. That is what Goatama teaches, nothing else" (33). Siddhartha, afraid that he has offended the Buddha, reiterates his confidence in the Buddha's holiness, but expresses his doubt that any teaching can ever provide the learner with the experience of Nirvana. And while Gotama's path may be appropriate for some, Siddhartha says that he must take his own path, lest self-deception overtake him and he admit to Nirvana before having actually attained it. The Buddha admonishes Siddhartha to beware his own cleverness then wishes him well on his path.

As Siddhartha leaves the Buddha, he realizes that a change has overcome him: he has outgrown the desire for teachers. From teachers he had sought to discover the mystery of his Self. As Siddhartha says, "Truly, nothing in the world has occupied my thoughts as much as the Self, this riddle, that I live, that I am one and am separated and different from everybody else, that I am Siddhartha" (38). But in seeking this Self, Siddhartha has only succeeded in fleeing from it. He was so consumed in annihilating this Self that he had lost sight of it completely. The path to self-knowledge‹and with it a knowledge of everything: Atman and Brahman are one‹cannot proceed by listening to the voice of others. Instead, as Siddhartha puts it, "I will learn from myself, be my own pupil; I will learn from myself the secret of Siddhartha" (39).

This awakening leads to a change in Siddhartha's perception of the world. Whereas he formerly reviled the world as a painful illusion, a distraction from a submerged, unitary reality, he now sees that the value in the world of the senses. Unlike the Brahmins and Samanas who ignored the wondrous diversity of shapes and colors around them, seeking to reduce everything to the common denominator of Braham, Siddhartha became convinced that truth was in the plurality rather than the commonality of nature. As he says, "meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them" (40).

This realization set Siddhartha apart from all of his previous associations. He was no longer a Brahmin or a Samansa, and he had resisted following his friend Govinda into the Buddha's discipleship. While this consciousness of solitude was frightening, it was also exhilarating; untethered from these communities and languages of thought, Siddhartha was more himself than ever. Enlivened by this new feeling of authenticity, Siddhartha "bean to walk quickly and impatiently, no longer homewards, no longer to his father, no longer looking backwards" (42).

One of the most difficult hindrances in approaching this novel in a sophisticated manner is its use of Indian religious/philosophical concepts. Unfortunately, Hesse does not always do a good job explaining these concepts, and so Siddhartha's conflicts, which may be intelligible on an intuitive level, defy complete comprehension. Many of these concepts are invoked in this first chapter, and so I will take the opportunity here to explicate some of the most significant of these. It should be said, though, that this is not an authoritative elaboration of these concepts. As within any vibrant religious or philosophical tradition, there is a diversity of opinions on even central issues. The picture presented here is meant only to provide the reader with enough background to appreciate the context in which Siddhartha's life is lived.

Although Buddhist inventions become more significant as the book progresses, Siddhartha, and Buddhism generally, take Hinduism as their starting point. Hinduism is at its core a pantheistic religion in that it holds that, despite appearances, the Divine, Brahman, is ultimately indistinguishable from its creation. The world is not just suffused with the Divine, it is actually is the Divine. This is as true of human beings as it is of every other aspect of Nature. The aspect of the Divine which resides in humans is called Atman; it is not that this Atman is an incomplete piece of Brahman, and that if one were to take the sum of the Divine in all things one would constitute the whole of Brahman. Brahman is indivisible, and so Atman is just the name we apply to Brahman in ourselves.

The phenomenal world which we daily experience is called Maya. Ultimately, this world is an illusion, an elaborate costume which covers the essence of Absolute Reality, Brahman, which, unnoticed, animates everything. Importantly, our subjective selves, our egos, are Maya as well. For reasons unknown to us, our Atman enters the cycle of birth and rebirth, Samsara, advancing through a series of lives, from unconsciousness, to consciousness, to self-consciousness. Self-consciousness results in the development of the ego, but it does not terminate there. As we are not really our ego but are Atman-Brahman, we are not fully self-conscious until we identify ourselves with our true natures. It is this realization which liberates us from the cycle of rebirth, a liberation, Mukti, which dissolves our individuality and reunites us the totality of being from which we sprang.

Siddhartha is the son of a Brahmin, a Hindu priest. According to the Hindic concept of Karma, our condition in our present life is the direct result of our actions in our previous lives. Being born a Brahmin means that one's soul, jiva, is nearing the end of its journey of self-consciousness, its journey to itself. As a Brahmin, Siddhartha's role in life is to work single-mindedly on achieving Nirvana, oneness with Brahman. It is this quest which we watch Siddhartha follow throughout the novel.

We are told that Siddhartha is exceptionally skilled in the Brahmin's art. He knows how to meditate on the mantra, Om, the most sacred, and recognizes the Atman within himself. He has, we are told, learned all that the Brahmins can teach, yet he still feels unsatisfied, the peace of Nirvana still alludes him. Moreover, he has never seen nor heard of any Brahmin who has reached Nirvana. If Nirvana is oneness with Brahman and Brahman is Atman, then the path to the Nirvana must proceed inward; all other paths, all other activities, including the path of the Brahmin must be distractions. It is for this reason that Siddhartha joins the Samanas, hoping that their focus on self-purification will better direct him to Atman and to Nirvana.

This brings out two important thematic issues to consider when reading the novel. First, the relationship between the actual practice of Hinduism and the beliefs and attitudes espoused by Hesse's Siddhartha. Hinduism, in theory at least, is an extraordinarily tolerant religion, asserting that that are many different ways one can approach the Divine. Which way appeals to each person depends on the person; no path is ultimately better than another. There is a definite sense in which Siddhartha's denunciation of Brahminism appears more than merely an acknowledgment that it doesn't quite work for himself. By noting that he has known no Brahmin who has achieved Nirvana, Siddhartha seems to be saying that Brahminism will not lead to Nirvana. Such universal claims may fit the tenor of Hesse's universal exhortation to self-awareness‹Siddhartha is supposed to be an Indian Everyman‹but they do not represent the perspective of Hinduism.

Second, there is a tension between two of Siddhartha's pursuits, discovering what is true of the world and finding a life of absolute peace. It seems at this point that Siddhartha is conflating these two: that which is true will bring peace. This is underscored by the fact that Siddhartha's lack of peace is regularly explicated in terms of his being "thirsty for knowledge" (4). Perhaps knowledge will not bring peace. Perhaps peace does not rely on knowledge. These concerns are taken up at greater length later in the novel.

It is also important to see how the life of Siddhartha is meant to parallel the life of the Buddha, referred to in the novel only by his last name, Goatama. (Siddhartha is also the Buddha's first name). Though the Buddha was born a prince and not a Brahmin, he was also possessed of things which make an earthly life easier, including precocious intelligence and a fine physical form. (Hesse tells us, "Love stirred in the hearts of the young Brahmins' daughters when Siddhartha walked through the streets of the town, with his lofty brow, his king-like eyes and his slim figure" (4)). Despite these traits, both men dedicated themselves to a religious/philosophical life. Drawing such parallelism between Siddhartha and the Buddha is a way of foreshadowing the general direction of Siddhartha's path. A full scale comparison between the two men is not necessary to understand the novel, but one should be aware of the intentional similarities. (For those who wish to know more, a good resource on the life of the Buddha is Paul Carus' The Gospel of the Buddha).

In terms of actual writing, Hesse's language is remarkably simple. Take the first sentence for example: "In the shade of the house, in the sunshine on the river bank by the boats, in the shade of the sallow wood and the fig tree, Siddhartha, the handsome Brahmin's son, grew up with his friend Govinda" (3). The sentence structure is uncomplicated, just a string of descriptions linked list-like by commas. The descriptions too are straightforward, using common images, which, while simple, conjure clear and potent mental pictures, words like Œshade,' Œsunshine,' and Œriver.' This style contrasts powerfully with the complex, abstract concepts which Hesse attempts to convey. This combination, though, helps give a religious tone to the writing, highlighted by the repeated allusions to Hindu holy books, notably the Upanishads and the Rig Veda. This is underscored by the commandment-like punctuation and syntax of the novel, setting certain statements apart from the writing with a colon. For example, "In the evening, after the hour of contemplation, Siddhartha said to Govinda: ŒTomorrow morning, by friend, Siddhartha is going to join the Samansas. He is going to become a Samansa" (9). The use of the third person in self-referential utterances‹ironic in a novel which is ostensibly about self-awareness‹ also provides an objectivity to the novelistic voice which makes it seem more religious, almost allegorical or parable-like.

This allegorical quality is further developed by the novel's use of somewhat hyperbolic though picturesque images to depict ordinary events like the passage of time: "The Brahmin was silent so long that the stars passed across the small window and changed their design before the silence in the room was finally broken" (10). In addition, the rather flat characterization of the protagonists heightens the impersonal symbolism of Siddhartha's journey; it is as if we are given just enough of Siddhartha's personality to identify with his quest, but not enough to fill him out as a realistic character. Indeed, even those circumstances in which Siddhartha seems to be distracted from his goal, circumstances in which he seems the most human, are transformed into educational experiences, necessary for his eventual enlightenment. Hesse's use of narrative repetition, as with Siddhartha's father's repeatedly checking on his obstinate son throughout the night, also lends the novel an allegorical air, an air which, while providing rich and interesting details, also raises the story above the local and announces an intention to provide a lesson valuable to all readers.

Siddhartha's time with the Samanas marks the first leg of his spiritual quest. As an ascetic, Siddhartha sheds all of his possessions and practices mortification of the flesh in the service of his "one goal‹to become empty, to become empty of thirst, desire, pleasure, and sorrow‹to let the Self die" (14). This brings out an interesting paradox in Siddhartha's journey. He leaves the Brahmins because he does not believe that their path will lead him to himself, to Atman. Yet with the Samansas, Siddhartha wants "no longer to be Self, to experience the peace of an emptied heart" (14). How are these two goals reconcilable? The answer relies on the particular conception of selfhood Siddhartha employs.

The Self can be divided into two basic components, the ego and the Atman. The ego is the consciousness which differentiates an individual from all other things. The Atman, as we have seen, is the consciousness which unites an individual with all other things. Ego is Maya and diversity is an illusion; underlying all individuation in form is a great unity, Brahman. Becoming empty of thirst, desires, pleasure, and sorrow means not identifying oneself with the ego, the seat of thirst, desires, pleasure, and sorrow. Instead of ego, one identifies oneself with Atman and so loses the differentiation which ego provides. This is what Hesse means when he says that "when all the Self was conquered and dead, when all passions and desires were silent, then the last must awaken, the innermost of Being which is no longer Self" (14).

The effect this desire to be rid of Self has on Siddhartha is very interesting. We are told that Siddhartha saw the various aspects of ordinary human life as "not worth a passing glance,....[E]verything lied, stank of lies; they were illusions of sense, happiness, and beauty. All were doomed to decay. The world tasted bitter. Life was pain" (14). This is a curious thing to say since not all ordinary life‹Siddhartha includes lovers making love and mothers soothing their children as aspects of ordinary life‹is filled with pain. What is the source of such a pessimistic generalization? It seems to be the fact of ephemerality, the fact that all pleasures which rely on external things, including other people, will ultimately end. Does this simple realization of finitude merit that attitude encompassed in the declaration that "Life was pain."? In other words, is denying the reality of the ephemeral world and the ego that participates in it the best way to preclude the pain?

This question again raises a concern about a theme discussed previously, the relationship between the search for truth and the truth for peace. Put in these terms, the question becomes, do we posit a reality beyond the ego only to escape the pains of finitude, or do we deny the ego because we know that there is a reality beyond it which more truthfully represents our nature? This issues comes to a head in the next chapter when Siddhartha speaks to the Buddha. At the present, though, it is unclear where Siddhartha's answer would be.

Another important question is why the path of Samanas does not allow Siddhartha to reach his goal. We are told that "he slipped out of his Self in a thousand different forms. He was animal, carcass, stone, wood, water, and each time he reawakened" (15). Why? The answer seems to be that he has been relying on the teachings of others to guide him. As with the Brahmins, Siddhartha knows of no Samana who has actually attained Nirvana. Where Govinda pleads that they still have much to learn from their teachers, Siddhartha repudiates teaching altogether. Siddhartha hypothesizes that the path to the Self must be self-directed; Atman directs itself to itself.

It is in the midst of this disillusionment with teachers that The Buddha appears on the scene. His arrival is the sort of turn of events which might seem a cheap contrivance in a regular novel, but in a allegorical work such as this, its occurrence in an instance of the novel's moral structure. Just when Siddhartha loses faith in instruction because none of his instructors have actually achieved the goal towards which they direct others, an instructor who has achieved the goal appears. Thus, Siddhartha and Govinda's departure to meet the Buddha seems preordained, an appropriate seeming for an allegory. Also preordained is Govinda's conflicts with Siddhartha, the former in favor of orthodoxy and learning from others while the latter favors the iconoclasm of self-teaching. It is, after all, Govinda who suggests the trip to see the Buddha. This trait of Govinda's makes Siddhartha's comments about Govinda's independence ironic.

The above conflict is an instance of the constant juxtaposition between Siddhartha and Govinda in the novel. The latter is a foil to the former, allowing Hesse to highlight the unique qualities of Siddhartha by contrasting him with Govinda. As these two friends begin the novel at approximately the same point in their spiritual journey, their later differences help emphasize just how Siddhartha has come. This significance of this juxtaposition to the novel generally is demonstrated by Govinda's reappearance in the novel whenever Siddhartha ends one phase of his life to begin another. Also, it might be said that juxtaposition characterizes the form of the novel more generally as at any moment in the novel Siddhartha is defined by his battle between two opposing forces, i.e. sense and thought, Maya and Brahman, pain and peace, etc. It is his position between these poles which designates Siddhartha's progress down his path to enlightenment.

And as we are supposed to identify Siddhartha with the Buddha, there is also interesting foreshadowing of Siddhartha's own path in the early descriptions of the Buddha. We are told that "this alleged Buddha had formerly been an ascetic and had lived in the woods, [and] had then turned to high living and the pleasures of the world" (21). This is, of course, what Siddhartha does in Part II.

Siddhartha's hyponosis of the old Samana master at the end of the chapter highlights his superiority over his teachers, forcing us to conclude that if Siddhartha cannot reach Nirvana by the Samana path, it is impossible for anyone to do so. This episode allows Hesse to close off this aspect of Siddhartha's past; he truly has no more to learn from this type of life. Again, a hyperbolic, almost inhuman happening which becomes appropriate in the context of a allegory.

The unique nature of the Buddha is brought out right at the beginning of the chapter. We are told that the Buddha is resting at his favorite abode, a grove given to him by a rich merchant, a great devotee. Such an association with worldly things would surely have been avoided by the ascetic Samanas. As the Buddha is superior to the Samanas‹he has reached Nirvana while they have not‹the fact that the Buddha is not uncomfortable with worldly trappings means that the Samanas were wrong in believing that renouncing the world is the only path to salvation. This again foreshadows Siddhartha's turning to a worldly life in Part II.

Siddhartha's immediate recognition of the Buddha highlights Siddhartha's uniqueness, especially in contrast to Govinda, whom we are told recognizes the Buddha only when he is pointed out. The initial descriptions of the Buddha are important in understanding the concept of Nirvana, the goal for which Siddhartha strives. Hesse tells us that the Buddha's "peaceful countenance was neither happy nor sad," so the experience of Nirvana cannot be reduced to an emotions such as happiness (28). Rather than happy, the Buddha is content, peaceful and complete, lacking nothing: "Every finger of his hand spoke of peace, spoke of completeness, sought nothing, imitated nothing, reflected a continuos quiet, an fading light, an invulnerable peace" (28). Siddhartha's preternatural perception of all of this in the Buddha's manner speaks to the importance of this interaction between the Buddha and Siddhartha and helps explain Siddhartha's enchantment with the Buddha. "Never had Siddhartha esteemed a man so much, never had he loved a man so much" (28). It is important to recognize that this esteem and love is offered without ever hearing the Buddha speak. In fact, "[Siddhartha] was not very curious about the teachings" (28). This shift in focus from words and teachings to experiencing particular states of consciousness is very significant and sets the stage for the next stage in Siddhartha's quest.

The Buddha's actual sermon is an abbreviated allusion to Buddhism's Four Noble Truths. As Hesse puts it, "Life was pain, the world was full of suffering, but the path to the release of suffering had been found. There was salvation for those who went the way of the Buddha" (29). (It does not seem coincidental that the book is separated into two parts, part I with 4 chapters and part II with 8 chapters: there are Four Noble Truths to Buddhism and the Buddha's path to salvation is called the Eightfold path). This focus on suffering and the attainment of peace as the abolition of suffering is very important to the novel. This is central to Siddhartha's discussion with the Buddha, which forms the start of the climax of part I of the book.

There are two thematic concerns at the heart of Siddhartha and the Buddha's discussion, both of which we have discussed previously. The first relies on the relationship between seeking truth and seeking peace. To express the same point another way, the question is one of metaphysics or ethics, a question of reality, truth, and knowledge or how one should live one's life. Siddhartha tells the Buddha that his view of the universe as cause and effect, his metaphysics, is unimpeachable, but it seems to break down at a crucial point, the point at which we are able to escape from this causal chain, the point of salvation. The Buddha responds that the goal of his teaching is "not to explain the world to those who are thirsty for knowledge. Its goal is quite different; its goal is salvation from suffering. That is what Goatama teaches, nothing else" (33).

This means that the Buddha is privileging ethics over metaphysics. Finding peace from suffering is what matters, not discovering the true nature of ourselves or of the universe. This comports with the Buddhist doctrine of AnAtman, or no-soul, which denies the Hindu duality between the absolute reality of Brahman and the false reality of Maya. Given that the pain from which Siddhartha has tried to escape is specifically the pain of metaphysical ignorance, it is odd that he does not respond to the Buddha here. We will return to this question later, as it seems to be one of the unresolved issues in the novel.

Siddhartha then expresses doubt that the Buddha's teaching can ever bring someone to Nirvana. As Siddhartha says, "The teachings of the enlightened Buddha embrace much, they teach much‹how to live righteously, how to avoid evil. But there is one thing that this clear, worthy instruction does not contain; it does not contain the secret of what the Illustrious One himself experienced‹he alone among hundreds of thousands" (34). This secret, the experience of Nirvana, can only be reached by oneself. This, of course, seems true. Buddhism only tells you how to approach the goal because the nature of the goal is such that it can only be known first-personally achieved; it is a state of consciousness. For example, the fact that I cannot make you intoxicated by telling you what being intoxicated feels like does not mean that I cannot tell you how to become intoxicated yourself. Given this, Siddhartha's comments seem off the mark.

Siddhartha's commentary is really a metaphysical rather than an ethical point. Siddhartha believes that the Self as Atman will guide us through some sort of inner voice. This is why he denies the value of teachers; they distract one from this inner guide. The Buddha does not believe in the Atman, at least not in the same way, and so seems to believe that people can be taught to approach Nirvana. It is Siddhartha's metaphysics, then, his view of what the Self really is, that makes him dissatisfied with Buddhism. This is what Siddhartha is getting at when he responds that "I must judge for myself. I must choose and reject" (35). While the Buddha's path may work for some, it does not work for himself. He must follow his inner voice. If this is true, though, why does Siddhartha respond to the Buddha that there is nothing wrong with other people following his teachings. Is it that their inner voice tells them different things than Siddhartha's? How could this be if the Atman is really Brahman, the unity of all things. If their voices are the same, either they are right in following Buddha's path or Siddhartha is right in rejecting it. This problem raises tensions which are more fully developed in the next chapter.

In this final chapter of part I, Siddhartha reviews all of his experiences up to that point and comes to conclusions that will shape his future. First, he concludes that he is done with teachers. This was clear from the previous chapter. He then asks what he intended to learn from the teachers and answers that he sought to know the nature of Self. The way he expresses this is very interesting. He says, "truly nothing in the world has occupied my thoughts as much as the Self, this riddle, that I live, that I am one and am separated and different from everyone else, that I am Siddhartha" (38). This provides an enlightening interpretation of Siddhartha's quest, because it is the first time he considers the Self as a solitary unity apart from the substratum of Atman to which the ego is attached. He has sought that which unites him with all things instead of that which marks him as distinct, as Siddhartha.

Siddhartha admits this in the next paragraph, saying that "the reason why I do not know anything about myself...is due to one thing, to one single thing‹that I was afraid of myself, I was fleeing from myself. I was seeking Brahman, Atman,...the nucleus of all things....But by doing so, I lost myself on the way" (38). Yes, the view that the Self is Atman does commit one to identifying with a reality more expansive and objective than one's singular personality: that is precisely the point. That this seems as a shock to Siddhartha is surprising as his quest for the Self as Atman was made clear in the first chapter.

After this "awakening," Siddhartha commits himself to learning from himself and not search single-mindedly for Atman. While this seems a result of his previous experiences, a continuity with his previous behaviors, it is actually a radical shift, one which contrasts Siddhartha's path from any traditionally associated with Indian religion/philosophy. This concern with authenticity, being true to one's particularity, derives from a decidedly Western context, and it is in this direction that Siddhartha moves in this chapter. Moreover, it is not clear why Siddhartha makes this move. He has lost himself on the way, but it is not clear why this is bad. It was not an unexpected side-effect of his quest. It was the very heart of it. Hesse doesn't seem to make this any easier as he equivocates in his use of the term ŒSelf.' The only reason for change consistent with Siddhartha's past is that suggested by his conversation with the Buddha: his previous paths have not alleviated his suffering. This is a far cry from Siddhartha's present contention that he has failed because he has lost himself. Siddhartha's logic here seems obscure.

The effect of Siddhartha's contemplation is his denial of Hindu duality; he know longer believes that the world in which we commonly live is an illusion, Maya. As he says, "Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them" (40). Why he decides this, though, is not clear. All in all, it seems like a convenient way to conclude Siddhartha's life as a thinker, the first part of his tripartite quest. There seems to be no obvious connection between listening to one's inner voice and appreciating the diversity of the world. The voice is not necessarily any more part of the world‹and therefore sympathetic to it‹than the thought-centered Atman Siddhartha is now rejecting. In any case, Siddhartha agrees with the Buddha, and this transfiguration is meant to mirror the Buddha's awakening from under the Bodhi tree. But while the Buddha awakened to Nirvana, Siddhartha has not yet done this. Siddhartha is far from it. He is traveling another path, one brought out powerfully by the chapter's close. Somewhat surprisingly, the last two paragraphs of this chapter are a startling precursor to European Existentialism. Indeed, the sentence "At that moment, when the world around him melted away, when he stood alone like a star in the heavens, he was overwhelmed by a feeling of icy despair, but he was more firmly himself than ever," could have come from Kierkegaard or Sartre or Camus. This sense of harrowing solitude is against the deepest spiritual convictions of Indian thinkers and further underscores the extent to which Hesse is importing Western ideas into an Eastern context.

Siddhartha Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Siddhartha is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What did the supreme Buddha develop to reach enlightenment?

That would be the 4 noble truths.

Siddhartha wants to leave his privileged life for what?

He wants to seek enlightenment.

What is Siddhartha’s initial reaction to his son’s request?

He refuses his son's request to leave the home.

Study Guide for Siddhartha

Siddhartha study guide contains a biography of Hermann Hesse, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Siddhartha
• Siddhartha Summary
• Character List
• Part I Summary and Analysis
• Related Links

Essays for Siddhartha

Siddhartha literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Siddhartha.

• The Effects of Society on the Individual's Quest for Divine Understanding
• Enlightenment on the River
• Self-Discovery and Its Discontents: Siddhartha's Journey
• Family in Siddhartha
• The Different Paths

Lesson Plan for Siddhartha

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Siddhartha
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Siddhartha Bibliography

E-Text of Siddhartha

Siddhartha E-Text contains the full text of Siddhartha

• Part I: The Son of the Brahman
• Part I: With the Samanas
• Part I: Gotama
• Part I: Awakening
• Part II: Kamala

Wikipedia Entries for Siddhartha

• Introduction
• Major themes
• Film versions

Hermann Hesse

Ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

The Path to Spiritual Enlightenment

In the town where Siddhartha was born, Brahmins and sages and young practitioners of the Brahma way of life are all trying to find the path to enlightenment. Siddhartha is raised listening to the guidance of the Brahmin teachers, but he concludes, based on the fact that none of Brahmin’s have themselves achieved enlightenment, that this path does not seem to lead to the celestial heights that he aims for. In search of enlightenment, Siddhartha…

Nature and the Spirit

Siddhartha ’s environment, from his birth to his enlightenment, plays an important role in guiding and inspiring his spiritual journey. Nature provides the physical and spiritual sustenance while he is a samana. And when he is suicidal from his excursion into the world of wealth and anxiety, it is the river that saves him, and which becomes not just a metaphor for the idea of enlightenment but the source of Siddhartha’s revelation. Being all places…

Direction and Indirection

Part of the teaching of the Buddha is that deliverance comes from rising above the cycles and circles of a worldly life. Throughout the novel, cyclic experiences are viewed negatively. The cycles are connected with the spiritless, sinful lives of the people in the town, whereas the samanas and the Buddha intend to live their lives towards enlightenment and Nirvana, aiming for higher places with every action.

Though Siddhartha appreciates Buddha ’s teaching, he doesn’t…

Truth and Illusion

Enlightenment, sought by all the spiritual characters in the book, is not just a feeling of peace with the world, but a kind of wisdom, an absolute knowledge and acceptance of the way things are. But this truth eludes most of those who seek for it. Some search within the teachings of other wiser people, like Govinda . But such devotees are always in the shadow of someone else’s enlightenment, and never seem to reach…

Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction

The novel begins with a description of all Siddhartha ’s good fortune, but despite all that sets him apart, he is dissatisfied, believing that he has learned all that his elders have within them to teach him. It is this hunger to use his potential completely and know absolute truth that drives each stage of his pilgrimage, and the dissatisfaction he finds at every turn that encourages him to move on. The book seems to…

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‘Where Did Justine Go?’ One Woman Disappears Into Devotion

Justine Payton was drawn to a Hare Krishna ashram for its yoga, meditation and vegan meals. She’s still figuring out what went wrong.

Justine Payton on Kure Beach near her new home in North Carolina. Credit... Travis Dove for The New York Times

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By Ruth Graham

• Published May 22, 2024 Updated May 23, 2024

A few days before Christmas in 2020, quarantined with Covid in the basement of a Hare Krishna ashram in Philadelphia, Justine Payton admitted to herself how bad things had gotten.

She was 28 years old and had $72 to her name, after spending years working seven days a week in a cycle of cleaning, cooking, teaching, worship and selling books on the street. She rose at 4:30 each morning and her days ended at 9:30 p.m. If she violated the home’s strict rules — sneaking a piece of chocolate, say — her fellow devotees would report her to their leader, whom they knew as Mangal-arti.

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Ms. Payton had moved to Philadelphia to help open the Mantra Lounge meditation center at the behest of Mangal-arti’s “spiritual master,” Devamrita Swami, a New York-born, Yale-educated leader in the Hare Krishna movement.

The responsibility was an honor, she believed at the time. The movement had given her joy, purpose and community when she desperately needed it. Now she was reaching new followers with the same things that first attracted her: cheap yoga and vegan meals, and then meditation, chanting, and volunteer work.

But over time, the experience soured into something she would later describe as emotionally and spiritually abusive. Although she was bringing in money for the center through book sales, she kept none of it, she said, and had to use her savings to pay for some toiletries and other necessities.

After Mangal-arti, who had no formal medical or psychological training, told her she had borderline personality disorder, she said, she had begun to doubt her own instincts about even the most basic facts of her existence, doubts that reflected Hare Krishna teachings about not relying on one’s own emotions. (Mangal-arti, whose legal name is Aarti Khoda, said in a statement to The New York Times that she did not make a diagnosis, but inquired whether Ms. Payton might have the disorder because of her “extreme behavior.”) Ms. Payton contemplated taking her own life. She was paranoid, lonely and very, very tired.

Ms. Payton didn’t think of herself as part of a larger story about the popularity of alternative spiritual practices in the splintering religious landscape of 21st-century America. She hadn’t yet parsed the borderlines separating willing self-abnegation, mental illness and abuse. She craved transcendence, and like an increasing number of Americans, she didn’t find it in Christianity or another historic monotheistic religion.

She found it instead in a much younger movement that, for previous generations of Americans, conjured hippie freedom or cult conformity. For her, though, those associations were long in the past. The Hare Krishna movement seemed to answer her deepest questions. She was a seeker, and for a while, she had found what she was looking for.

When she got sick in the first year of the pandemic, however, the basement quarantine was the first time in five years that she had been alone for a sustained period of time. It was the first time she had time to think.

She picked up the phone and called her dad.

A Search for Faith

Ms. Payton was raised on a leafy downtown street in an affluent suburb of Chicago. She was close to her parents and her three siblings. When the children were little, the family had dance parties in the house. Ms. Payton would toss her hair around to the “Be-In” song from the musical “Hair”: “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,” she would sing. “Beads, flowers, freedom, happiness.”

She was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, from which she imbibed the lesson that a large religious institution could have ugliness in its past, but still do good in individual lives. Her family later joined the United Church of Christ, a liberal Protestant denomination.

In an essay she wrote for a confirmation class in eighth grade, an experience meant to usher her into adult faith, she wrote that she wasn’t sure she believed in God. Ms. Payton’s highest value at the time was independence. She moved across the country for college, then took a semester off and lived in Rwanda.

She was about to leave for a study-abroad program in France when she came down with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks its nerves. She was temporarily paralyzed from the neck down. She had climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, and now she lived at home in the suburbs and couldn’t feed herself.

She turned 21 during her convalescence, and the radical loss of control made her question everything. She began thinking about what it meant to be separated from her own physical existence.

She read and reread “Siddhartha,” Herman Hesse’s novel and a defining text of 1960s youth culture. The story follows a man in India seeking spiritual enlightenment in the time of the Buddha.

“What is meditation?” the protagonist asks himself. “What is leaving one’s body? What is fasting? What is holding one’s breath? It is fleeing from the self, it is a short escape of the agony of being a self.”

She recovered from Guillain-Barré and decided to finish her college degree in New Zealand. There, an acquaintance passed along a flier for a Sunday feast at a Hare Krishna temple. Ms. Payton knew little about the Hare Krishna faith, beyond those childhood days of twirling around to music from “Hair.”

The environment she walked into that Sunday seemed made precisely for her. Since the 1990s, the movement has attempted to appeal more directly to Westerners.

The Hare Krishna movement evolved from a 16th-century Indian tradition, and exploded as a worldwide phenomenon when a charismatic Hindu guru known as A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada arrived in the United States in the 1960s, attracting crowds of young people to Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan with his chanting and his saffron robes. He called the movement the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON.

His timing was impeccable, meeting a counterculture primed to embrace ISKCON’s practices of communal living, ecstatic dancing and asceticism. Within five years, the chant “Hare Krishna” was everywhere: among throngs of devotees proselytizing in airports; in “Hair”; in a No. 1 hit song by George Harrison .

The first wave of American followers were mostly white, but over time the movement became more Indian American and less high-profile. By the 1980s, it was beset by scandals, including lawsuits over sexual abuse and accusations of “brainwashing.” In the late 1990s, the movement’s own official journal exposed widespread physical and sexual abuse of children at Hare Krishna boarding schools.

Some American followers still live at ashrams — the standard form of membership in the 1960s and ’70s — but many more have typical homes and jobs and attend services on weekends. A spokesman, Anuttama Dasa, estimated that ISKCON currently has roughly 100,000 fully initiated members around the world, and 15 million who attend meetings.

“There’s very few Western, American people that are joining the Hare Krishna movement today,” said E. Burke Rochford, a professor emeritus of religion at Middlebury College who has studied the faith for decades. “Yes, they’re interested in yoga and yes, meditation, but not in what ISKCON is requiring of their members.”

There is a sense of urgency among the aging first generation of devotees, he said, to recapture the imagination of younger white Americans — not to push out Indian immigrants, but to preserve Swami Prabhupada’s calling to reach non-Indian young people.

The center Ms. Payton wandered into in New Zealand in 2014 was headed by an American-born guru named Devamrita Swami, who has a mission to attract “Westerners,” meaning non-Indians. Devamrita Swami’s innovation was that ISKCON should be what the scholar Nicole Karapanagiotis has described as “an edgy meditation- and mindfulness-based social club.” Instead of temples with elaborate statues of Hindu deities, he opened “lofts” and “lounges” where Hindu imagery is minimal. He encouraged programming on environmental sustainability, rebranding ISKCON theology’s emphasis on giving up material pleasures as a tool for addressing climate change.

“You felt like an honored guest when you walked in there ,” Ms. Payton recalled in an interview. “The whole thing was kind of ethereal and captivating .” There was a vegetarian meal, music, incense and yoga. She started attending and volunteering regularly, and a few months later she moved into an ISKCON ashram in Wellington, New Zealand.

At the end of 2015, Devamrita Swami encouraged Ms. Payton to help Mangal-arti start an outreach program in Philadelphia.

Before she moved there, she went to Illinois to spend a few weeks with her parents, Dean and Lisa, who had initially been accepting of her entrance into the movement. They understood that the Hare Krishna faith spoke to their daughter’s compassion, as well as to her interests in climate change and veganism. By this point, however, they were becoming concerned.

“She had lost her autonomy,” Mr. Payton said. “Her tone changed, her bearing changed.”

“Where did Justine go?” Lisa Payton wondered.

Her witty, vivacious daughter now rose at 4 in the morning to chant, and spent all her time cooking, ceremonially offering each meal to the deity Krishna before allowing her family to eat. Her voice was getting softer, almost melodic.

Lisa tried to understand. Picture a mountain, a pastor at her church would tell her later. God is at the top, and Justine is on one of many paths up the mountain. But it felt as though her daughter’s path was leading her farther and farther away from her family, and from any semblance of the life they had imagined for her.

When Ms. Payton left for Philadelphia, she sent her father a handwritten letter that he still keeps in his wallet.

“I wish you could see how my heart has changed, how it is open to the world around me in a beautiful way,” she wrote. “I am happier and more content than ever.”

The Mantra Lounge

In Philadelphia, Ms. Payton moved with Mangal-arti and a few other devotees into a temple, and then into a rented house, while they worked to open the Mantra Lounge in the trendy neighborhood of Fishtown.

Mangal-arti was born in Calcutta. She found the Hare Krishna movement in her early 20s, while working in a bank in Australia, and she chose Devamrita Swami as her spiritual master, a role akin to a priest or mentor. She is charismatic and bright-eyed; in video recordings of her teaching, she speaks cheerfully and seems to make intense eye contact with her listeners.

Ms. Payton said in an interview that her mental health was already deteriorating badly by the time she got to Philadelphia. She had been raped in college, and was experiencing symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mangal-arti was the first person Ms. Payton told about having been raped. Ms. Payton recalls her suggesting that her ensuing struggles were caused by insufficient faithfulness: She wasn’t bowing deeply enough during prayers, wasn’t working hard enough, and was trusting too much in her own instincts. Ms. Payton listened, and tried to purge herself of desire and disobedience. She began covering her head with her sari, as a sign of devotion.

In an initiation ceremony in 2017, she swore to abstain from “illicit sex,” intoxication, meat-eating and gambling, and she received a new name designating her as a servant of God: Gaura-bhakti.

The ceremony was standard for devotees seeking deeper commitment to the faith. What was not standard was that Ms. Payton felt that Mangal-arti was becoming the most important person in her life.

Three women who lived in the house said that they shared private information with Mangal-arti, only to discover that Mangal-arti later shared it with others. They said that Mangal-arti extended and then withheld affection in ways that were emotionally manipulative. Ms. Payton would later say that Mangal-arti fostered an “atmosphere of fear.”

Mr. Dasa, the spokesman for ISKCON, said the organization acted quickly to investigate Ms. Payton’s and other followers’ claims that Mangal-arti engaged in emotional abuse and manipulation.

“We in no way condone” Ms. Payton’s experience of “serious problems” at the ashram in Philadelphia, Mr. Dasa said in an interview. “It doesn’t at all represent the typical experience of a Krishna devotee at any of our hundreds of temples around the world.”

Mangal-arti did encourage Ms. Payton to pursue therapy independently, which her parents paid for.

“Mangal-arti appeared to be the only person whom Justine had a personal relationship with, intensifying her reliance on her,” her therapist wrote in a later statement summing up their sessions.

Ms. Payton stopped seeing that therapist after less than a year. Her last session was a joint meeting with the therapist and an “intense and overbearing” Mangal-arti, according to the therapist’s written account.

Other devotees reported similar experiences. After meeting Mangal-arti in Canada, Shannan Mann moved into the ashram in Philadelphia with Ms. Payton and a handful of others who worked at the Mantra Lounge. Mangal-arti had a long list of rules, down to how she should shower and how she should part her hair, Ms. Mann said. Ms. Mann, too, said Mangal-arti would be sweet and maternal one moment, and jealous and hostile the next. (In a statement, Mangal-arti called Ms. Mann’s account of her experiences “completely false and baseless”.)

Ms. Mann had known Ms. Payton in New Zealand. In Philadelphia, she was struck by how much Ms. Payton’s appearance had changed. She had lost weight and become strikingly pale, and she barely spoke. She had been transformed from a person Ms. Mann saw as bold and inquisitive to someone reduced to staring at Mangal-arti and “just wanting her approval for everything .”

In a statement, Mangal-arti disputed almost every element of Ms. Payton’s account of her time in Philadelphia, and said Ms. Payton seemed to have embarked on a “targeted campaign” against her. She also pointed out that Ms. Payton often thanked her during this period for her support.

Some people at the small ashram were happy. Mangal-arti provided multiple testimonials to The Times from people who spent time at the ashram in Philadelphia or who said they had known Ms. Payton and Ms. Mann in the past. All of them appear to remain involved in ISKCON or its practices. They described Mangal-arti as generous and fair, and characterized Ms. Payton and Ms. Mann as behaving erratically at the time, and as spreading falsehoods afterward.

‘Things Are Really Wrong Here’

Ms. Payton had been in Philadelphia for five years when she got Covid and moved into the basement of the ashram. For three weeks, she was on her own, free from the grueling schedule of selling and cooking and cleaning that had felt increasingly oppressive to her. “Things are really wrong here,” she remembers thinking.

Lisa and Dean drove to Philadelphia after Christmas to retrieve their daughter, picking her up on the curb outside the ashram early in the morning. She had stuffed her belongings into a few black garbage bags. They barely spoke as they drove back to Illinois.

Over time, she came to see what had happened to her in Philadelphia as abusive.

In 2021 she and three other former and aspiring devotees registered formal complaints against Mangal-arti that were reviewed by ISKCON’s governing body, a board that oversees the global organization. Some of the four complainants, and others, also made complaints about Devamrita Swami’s leadership.

After two years, the board’s North American branch ruled last year that Mangal-arti must apologize in writing to Ms. Payton and the other Mantra Lounge community members whom she had “hurt (mistreated, abused, shamed)” by her “actions and words,” and that she must not lead any ISKCON event or organization for three years, among other consequences.

In her statement, Mangal-arti described the ruling as hastily completed only after the The Times contacted ISKCON leadership last year, an accusation Mr. Dasa strongly denied. She said the organization did not follow up on the evidence she submitted to defend herself, and that ISKCON had issued an adjudication without an investigation.

ISKCON’s committee overseeing gurus reached a decision in early May requiring Devamrita Swami to undergo education on trauma and to submit a written plan to ensure that the “unhealthy dynamics” of Mantra Lounge would not be repeated, among other things. Mr. Dasa said the organization was also considering new training protocols “for ISKCON leaders to avoid these problems.”

The Mantra Lounge in Philadelphia closed in 2021.

Ms. Payton has tried to start her own life over, enrolling in graduate school in North Carolina, writing about her experiences, and restoring her relationships with her parents. Her boyfriend of two years recently proposed to her in a rented geodesic dome in the mountains near their home.

But it would be too simple, in her view, to call hers a happy ending. She lost friends permanently, she remains deeply ashamed, and she struggles with a sense that she has lost time she will never get back.

She still finds beauty in certain religious texts, including the Bhagavad Gita — although not the translations by the Hare Krishna movement’s founder. But she no longer practices any religion, and said she cannot imagine associating with a religious institution again.

She tries to be open to the experience of wonder, she said. “I think that’s at the root of what I was seeking all along.”

Susan C. Beachy , Alain Delaquérière and Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.

Read by Ruth Graham

Audio produced by Adrienne Hurst .

Ruth Graham is a national reporter, based in Dallas, covering religion, faith and values for The Times. More about Ruth Graham

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