This book had been on my wishlist for the longest time. Its not a page-turner, I admit; its a story of soul-searching & spiritual evolution... not the easiest subjects for a casual evening read. Until of course, you reach the end of this story-journey & it all seems so simple, so straight forward, and the beauty & depth of Hesse's prose takes your breath away.While on this book, Kaya tagged me here. This is how her tag works....I'm supposed to write down 3 sentences from sentence no. 5 on pg. 123 of the book nearest to me. Which brings me to a quote from Siddhartha himself:
"Here we are in the middle of the thicket of opinions, in a battle of words. For I can not deny that my words about love stand in opposition, in apparent opposition to Gautama's words. This is precisely why I distrust words so much."
8 comments:
Phew!!!! I am yet to gradauate to that kinda reading in life.........I love that last line quoted here.it reminded me of this line from the movie Autumn Sonata "Those are very pretty words. Words that don't mean anything real. I was brought up with beautiful words. Mama is never "furious" or "disappointed" or "unhappy". She is "pained". You have a lot of words like that too. It's a kind of occupational disease........................."
We are slowly receiving and unpacking our boxes.......my books will be here soon :)
Moi,
It's not such a *heavy* book. Worth a read. How're you settling into the new job btw?
What is the subject matter of this book??
Fighter Jet,
Well, its the story of a young man's journey searching for spiritual peace; the different paths he chooses & his conclusions. The man is named "Siddhartha" and the story is set in India in the age of "Buddha".
remind me . wasn't that the name of Gautama Buddha? and was not he a prince?
I like the quote, and it looks like a good cleansing book. 9you know the ones where having read them you feel so much lighter)
So, quote us something else from the book, untill I get my hands on it.
you reading gutham buddha.. wow now we can expect lots of pearls of wisdom from u :)
Kaya, Diya,
Well, the book is not really about the life of Gautama Buddha, but its sort of an allegory to how the journey of his life could've been.
The part I loved the most...
"Did you," so he asked him at one time, "did you too learn that secret from the river: that there is no time?"
Vasudeva's dace was filled with a bright smile.
"Yes, Siddhartha," he spoke. "it is this that you mean, isn't it: That the river is everywhere at one, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future?"
"This it is," said Siddhartha. "And when I had learned it, I looked at my life, and it was also a river, and the boy Siddhartha was only separated from the man Siddhartha and from the old man Siddhartha by a shadow, not by something real. Also, Siddhartha's previous births were not in the past, and his death and his return to Brahman was not in the future. Nothing was, nothing will be; everything is, everything has existence and is present."
- Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
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