Siddhartha, the greatest spiritual teacher of our time
A novel that encapsulates Hermann Hesse's interest and affection for Eastern thought.

“If every desire and every impulse in the mind were silenced,
The most intimate thing in existence, that which is no longer the self,
“That great secret was about to be revealed.”

Siddhartha, the son of a Brahmin, the highest caste in India, leaves home with his friend Govinda to attain enlightenment, despite his father's dissuasion.
He is given the opportunity to practice under the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, but when he realizes that he must find enlightenment on his own rather than through the Buddha's teachings, he leaves his friend Govinda behind and sets out on his own.
Afterwards, Siddhartha meets a woman he loves and a wealthy merchant until he reaches middle age and enjoys worldly desires, but when he finds himself consumed by them, he abandons everything and becomes a boatman.

"Siddhartha" is a work that Hesse published after receiving psychiatric treatment after suffering from severe depression that made it nearly impossible for him to write for almost a year and a half.
It can be seen as a kind of religious coming-of-age novel that poetically sublimates the spiritual heritage of the East and the West, and it captures the longing for eternity and the will to transcendence that delves deep into the human mind in a simple and lyrical style.
This work delicately depicts the struggle between formulaic religious doctrine and self-sufficient soul-searching, suggesting that there is no single path to self-discovery and challenging the stereotype of blind reliance on philosophy, religion, or any other belief.