Latest / Adventure Books Library / 01 - Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

Transcript

01 - Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse · Adventure Books Library

• 0:00
  First part to Romayne Rowland, My Dear Friend, Chapter one, The son
• 0:08
  of the Brahman, in the shade of the house, in the sunshine of
• 0:13
  the river bank, near the boats, in the shade of the salward forest,
• 0:18
  in the shade of the fig tree, is where Siddartha grew up,
• 0:22
  the handsome son of the Brahman, the young Falcon, together with his friend
• 0:27
  Govinda, son of a Brahman. The sun tanned his light shoulders by the
• 0:32
  banks of the river when bathing, performing the sacred ablutions, the sacred offerings
• 0:39
  in the mango grove. Shade poured into his black eyes when playing as a
• 0:44
  boy, when his mother sang, when the sacred offerings were made, when
• 0:49
  his father, the scholar, taught him, when the wise men talked.
• 0:55
  For a long time, Siddartha had been partaking in the discussions of the wise
• 0:59
  men, practicing debate with Govinda, Practicing with Govinda the art of reflection,
• 1:06
  the service of meditation. He already knew how to speak the olm silently,
• 1:11
  the word of words, to speak it silently into himself while inhaling, to
• 1:19
  speak it silently out of himself, while exhaling with all the concentration of his
• 1:25
  soul, the forehead surrounded by the glow of the clear thinking spirit. He
• 1:30
  already knew to feel utman in the depths of his being indestructible, one with
• 1:37
  the universe. Joy leapt into his father's heart for his son, who was
• 1:42
  quick to learn, thirsty for knowledge. He saw him growing up to become
• 1:48
  a great wise man and priest, a priest among the Brahmans. Bliss leapt
• 1:55
  into his mother's breast when she saw him, when she saw him walking,
• 1:59
  when she saw him sit down and get up, Siddarthur, strong, handsome,
• 2:05
  he who was walking on slender legs, greeting her with perfect respect.
• 2:10
  Love touched the hearts of the Brahman's young daughters when Siddartha walked through the lanes
• 2:15
  of the town, with the luminous forehead, with the eye of a king,
• 2:21
  with his slim hips. But more than all the others, he was
• 2:25
  loved by Govinda, his friend, the son of a Brahman. He loved
• 2:30
  Siddartha's eye and sweet voice. He loved his walk and the perfect decency of
• 2:37
  his movements. He loved everything Siddartha did and said, And what he loved
• 2:42
  most was his spirit, his transcendent, fiery thoughts, his ardent will,
• 2:47
  his high calling. Govinda knew he would not become a common Brahman, not
• 2:55
  a lazy official in charge of offerings, not a greedy merchant with magic spells,
• 3:01
  not a vain, vacuous speaker, not a mean, deceitful priest,
• 3:07
  and also not a decent, stupid sheep in the herd of the many.
• 3:14
  No, and he, Govinda as well, did not want to become one
• 3:17
  of these, not one of those tens of thousands of Brahmans. He wanted
• 3:23
  to follow sid Arthur, the beloved, the splendid, And in days to
• 3:29
  come, when sid Arthur would become a god, when he would join the
• 3:32
  glorious, then Govinda wanted to follow him as his friend, his companion,
• 3:38
  his servant, his spear carrier, his shadow. Siddarthur was thus loved by
• 3:46
  everyone. He was a source of joy for everybody. He was a delight
• 3:52
  for them all. But he, Siddarthur, was not a source of joy
• 3:57
  for himself. He found no delight in him himself. Walking the rosy paths
• 4:02
  of the fig tree garden, sitting in the bluish shade of the grove of
• 4:06
  contemplation, washing his limbs daily in the bath of repentance, sacrificing in the
• 4:13
  dim shade of the mango forest, his gestures of perfect decency, everyone's love
• 4:19
  and joy. He still lacked all joy in his heart. Dreams and restless
• 4:27
  thoughts came into his mind, flowing from the water of the river, sparkling
• 4:32
  from the stars of the night, melting from the beams of the sun.
• 4:36
  Dreams came to him, and a restlessness of the soul, fuming from the
• 4:42
  sacrifices breathing forth from the verses of the Rigvader, being infused into him,
• 4:48
  drop by drop, from the teachings of the old Brahmans. Siddhartha had started
• 4:56
  to nurse discontent in himself. He had started to feel that the love of
• 5:00
  his father and the love of his mother, and also the love of his
• 5:04
  friend Govinda would not bring him joy forever and ever would not nurse him,
• 5:11
  feed him, satisfy him. He had started to suspect that his venerable father
• 5:16
  and his other teachers, that the wise Brahmins had already revealed to him the
• 5:21
  most and best of their wisdom, that they had already filled his expecting vessel
• 5:28
  with their richness and the vessel was not full. The spirit was not content,
• 5:34
  The soul was not calm, the heart was not satisfied. The ablutions
• 5:41
  were good, but they were water. They did not wash off the sin.
• 5:46
  They did not heal the spirit's thirst. They did not relieve the fear
• 5:50
  in his heart. The sacrifices in the invocation of the gods were excellent.
• 5:57
  But was that all? Did the sacrifice vices give a happy fortune? And
• 6:01
  what about the gods? Was it really Prajapati who created the world? Was
• 6:08
  it not the Utman? He the only one, the singular one. Were
• 6:14
  the gods not creations? Created like me and you? Subject to time mortal?
• 6:20
  Was it therefore good? Was it right? Was it meaningful? And
• 6:25
  the highest occupation? To make offerings to the gods? For whom else were
• 6:30
  offerings to be made? Who else was to be worshiped but him, the
• 6:35
  only one, the Utman? And where was Utman to be found? Where
• 6:41
  did he reside? Where did his eternal heart beat? Where else but in
• 6:46
  one's own self, in its innermost part, in its indestructible part, which
• 6:54
  everyone had in himself? And where where was this elf, this innermost part,
• 7:01
  this ultimate part? It was not flesh? And bone. It was
• 7:06
  neither thought nor consciousness. Thus the wisest ones taught. So where was it
• 7:15
  to reach this place? The self, myself, the utman. There was
• 7:18
  another way, which was worthwhile looking for alas, But nobody showed this way.
• 7:26
  Nobody knew it, not the Father, and not the teachers, and
• 7:30
  the wise men, not the holy sacrificial songs. They knew everything, the
• 7:34
  Brahmans and their holy books. They knew everything. They had taken care of
• 7:40
  everything, and of more than everything. The creation of the world, the
• 7:45
  origin of speech, of food, of inhaling, of exhaling, the engagement
• 7:49
  of the senses, the acts of the gods. They knew infinitely much.
• 7:57
  But was ivaluable to know all this not knowing that one and only thing,
• 8:03
  the most important thing, the solely important thing. Surely, many verses of
• 8:11
  the Holy books, particularly in the Apanishads of samar Vada, spoke of this
• 8:16
  innermost and ultimate thing. Wonderful verses, Your soul is the whole world was
• 8:26
  written there, and it was written that man in his sleep, in his
• 8:30
  deep sleep, would meet with his innermost part and would reside in the atman.
• 8:37
  Marvelous wisdom was in these verses. All knowledge of the wisest ones had
• 8:41
  been collected there in magic words, pure as honey collected from bees. No,
• 8:48
  not to be looked down upon was the tremendous amount of enlightenment which lay
• 8:54
  here, collected and preserved by innumerable generations of wise Brahmans. But where were
• 9:01
  the Brahmans, Where the priests? Where the wise men or penitence who had
• 9:05
  succeeded in not just knowing this deepest of all knowledge, but also to live
• 9:11
  it? Where was the knowledgeable one who wove his spell to bring his familiarity
• 9:18
  with the Atman out of the sleep, into the state of being awake,
• 9:22
  into the life, into every step of the way, into word and deed.
• 9:30
  SidD Arthur knew many venerable Brahmans, chiefly his father, the pure one,
• 9:35
  the scholar, the most venerable one. His father was to be admired.
• 9:41
  Quiet and noble. Were his manners pure, his life wise, his
• 9:46
  words delicate, and noble thoughts lived behind its brow. But even he who
• 9:52
  knew so much did he live in blissfulness? Did he have peace? Was
• 9:58
  he not also just a searching man, a thirsty man? Did he not
• 10:03
  again and again have to drink from holy sources as a thirsty man, from
• 10:07
  the offerings, from the books, from the disputes of the Brahmins. Why
• 10:13
  did he, the irreproachable one, have to wash off sins every day,
• 10:18
  strive for a cleansing every day, over and over every day. Was not
• 10:24
  atman in him? Did not the pristine source spring from his heart? It
• 10:31
  had to be found, the pristine source in one's own self. It had
• 10:35
  to be possessed. Everything else was searching, was a detour, was getting
• 10:41
  lost. Thus were said Arthur's thoughts. This was his thirst, this was
• 10:48
  his suffering. Thus he spoke to himself from a chandogaya, a punishad,
• 10:54
  the words, truly the name of the Brahman is such a verily. Ye
• 11:00
  who knows such a thing will enter the heavenly world every day. Often it
• 11:05
  seemed near the heavenly world. But never he had reached it completely. Never
• 11:11
  he had quenched the ultimate thirst. And among the wise and wisest men he
• 11:16
  knew, and whose instructions he had received, among all of them, there
• 11:22
  was no one who had reached it completely the heavenly world, who had quenched
• 11:26
  it completely, the eternal thirst, Govinda said. Arthur spoke to his friend
• 11:33
  Govinda, my dear, come with me under the banyan tree. Let's practice
• 11:39
  meditation. They went to the banyan tree. They sat down, Sir Darthur
• 11:45
  right here, Govinda twenty paces away, while putting himself down, ready to
• 11:50
  speak the olm, Si Darthur repeated, murmuring the verse. Om is the
• 11:56
  bow, the arrow is soul. The Brahman is the arrow's target that one
• 12:03
  should incessantly hit. After the usual time of the exercise in meditation had passed,
• 12:11
  Govinda rose, the evening had come. It was time to perform the
• 12:15
  evening's ablution. He called Siddarthur's name. Siddarthur did not answer. Sadd Arthur
• 12:22
  sat there, lost in thought. His eyes were rigidly focussed towards a very
• 12:28
  distant target. The tip of his tongue was protruding a little between the teeth.
• 12:35
  He seemed not to breathe. Thus sat he wrapped up in contemplation,
• 12:41
  thinking, Olm his soul sent after the brahmin as an arrow. Once Samanas
• 12:50
  had traveled through Siddartha's town Esthetics on a pilgrimage, Three skinny withered men,
• 12:56
  neither old nor young, with dust, usty and bloody shoulders almost naked,
• 13:01
  scorched by the sun, surrounded by loneliness, strangers and enemies to the world,
• 13:09
  strangers and lank jackals in the realm of humans behind them blew a hot
• 13:15
  scent of quiet passion, of destructive service, of merciless self denial. In
• 13:22
  the evening, after the hour of contemplation, Siddartha spoke to Govinda early tomorrow
• 13:28
  morning, my friend Siddarthur will go to the samanas he will become a Samana.
• 13:37
  Govinda turned pale when he heard these words and read the decision in the
• 13:41
  motionless face of his friend, unstoppable, like the arrow shot from the bow.
• 13:48
  Soon and with the first glance, Govinda realized, now it is beginning.
• 13:54
  Now Siddarthur is taking his own way. Now his fate is beginning to
• 13:58
  sprout, and with his my own. And he turned pale like a dry
• 14:05
  banana skin. Oh, sir Darthur, he exclaimed, Will your father permit
• 14:11
  you to do that? Siddartha looked over as if he was just waking up
• 14:16
  arrow fast he read in Govinda's soul, read the fear, Read the submission,
• 14:24
  Oh Govinda, he spoke quietly. Let's not waste words tomorrow at daybreak,
• 14:31
  I will begin the life of the samanas. Speak no more of it.
• 14:37
  Siddartha entered the chamber where his father was sitting on a mat of bast
• 14:43
  and stepped behind his father and remained standing there until his father felt that someone
• 14:48
  was standing behind him. Quoth the Brahmin, is that you said, Arthur?
• 14:54
  Then say what you came to say, quoth Siddartha, with your permission,
• 15:00
  my father, I came to tell you that it is my longing to
• 15:03
  leave your house tomorrow and go to the esthetics. My desire is to become
• 15:07
  a Samana. May my father not oppose this. The brahmin fell silent,
• 15:15
  and remained silent for so long that the stars in the small window wandered and
• 15:20
  changed their relative positions. Ere the silence was broken, silent and motionless,
• 15:26
  stood the son, with his arms folded, silent and motionless. Sat the
• 15:30
  father on the mat, and the stars traced their paths in the sky.
• 15:35
  Then spoke the father, not proper is it for a brahmin to speak harsh
• 15:41
  and angry words. But indignation is in my heart. I wish not to
• 15:48
  hear this request for a second time from your mouth. Slowly, the Brahmin
• 15:54
  rose. Sid Arthur stood silently, his arms folded. What are you waiting
• 16:00
  for, asked the father. Quoth Siddartha, you know what? Indignant,
• 16:07
  the father left the chamber indignant. He went to his bed and lay down.
• 16:15
  After an hour, since no sleep had come over his eyes, the
• 16:18
  Brahman stood up, paced to and fro, and left the house through the
• 16:25
  small window of the chamber, he looked back inside, and there he saw
• 16:29
  Siddhartha standing, his arms folded, not moving from his spot. Pale shimmered
• 16:36
  his bright robe. With anxiety in his heart, the father returned to his
• 16:41
  bed after another hour, since no sleep had come over his eyes, the
• 16:47
  Brahman stood up again, paced to and fro, walked out of the house
• 16:52
  and saw that the moon had risen. Through the window of the chamber,
• 16:56
  he looked back inside. There stood said Arthur, not moving from his spot,
• 17:02
  his arms folded, moonlight reflecting from his bare shins. With worry in
• 17:08
  his heart, the father went back to bed, and he came back after
• 17:12
  an hour. He came back after two hours, looked through the small window
• 17:18
  saw Siddarthur standing in the moonlight. By the light of the stars in the
• 17:23
  darkness, and he came back hour after hour. Silently, he looked into
• 17:30
  the chamber, saw him standing in the same place, filled his heart with
• 17:36
  anger, filled his heart with unrest, filled his heart with anguish, filled
• 17:41
  it with sadness. And in the night's last hour before the day began,
• 17:48
  he returned, stepped into the room, saw the young man standing there,
• 17:53
  who seemed tall and like a stranger to him, sid d Arthur. He
• 17:59
  spoke, what are you waiting for? You know what? Will you always
• 18:04
  stand that way and wait until it becomes morning, noon and evening. I
• 18:10
  will stand and wait. You will become tired, said Arthur. I will
• 18:15
  become tired. You will fall asleep, said Arthur. I will not fall
• 18:21
  asleep. You will die, said Arthur. I will die. And would
• 18:27
  you rather die than obey your father? Said d Arthur has always obeyed his
• 18:33
  father, So will you abandon your plan? Sid d Arthur will do what
• 18:38
  his father will tell him to do. The first light of day shone into
• 18:45
  the room. The Brahmans saw that Siddartha was trembling softly in his knees.
• 18:51
  In Si d Arthur's face, he saw no trembling. His eyes were fixed
• 18:55
  on a distant spot. Then his father realized that he even now, said
• 19:00
  Arthur no longer dwelt with him in his home, that he had already left
• 19:06
  him. The father touched said d Arthur's shoulder. You will, he spoke,
• 19:12
  go into the forest and be a samana. When you'll have found blissfulness
• 19:18
  in the forest, then come back and teach me to be blissful. If
• 19:22
  you'll find disappointment, then return and let us once again make offerings to the
• 19:27
  gods together. Go now and kiss your mother, tell her where you are
• 19:33
  going. But for me, it is time to go to the river and
• 19:37
  to perform the first ablution. He took his hand from the shoulder of his
• 19:42
  son and went outside. SidD Arthur wavered to the side as he tried to
• 19:48
  walk. He put his limbs back under control, bowed to his father,
• 19:53
  and went to his mother to do as his father had said. As he
• 19:59
  slowly left on stiff legs, in the first light of day the still quiet
• 20:03
  town, a shadow rose near the last hut who had crouched there and joined
• 20:08
  the pilgrim. Govinda, you have come, said said Arthur, and smiled.
• 20:15
  I have come, said Govinda. End of Chapter one