To be able to renounce is ultimately a show of someone’s control over himself or herself. Whether it be renouncing material objects or relationships, it prevails to be a difficult yet significant undertaking in one’s life. In Buddhism, it is seen that being attached to sensual pleasures is a hindrance to reaching enlightenment. Hermann Hesse exemplifies this view in his book Siddhartha. The main character, Siddhartha, practices renouncement during his life long journey for enlightenment, a force that positively impacts him in the end.
Leaving his hometown, family, and predetermined future is the first set of things Siddhartha renounced. “…the intelligent boy, thirsty for knowledge; and he saw him growing up to be a great sage and priest, a prince among Brahmins.” During his life as a Brahmin, Siddhartha was well loved by everyone, it was apparent to all that there was greatness latent within him and with it expectations of his future. It may seem harsh that Siddhartha renounced that life so easily and without ever contacting his parents again, but the importance of his personal accomplishments outweigh that. The act of his father letting him go become a Samana is significant in showing that he knew the nature of his son’s essence, as exemplified in the quote “Now the father realized that Siddhartha was no longer with him and in his homeland, that he had already left him.” Siddhartha simply perceived what was making him unhappy and renunciation naturally followed. It was a liberating act on his part, not a punishment on himself or his family. In this case, he renounced everything familiar to him, his comforts. Later on in the book, we see that he relinquishes the physical world, followed by, in turn, the spiritual world.
The next step in Siddhartha’s journey was becoming a Samana. With the Samana’s, Siddhartha is taught that enlightenment can be reached through the denial of worldly desires. He ignored his hunger, endured heat and cold, and long periods of meditation. Through these extreme practices, Siddhartha created a harmonious relationship within himself. After some time, he came to the conclusion that ignoring the physical world completely is not the answer. Siddhartha wanted to create a harmonious relationship not only with himself, but also with the world around him. Throughout, we see the polarity of Siddhartha’s actions. With the Samana’s, he renounced the world of flesh tremendously, and during the next stage of his life with Kamala we see another extreme.
During the next phase of Siddhartha’s life, we see that he renounced all, if not most, of his spirituality for an existence defined by lust. Kamala taught him the art of love, and Kamaswami the art of business. He learnt “..how to do business, wield power over people, take pleasure with a woman, wear beautiful clothes, command servants, bathe in fragrant water.” But eventually, Siddhartha realized that he was suffering from “the spiritual illness of the rich,” and that once again, he needed to reassess his renouncement. It became clear to Siddhartha “how closely lust is related to death.” So with that, he decided to leave his life of physical bliss.
Throughout Siddhartha’s many polar renouncements, he found that enlightenment doesn’t come from mastering either the spiritual or physical world, but by finding a balance between the two. But his efforts weren’t in vain, because if he hadn’t experienced each side of the spectrum he would never have reached his conclusive realization. Every struggle in Siddhartha’s life was there to teach him a lesson, and the end result was him reflecting on each lesson and eventually the bigger picture of his pursuit; leading him to enlightenment. Each experience required some form of renouncement, and whether it seemed positive at the time or not, at the end of his journey it proved to be a progressive force culminating to enlightenment.
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