An Exploration of Time in Herman Hesse's "Siddhartha"

11.1.14

Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha takes place over the course of a young man’s life, chronicling his quest for awakening and the different paths he follows in the attempt to find it. However, the fragments of Siddhartha’s journey are not always accurately represented when it comes to length. The durations of his adventures are treated callously, and the fluidity of time is often brought up throughout the story through symbolism and dialogue. The way Hesse manipulates time in his novel conveys his message that it is subjective and non-linear, and overcoming our dependence on it is essential in order to achieve enlightenment.

     In Siddhartha, the length of each scene does not always correlate to the actual amount of time that passed. For example, Siddhartha’s stay with the samanas is described in only one chapter, though he accompanied and learned from them for three years. During this period, he learns to think, wait, and fast, in an effort to permanently escape himself. However, he is disappointed to discover that these methods offer him only “a temporary escape from the torment of the Self” (13). His constant attempts to transcend the passage of time only make it pass faster. The next two chapters denote Siddhartha’s meeting with the Buddha and the period of self-reflection that follows. In these chapters, Hesse details Siddhartha’s observations of himself and of the world as it truly is. As he notices the beauty of the nature that surrounds him, he realizes that “the days and the nights [are] short” and that “every hour [passes] quickly like a sail on the sea” (38). The use of figurative language communicates that Siddhartha feels time is flying by when he is actively searching for enlightenment. In contrast, when he loses hold of his inner voice, so too does time slow down. Therefore, his venture into capitalism and years spent learning the art of love with Kamala last a very long time. His discontent makes “every day a little thicker, every month a little darker, every year a little heavier” (63). He moves through life without purpose, and therefore sluggishly. Through the way the book is structured, we begin to realize that to Siddhartha, time has only the value that he attaches to each moment.

     Within his lifetime, Siddhartha goes through certain experiences more than once, implying that he is not traveling through time in a straight line, but rather in a cycle. This cycle directly parallels the Hindu concept of Samsara, or perpetual life, death, and reincarnation. Siddhartha undergoes  rebirth multiple times, often when he “... like one who had awakened or was newly born, must begin his life completely afresh” (33). Each time he leaves something behind, “he [feels] as if something has died” inside of him (68). The circularity of time is also implied by Siddhartha’s karma. He leaves his father behind at the beginning of his life, and near the end of his life, his own son does the same to him. Furthermore, he begins his journey as a normal Brahmin, then turns to the samanas and the Buddha to be rid of the Self, then lives as an ordinary man once again before he finally turns to the teachings of Vasudeva and the river. He realizes that his path is “a course of events in a fateful circle” (107). Hesse uses this imagery and refers to core Hindu values to question the standard, sequential view of time.

     After disavowing himself from teachers repeatedly, Siddhartha allows himself to be taught by the river, which is the strongest symbol for time in the novel. The river is always moving, yet it exists everywhere at any point in time. He listens to it, and it tells him that “nothing was, nothing will be, everything has reality and presence” (87). There is only a now, and past and future are just terms we use to help us understand the infinite present. This unity of past, present, and future is made visible to Siddhartha by the river. In Kamala’s dead face he sees the fig-red lips of her youth; in his own reflection, the face of his father. And in this he finds his inner peace, because he comes to understand that “if time is not real, then the dividing line that seems to lie between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion” (115). Time is what separates the things that cannot coexist. Transcending time leads to enlightenment, because it allows unity.

     At the end of the novel, it is not religion, the samanas’ teachings, the Buddha’s wisdom, or Kamala’s love that lead Siddhartha to enlightenment. It is his understanding that time is simply an illusion. This knowledge cannot be imparted through words; in fact, Siddhartha could only express it to Govinda through a touch. Perhaps this is why we choose to remain reliant on time, looking back at the past as something we have lost, towards the future as an area of limitless possibilities, and disregarding brief moments of unity- déjà vu- as a trick of the memory. It is comforting to see time as linear, and Hesse challenges this view by writing a novel about how even in the straight line between a starting point and a goal, Siddhartha’s path spirals.