Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha: An Open Source Reader
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Chapter 1. The Son of the Brahmin

Table of Contents
Ideas of Interest from "The Son of the Brahmin"
The Reading Selection from "The Son of the Brahmin"
Topics Worth Investigating

Priest Sitting, Library of Congress

From the reading…

"But where, where was this self, this innermost part, this ultimate part? It was not flesh and bone, it was neither thought nor consciousness, thus the wisest ones taught. So, where, where was it?"

Ideas of Interest from "The Son of the Brahmin"

  1. Why did Siddhartha remain standing when his father requested that there be no more discussion of joining the ascetics? Why didn't Siddhartha just leave as he had promised Govinda? Explain why Siddhartha's father "allowed him" to leave. Speculate in what way Siddhartha's father came to his decision.

  2. Siddhartha had always obeyed his father's wishes. Conjecture what he would have done if his father had said "No" to his request to leave and join the Samanas.

  3. Why does Siddhartha speak of himself in the "third person"? Try speaking of yourself in the third person for a short time in order to see the effects of this technique.

  4. Given that Govinda was Siddhartha's "spear carrier," envision the conditions under which Govinda left home. How do you suspect that Siddhartha's and Govinda's parents differ in their practices of child rearing?

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