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

Table of Contents
Ideas of Interest from "The Son of the Brahman"
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 Brahman"

  1. Why did Siddhartha remain standing? Why didn't he just leave? Did Siddhartha's father allow him to leave because, in a sense, Siddhartha had "already left"?

  2. What would Siddhartha have done if his father would have said "No" to his request?

  3. Why does Siddhartha speak of himself in the third person?

  4. Given that Govinda was Siddhartha's "lance bearer," speculate about the conditions under which Govinda left home.

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UpThe Reading Selection from "The Son of the Brahmin"