Love in Siddhartha

Siddhartha had always considered love inessential in his life because he categorized it as a worldly sensation that the common people simply experience. The wisdom and knowledge of the love differs greatly and both play a large role in Siddhartha's quest for finding the Atman. Siddhartha understood that love was the act of loving another human being, but it was just another word in his language until he had experienced it for himself He found out that he still had much to learn after he went through the worries, the heartaches, and the sleepless nights that one goes through when they worry for a loved one.

Siddhartha's understanding of love and affection is extremely immature during his earlier years of life. Nothing else really mattered to him during those youthful days because he was only set on one goal -- to find his Atman. Everything else on Earth and anything worldly seemed pointless because he did not see how they could aid him in attaining his Atman. Although, he did learn later in his lifetime that everything was great and wonderful for simply being itself Even the stone on the ground was splendid for simply being a stone. The love that Govinda and his father had towards Siddhartha also fell into this category of being worthless in Siddhartha's life. Siddhartha considered them to be inessential. He even saw them as a hindrance in his quest to escape reincarnation.

His father had the greatest love for Siddhartha that a person could ever love another person, but that was not even a factor in the consideration of leaving his home to join the Samamas in the woods. His father's desire to keep him home to look after and take care of Siddhartha came off as being selfish to Siddhartha. Siddhartha could not understand the fatherly love and instincts that his father had exerted upon him to guide and protect him in this vast, unknown world. In today's modem world, parents

Siddhartha had always considered love inessential in his life because he categorized it as a worldly sensation that the common people simply experience. The wisdom and knowledge of the love differs greatly and both play a large role in Siddhartha's quest for finding the Atman. Siddhartha understood that love was the act of loving another human being, but it was just another word in his language until he had experienced it for himself He found out that he still had much to learn after he went through the worries, the heartaches, and the sleepless nights that one goes through when they worry for a loved one.

Siddhartha's understanding of love and affection is extremely immature during his earlier years of life. Nothing else really mattered to him during those youthful days because he was only set on one goal -- to find his Atman. Everything else on Earth and anything worldly seemed pointless because he did not see how they could aid him in attaining his Atman. Although, he did learn later in his lifetime that everything was great and wonderful for simply being itself Even the stone on the ground was splendid for simply being a stone. The love that Govinda and his father had towards Siddhartha also fell into this category of being worthless in Siddhartha's life. Siddhartha considered them to be inessential. He even saw them as a hindrance in his quest to escape reincarnation.

His father had the greatest love for Siddhartha that a person could ever love another person, but that was not even a factor in the consideration of leaving his home to join the Samamas in the woods. His father's desire to keep him home to look after and take care of Siddhartha came off as being selfish to Siddhartha. Siddhartha could not understand the fatherly love and instincts that his father had exerted upon him to guide and protect him in this vast, unknown world. In today's modem world, parents

worldwide still possess the protective parental instincts that oppose their children's desires. For example, a sixteen year old, suburban boy constantly debates with his parents about how late he should be allowed to stay downtown Boston to hang out with his friends. The boy wants to stay downtown until 1:00am, but his parents want him home by 9:30pm. The boy simply wants to stay down there later so he could have a good time with his friends, but his parents know better that being downtown that late at night runs a higher risk of being in danger. Luckily for Siddhartha, his father had a very wise understanding of love and accepted him for the way he was. Siddhartha's father came to the conclusion that he was adult enough to look after himself

Like Siddhartha's father, Goatama, the Buddha, also had a very mature understanding of loving others for the way they are and the world. Understanding this difficult concept of love played a large role in him attaining nirvana. Goatama did not force his beliefs onto anyone, including Siddhartha. Siddhartha had journeyed to the Buddha to see if the enlightened one could share the knowledge with him that had brought Goatama to the stage of awakening. Although Siddhartha criticized Goatama's teachings as faulty, Goatama did not attempt to force any of his fundamentals onto Siddhartha. Goatama knew it was better to let Siddhartha travel along the paths that he chose to roam.

Similar to Siddhartha's father, Govinda's love for Siddhartha was also denied. For the majority of their lives, Siddhartha had acted as the big brother, and Govinda had been his shadow. Siddhartha expected to be alone when he decided to join the Samanas, but Govinda had unexpectedly determined that he could not part with Siddhartha. Siddhartha finally found the opportunity to leave his companion behind when Govinda

found interest in Goatama that Siddhartha did not. Siddhartha even said that he had been waiting for the day that Govinda would make his own decisions and part with Siddhartha. So far in the life that Siddhartha had led, he had denied the love from everyone who was associated with him. He had denied the love from his father, the welcoming beliefs and teaching from Goatama, and the brotherly love from Govinda.

After leaving the Buddha and Govinda, Siddhartha meets Kamala. It is through Kamala where he tires to experience and understand the aspect of physical love. She taught him the art of love in which, more then anything else; giving and taking become one(91). Kamala explained to Siddhartha that lovers should not separate from each other after making love without admiring each other. Siddhartha learned and listened to Kamala, for he had no experience with physical love. He then started to attain love and happiness through destructive manors.

Kamala had introduced him to Kamaswami, who would introduce Siddhartha to a new world. This new world included women, drinking, gambling, and money. Siddhartha had never experienced anything like this before.