The Journey to Self.
Finding Nirvana through inner salvation and searching for salvation while enjoying the journey are aspects of Buddhist and Hindu religious belief systems respectively, and both demand huge amounts of faith and dedication. Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, is the story of a Brahmin’s son trying to find the path to salvation and ultimate inner peace while conquering many challenging obstacles in his way. Hesse symbolizes ordinary objects and people to illustrate a wide variety of themes throughout the work.
The Ferryman, Vasudeva, symbolizes enlightenment and contentment with life while illustrating the theme of education and teaching by showing how and why he is so at peace with his life and the world around him. Vasudeva begins teaching Siddhartha almost immediately in a slightly unorthodox way, by really truly listening to Siddhartha’s story, and only when he is finished does he inform Siddhartha that “the river has spoken to” him and that Siddhartha would do well to learn from himself and the river (104-105). According to Shunryu Suzuki, Vasudeva, and people in general, is able to learn so much through listening because he puts “very little emphasis on right and wrong or good and bad” he simply “sees things as they are. . . and accept[s] them” (Pullen). Vasudeva teaches Siddhartha that to nearly all who come to the river it is “nothing but a hindrance on their journey” and that Siddhartha was one of the rare exceptions that had a clear enough mind to learn from the great depths of the river (106). Seeing a common obstacle as a blessing is an enlightened point of view and shows Vasudeva’s symbolism of a tangible salvation. On a physical level Siddhartha learns to “look after the boat. . . [work] in the rice field. . . make baskets” and more (106). He learns all this from Vasudeva while conditioning his mind to listen and open up to new experiences and philosophies. Vasudeva teaches Siddhartha an important lesson in fatherhood; that the boy...