His final epiphany challenges both the Buddhist and the Hindu ideals of enlightenment. Like Hermann Hesse's other creations of struggling young men, Siddhartha has a good dose of European angst and stubborn individualism. Then a life of pleasure and titillation merely eroded away his spiritual gains until he was just like all the other "child people," dragged around by his desires. In order to find meaning in life, he discarded his promising future for the life of a wandering ascetic. Born the son of a Brahmin, Siddhartha was blessed in appearance, intelligence, and charisma. But this man, Siddhartha, was not a follower of any but his own soul. He was once a wandering shramana and, briefly, like thousands of others, he followed Gotama the Buddha, enraptured by his sermons. In the shade of a banyan tree, a grizzled ferryman sits listening to the river.
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