Siddhartha:A scientific approach to Atman
.... Siddhartha’s quest for the truth spans over three periods in his life and his methods for obtaining it are wide and varied. The first and second periods can be viewed as experiments testing Siddhartha’s hypotheses. In the first stage his life, Siddhartha believes that he must free himself of his mind in order to reach perfection. Siddhartha tells his friend Govinda, “I’ve taken a long time and I still have not finished in order to learn, O Govinda, that one can learn nothing! There is, O my friend, only one knowledge: it is everywhere, it is Atman, it is in me and in you and in every being (p. 18).” In the second stage, Siddhartha leaves the samanas and goes on a pursuit to fulfill his senses. Siddhartha has altered his original hypothesis because of his experiences as a samana, “No, even this world of thought was of this world, and it led to no goal if one killed the random ego of thinking and learning (p.45).” However, this did not satisfy Siddhartha’s true senses; he felt that he was merely playing a game in the world of the “Kamaswami people.” His experience in this point in his life proved to be very valuable however in getting him to his last stage of life, his enlightenment. Through his experiences before becoming enlightened, Siddhartha was able to prove correct one of the hypotheses that he felt were borne in him. Siddhartha went through life with many teachers, but believed that perfection could not be taught. After his first two experiments end, his belief is affirmed “But now he saw it, and saw that the secret voice had been right, that no teacher could have redeemed him (p. 88).” Siddhartha has by now been the son of a Brahmin, an ascetic, a lover, a merchant, a dicer, a drinker, and now a ferryman. Through these experiments, he has gathered a lot of insight (...