Hundreds of Buddhist monks seek to reach Nirvana every day. They all follow Gotama Buddha's teachings, but most fail to achieve their goal and end up being reborn as new creatures. In Hermann Hesse's book, Siddhartha, a young boy, Siddhartha, rejects the teachings of Gotama Buddha and follows his own path to enlightenment. The place of his enlightenment, moving away from the Buddha tree, is a river. In the book, Hesse uses the river as a key catalyst to lead Siddhartha to Nirvana. The river serves as an archetype of timelessness, as a transition between life phases and as a teacher. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The archetype of timelessness is one of the most obvious motifs surrounding the river. The river first displays timelessness when Siddhartha notes how it has only an illusion of movement. He sees “that the water continually flowed and flowed and yet it was always there; it was always the same and yet every moment was new” (Assia 83). He realizes that both the river and time move questionably. Just as the river seems to move continuously but stays still in one place, time also seems to move but stays still in one place. The river displays its archetype of timelessness when Siddhartha listens to its voices. As Siddhartha listens to the river, he hears the “song of a thousand voices,” but “when he did not listen to pain or laughter, when he did not bind his soul to any particular voice and did not absorb it into his Self, but I heard them all, the whole, the unity; then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of a single word: Om — perfection” (111). When Siddhartha concentrated on one aspect of the river, he felt nothing. However, when he let all the opposites form together, he found perfection. When all the voices are separated, this phenomenon represents time, as there can only be one voice at a time, but when the voices combine, they show timelessness. This realization of timelessness leads Siddhartha to enlightenment. Towards the end we see that Siddhartha has ingrained in himself the idea of ​​timelessness when Govinda looks at Siddhartha and "no longer sees the face of his friend Siddhartha. Instead he sees other faces, many faces, a long series, a continuous flow of faces" . – hundreds, thousands, who all came and disappeared and yet all seemed to be there at the same time, who all continually changed and renewed themselves and who were yet all Siddhartha” (121) Siddhartha has become so full of timelessness that his past, present and future appear all together on his face. It has transcended time. This is one of the main ideas that ultimately leads him to enlightenment Siddhartha's process of enlightenment, even though he only learns it in the last stage of his life. The river is also very important to Siddhartha's transition between life stages, allowing him to have experiences that help lead him to enlightenment. The first phase change occurs when Siddhartha moves from a life of spirituality to one of sensations. He reflects on the first time he crossed the river, when he “reached the long river in the forest, the same river across which a ferryman had once taken him when he was still young and came from the city of Gotama” (71 ). He came from the “city” of Buddha Gotama, which was a spiritual place, and was leaving to start a new life in the city, full of physical pleasures. This was his first change in life stages, from spiritual to physical. Later, returning from the city, he reaches the river and contemplates suicide. The river then puts him to sleep and purifies him with the word Om. When yeshe awakens from sleep, «the past now seemed to him covered by a veil, extremely remote, very unimportant. He only knew that his previous life… was over” (73). He woke up as a new person. This is his second change in life stages, from a life of physical pleasure to a life of spiritual awakening. Both of these phases were necessary for Siddhartha to experience in order to achieve enlightenment. Towards the end he returns to the previous phase of life when he tells Govinda: “I learned through my body and soul that it was necessary for me to sin, that I needed lust, that I had to fight for property and feel nausea and depth of desperation to learn to resist it, to learn to love the world and no longer compare it with some kind of desired imaginary world, with an imaginary vision of perfection, but leave it as it is, love it and be happy to belong to it” (116). While in theory his time in the city may have been a waste of time, in reality he needed that experience to achieve enlightenment. And although he could have experienced life in the city on his own, if the river had not cleansed him he would have committed suicide. The river leads Siddhartha to enlightenment by letting Siddhartha become filled with sin and then cleansing him afterwards. However, the river's most important role in the book is its activity as Siddhartha's teacher, the main reason he achieves enlightenment. After the river purifies Siddhartha, he accepts him as his guide. He says: “It seemed to him that the river had something special to tell him, something he didn't know, something that was still waiting for him. Siddhartha wanted to drown himself in this river; the tired and desperate old Siddhartha had drowned there today. The new Siddhartha felt a deep love for this running water and decided that he would never leave again so soon” (81). With this he accepts his last teacher, the river. He feels that he has wisdom that can teach him, something that no other teacher has been able to do. This is very particular since Siddhartha had avoided teachers all his life. He never felt like they could teach him anything new. Ultimately, however, Siddhartha learns from the river. “The river taught me to listen; you will learn from this too. The river knows everything; you can learn everything from it. You have already learned from the river that it is good to tend downwards, to sink, to seek depth... You have also learned this from the river. You will learn other things too” (86), Vasudeva tells Siddhartha after taking him as an apprentice. As the book continues, this statement is true. Siddhartha learns to listen, to wait and to remain silent. Overall these teachings allow him to reach Nirvana. As Siddhartha talks to Govinda, Siddhartha tells him, “There was a man on this ferry who was my predecessor and teacher. He was a holy man who for many years believed in the river and nothing else. He noticed that the voice of the river was speaking to him. He learned from it; he educated and taught him. The river seemed to him like a god and for many years he did not know that every wind, every cloud, every bird, every beetle is equally divine and knows and can teach as well as the esteemed river. But when this holy man went into the woods, he knew everything; he knew more than me and you, without teachers, without books, only because he believed in the river” (118). Vasudeva believes in the river to the point that he can learn all the wisdom of life from it. Siddhartha also learns how to do this, and just as the river helps Vasudeva achieve enlightenment, so it helps Siddhartha achieve his enlightenment. Siddhartha later says, "I know that I am one with Gotama" (119), meaning that just as Gotama had achieved enlightenment, so too had he, Siddhartha,, 1951.