In Hermann Hesse's novel, Siddhartha, the main character of the story, Siddhartha, a young Brahmin and his beloved friend, Govinda leave home to find enlightenment. They join a group of ascetic Samanas, and for many years Siddhartha and Govinda deny the pains and senses of their bodies, including the outside world. Yet Siddhartha is not satisfied with the outcome and fails to find the true path to the enlightenment he seeks. Furthermore, Siddhartha, due to his dissatisfaction, renounces the life of asceticism and leaves with Govinda to visit and hear Gautama Buddha speak and learn from him. However, the Buddha's teaching does not provide Siddhartha with what he needs; he leaves Buddha's presence and continues his journey to discover true enlightenment while Govinda stays with Buddha. Siddhartha realizes that the Buddha's teaching will not be enough for him since his thirst is not for knowledge but rather a thirst to feel and experience this moment of achieving enlightenment. He therefore decides to continue his journey. During his journey, Siddhartha suddenly realizes that one must seek and achieve enlightenment by living, not by preaching, since what he is seeking is not something from the outer world but rather from the inner world, of the self. During his journey, Siddhartha meets a Kamala, a beautiful courtesan, who introduces him to the life of wealth and pleasure. However, Siddhartha decides to leave Kamala after realizing that he has strayed from his true path, the path of self-discovery, unaware that she is not pregnant with his son. Siddhartha begins living with one Vasudeva, a ferryman who lives by a river. They both now believe that the river can teach them great wisdom...... middle of paper...... to further its knowledge. He always moved forward, never stopping definitively in the same place. His quest never stopped until the river taught him what he needed to know. Hesse, in a way, shows us that only through sacrifice can someone obtain what they seek. He shows us that life is not offered to someone on a platter, but that we have to look for it to find it. Siddhartha, through his departure from home and the Samanas, his realization that even the Buddha was not perfect in his teachings, his abandonment of Kamala and finally his decision to stay and learn from Vasudeva, shows us that He had spent his whole life searching for something that was missing, his peace. Ultimately, Siddhartha finds his inner Self, he finds his peace. Works Cited Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2000. Print.