Comparison of Siddhartha and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion - Essay Example

?Comparison of “Siddhartha” and “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” Table of Contents Introduction 3 Comparison between “Siddhartha” and “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” 4 Conclusion 8 References 9 Bibliography 10 Introduction Literature from the same age bears many things in common and a comparative study of their themes and other literary devices enable the readers to frame and evolve thoughts, ideas and perceptions about their contemporary age and society. “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse is a novel that deals with the spiritual trajectory of a boy known by the name of Siddhartha from Indian Subcontinent during the period of Buddha. Published in the year 1951 in U.S., the book was able to influence the mass of 1960s greatly. Another book crafted on the path of humanity and presented on a spiritual plane was the book “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” by Yukio Mishima. The book was published in the year 1956 and was translated into English later in the year of 1959 by Ivan Morris. The book is based loosely on the burning of the Golden Temple situated at Kinkaku-ji of Kyoto. The novel revolves round the obsession with the beauty and the growing urge to destroy it. Comparison between “Siddhartha” and “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” The books “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse and “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” by Mishima are similar in many aspects. The ages that are captivated in both the novels are very similar. Along with this, the context of the books, more precisely the spirituality encapsulated within the narrow framework of the plots involved in both the novels are presented in a similar way. Yet there are some differences in the presentation of subtle and cosmic scheme of things operating on the paradoxical plane of psychology and spirituality in both the novels. This intricate and subtle difference sets the parameter on which comparison can be made between “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse and Mishima authored “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion”. Stark comparison can be drawn from the thematic perspective of both the novels. The novels “Siddhartha” and “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” present a psychological trajectory of their respective protagonist. This trajectory includes the crest and fall of emotion and is presented in both the novels at a different paradigm. This difference of presentation of psychological crest and fall frames the major difference on the thematic plane. The title of the novel, “Siddhartha” is a Sanskrit word which actually contains two different words, namely ‘siddha’ which means achievement and ‘artha’ which means wealth or meaning. Amalgamation of both the words into one stands for two meaning. At the first plane, it means ‘he who has discovered the meaning of existence’. Also, the meaning denotes, ‘one who has achieved or attained his goals’ (Boeree, 1999). Eventually the name of Buddha before the attainment of renunciation was Prince Siddhartha or Gautama. In the book Gautama is referred to as ‘Gotama’. The story of “Siddhartha” starts with the journey of Siddhartha along with his companion Govinda. Siddhartha, the son of the Brahmin, leaves his home to join the ascetics. They leave the home and set out for the quest of the enlightenment. The story is plotted against the background of ancient India somewhere between the 4th to 7th Century BC. Siddhartha leaves the materialist life but indulges into the pleasures of the world by becoming the trader of love and consequently again gets back to ascetic. This circle of consciousness completes as a comprehensive representation of the events that takes place consciously in human life as his experience. The fundamentals of human cognition like perception, participation and knowledge take place within the context of experience and experience of human being essentially involves the oscillation of emotions pertaining to pain and pleasures of human life (Archie, & Et. Al., 2004). In the Part One of the book, author describes the restless feeling of Siddhartha, to attain the true understanding which Hesse portrayed not as a means of attainment through scholastic methods and measures but through internalization and perfect comprehension, “That was how everybody loved Siddhartha. He delighted and made everybody happy. But Siddhartha himself was not happy. Wandering along the rosy path of the fig garden, sitting in contemplation in the bluish shade of the grove, washing his limbs in the daily bath of atonement, offering sacrifices in the depths of the shady mango wood with complete grace of manner, beloved by all, a joy to all, there was yet no joy in his own heart. Dreams and restless thoughts came flowing to him from the river, from the twinkling stars at night; from the sun’s melting rays.............Siddhartha had begun to feel the seeds of discontent within him.” The experience of Siddhartha is plotted in such a manner that represents the best way to attain realization through cognition and that cognition actually takes place through real life experiences. Hesse crafts Siddhartha’s trajectory to the destination of his understanding and the attainment of the destination takes place not through mind-dependant devices. Hesse also tries to uphold the philosophy that cognition neither takes place through the involvement into the carnal pleasures of life and accompaniment of the pains of the world or ‘samsara’. A comprehensive cycle of experience with proper blend of the elements from both the realm make the journey of Siddhartha’s understanding coherent and complete, “Your Soul is the whole world. It says that when a man is asleep, he penetrates his innermost and dwells in Atman.” And thus Siddhartha’s realisation through the pain-stricken path leads him ultimately to the destination of happiness which is a pure blissful feeling mostly inexplicable in words, “One must find the source within one’s own self, one must possess it. Everything else was seeking a detour, error” (Hesse, 2009). Thus, it was perceived through the trajectory of Siddhartha’s cognition that individual efforts and their events in life are meaningless. Siddhartha’s stay in ‘samanas’ along with his evolvement in the world pertaining to love and business do not pave his way for the attainment of ‘nirvana’. Yet all these phenomena cannot be considered as the means of distractions. This is because for all the events and actions that Siddhartha undertakes and that happens to him for the achievement and attainment of proper understanding is the summation of the events considered as experience, “Om is the bow, the arrow is the soul, Brahman is the arrow’s goal At which one aims unflinchingly” On the other hand, the novel “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” authored by renowned Japanese writer Yukio Mishima is a story which is subtly based on the burning of the reliquary in Kyoto. The narrator of the story Mizoguchi, who is portrayed as an acolyte is utterly disturbed and is under question, has an affliction, towards ugly face and a stutter. Mizoguchi, in the story, recounts his obsession with beauty and notifies growth in the urge of destroying it. At the outset of the novel, it becomes evident that the novel is built upon the paradox of psychological oscillation. With the development of its plot, it can be easily culminated that the novel, “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” is an excellent psychological piece which displays the myriad complex bent of human mind and how through the affliction and obsession, it can turn into evil. The protagonist of the book is a son of a poor rural priest Mizoguchi. He was taken away by his father to become an acolyte at the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. He was relentlessly provoked and informed about the beauty of the temple by his father, “Thus the Golden Temple was apparent everywhere. In so far as I could not actually set eyes on the temple, it was like the sea” (Mishima, 2001). At the outset of the novel, the readers are made well aware about the obsession that Mizoguchi started inflicting in his mind. This pursuit of ideal beauty launched him to a path full of adversaries. Slowly he gets deviated from the beauty of women or any object and at last it resulted into distraction of his mind from the beauty of the Golden Pavilion even. Nothing in this world is able to live up to his image of ideal beauty. This feeling explicitly gets place in his feeling, “ When finally I reach the outer world after all my efforts, all that I find is a reality that has instantly changed color and gone out of focus - a reality that has lost the freshness I had considered fitting for myself, and that gives off a putrid odor”. Conclusion The trauma and its obsession which the protagonist undergoes in the novel “The Pavilion of the Golden Temple” is different from “Siddhartha” in many ways. But the most poignant difference is the emotional journey through which Siddhartha attains the salvation, the true realization through experience and Mizoguchi’s pursuit of ideal beauty remains a dystopia, an allusion for him and he is never able to attain it nor does he succeeds in overcoming it. In the case of Mizoguchi, the failure to comprehend the real cognition from life results in the destruction of his epitome for the ideal beauty, The Golden Temple (Manoff, 2006). References Archie, L. & Et. Al., 2004. Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha. An Open Source Reader. [Online] Available at: http://philosophy.lander.edu/oriental/siddhartha.pdf [Accessed January 26, 2011]. Boeree, G., 1999. The Life of Siddhartha Gautama. Shippensburg University. [Online] Available at: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/siddhartha.html [Accessed January 26, 2011]. Hesse, H., 2009. Siddhartha an Indian Tale. Wildside Press LLC. Manoff, M., 2006. The Confessional Hero of the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Colby College. [Online] Available at: http://digitalcommons.colby.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=ugrs [Accessed January 26, 2011]. Mishima, Y., 2001. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Vintage. Bibliography Minnesota State University, No Date. Short Review. Book Store. [Online] Available at: http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/Bookstore/shortreview.html [Accessed January 26, 2011]. Read More