The Principles of Transience and Permanence in Both Siddhartha and Mizoguchi - Essay Example

The principles of transience and permanence in both Siddhartha and Mizoguchi that impacted their religious journey to self-actualization The world of literature has always acted as an intermediary between people and the author. Different themes have been used by the authors to propose their views to the audience. Siddhartha is an exemplary novel written by Hermann Hesse which revolves around Siddhartha. Siddhartha is a man belonging to Nepal in the time of Buddha. His spiritual journey is marvelously explained in the novel. The book was written in 1992 and is written in German language in a lyrical but at the same time in very simple style. Considering the name of the book, the word Siddhartha is made up of two words in the Sanskrit language, sidha means ‘achieved’ whereas artha means ‘wealth’. The two words together mean ‘he who has found meaning of existence’. The plot of the novel revolves around the concept of finding enlightenment and self actualization. The novel starts as Siddhartha, son of a Brahmin leaves his home with his friend Govinda to join the ascetics and find the reason for their existence. The story takes place during the time of Gotama Buddha in ancient India. Siddhartha the main character of the book shifts from asceticism to a worldly life as a trader, travels with a lover and then goes back to asceticism as he attempts to attain his ambition. Comparatively the second book, the temple of the golden pavilion is a novel written by a Japanese author, Yukio Mishima. Published in 1956, its plot is based on a true event that occurred in Japan in 1950. The people of Japan were flabbergasted when a young acolyte, who was afflicted with a stammer, became obsessed with the beauty of the Zen temple of kikankuji and burned it to the ground. . His original plan was to burn the temple and die in the fire but because he lost his courage at the last moment he tried to commit suicide afterwards. He finally failed at his attempt to suicide and turned himself over to the police. During his trial he confessed that the reason he burned down the temple was that he couldn’t bear with his stammer anymore and that he felt obliged to destroy and demolish everything that was beautiful. The book’s characters are strange and it contains vivid writing. The book narrates the life story of Mizoguch, a young boy who is obsessed with this golden temple. A person’s life can have value simply because of the enjoyment of that person. The principal of transience in life explains the above phrase. It is the experience of life itself which has meaning. Transient itself means lasting only for a short time. Both the book questions about the transience of the worldly life, whereas in contrast permanence explain the absolute opposite. The fact that an unstoppable search for reality is important for achieving a well-balanced relationship with the world is beautifully explained in Siddhartha. Nirvana, universal understanding of life is what both the main characters Siddhartha and Govinda seek in this book. The character, Siddhartha is determined because of his quest for spiritual enlightenment and understanding of this world. While he agrees to the extremes of physical world in this novel, the initial sparkle of aspiration comes from within him. Siddhartha’s basic goal is to go against the self. Siddhartha and Govinda both differed in their ways to search for enlightenment which leads to perfect relationship with the world and is the last goal every man aspires to attain. In Siddhartha’s case he changes his route of direction many times. He abandons the course of Brahmins for the path of Samanas and then leaves theirs to join the Gotama, but because he still remains dissatisfied he sets out in search for material world with Kamala and Kamaswami. In contrast, the other character of the book Govinda is inflexible in his hunt for enlightenment and sticks to his need of teachers and restricts him to the spiritual and the religious world. Siddhartha is willing to break away from religion itself and to leave all his training whereas Govinda on the other hand is insistent to quench his thirst of enlightenment as long as it is in the limits of Hinduism and Buddhism and is directed by a teacher. As a result, Govinda is unable to see the reality of life surrounding him since he is limited to the confines of his teachings of his teachers whereas Siddhartha’s insistent quest leads him to find truth through his own strength. Govinda achieves enlightenment by an act of kindness on Siddhartha’s part. Siddhartha realizes that wisdom cannot be taught by teachers, it is something that comes from inside every person. In the end he gains enlightenment because he develops an inner association with the river which he discovers hold the complete world. Vaudeva, another character in the novel is a sort of external teacher for Siddhartha. But even then if analyzed properly he never makes an attempt to guide Siddhartha about meaning of life. He guides him to concentrate on the river and look inside himself for all the questions he needs answers for. In the novel, the two paths, interior and exterior are both explored skillfully but the book concludes with an understanding that exterior path is of no use. The book’s concluding message is based on the fact that the soul of enlightenment already lives in every human being, unbending ways of life escorts us further from ourselves and from the knowledge we search for. ‘But where were the Brahmans, where the priests, where the wise men or penitents, who had succeeded in not just knowing this deepest of all knowledge but also live it?’ 1 This quote from the book Siddhartha implies that for Siddhartha, wisdom was not only to be learned but lived. Now considering the second book ‘the temple of the golden pavilion’, the main character Mizoguchi, is a young man who is studying to become a Zen Buddhist monk at the kinkakuji temple in Kyoto Japan. As a small boy he sees his mother having physical relations with another man in the presence of his dying father after which he is troubled with a terrible stammer. Mizoguchi is unappealing and his stammering isolate him from other people. Before dying his father takes him to see the golden temple and Mizoguchi build up an obsession with the exquisiteness of the temple. He wants to be a monk at the temple so he could not be separated from it. The superior of the temple agrees to take him on as an acolyte. Despite his fixation, he doesn’t have calm with the beauty of the temple. He finds the beauty of the temple sarcastic to him as it was something that he did not have. In school Mizoguchi meets Kashiwagi another character in the book. This character believes that knowledge makes life tolerable not the faith. He communicates this belief of his to Mizoguchi by trying to weaken Mizoguchi’s faith in the beauty he is trying to achieve. Kashiwagi nihilistic approach towards life captivated Mizoguchi’s interest and as a result he becomes alienated from the life of temple until he burns it and then realizes the meaning and essence of freedom and wants desperately to live. Self loathing is the core topic of the novel which is addressed. "What transforms this world is — knowledge. Do you see what I mean? Nothing else can change anything in this world. Knowledge alone is capable of transforming the world, while at the same time leaving it exactly as it is. When you look at the world with knowledge, you realize that things are unchangeable and at the same time are constantly being transformed." 2 This novel is contemplation on the correlation between actions and words, loveliness and unattractiveness and being and nothingness. . Kashiwagi who happens to be clubfooted shares a flaw that makes them both stained in the eyes of the beauty. When Mizoguchi listen Kashiwagi playing the flute and his capability to create something to beauty despite the imperfection of his clubfeet he realizes that beauty can be achieved through skills. “Kashiwagi’s playing…sounded so beautiful not only because of the lovely moonlit background, but because of his hideous clubfeet.” Other questions are also addresses such as beauty and wickedness both existing in the same world. Other viewpoints to book are is there meditation on magnificence and how it relates to humans and art? Or does a mortal man has the power to demolish something from its existence just by a single fire alone? Another double edged sword in the book is the central idea of Mizoguchi’s world view, that beauty can be destructive and cruel. On the one hand, we see that it is not some natural concept of beauty that destroys Mizoguchi; it is how he understands it and how he accuses it for his own insufficiency. It is not the beauty that destroys him; he destroys himself. Now, in both the books with both the main characters, Siddhartha and Mizoguchi their journey shows the principal of transience and permanence in life which led them to realize about their lives in a different ways. Life in this world is short and it should be lived with love and kindness and it is not permanent. One achieves wisdom through the experiences of life. Both the characters from these book addresses, we as humans are inclines to question whether our consciousness or soul persists after death. Siddhartha realized that with experience of the worldly deeds and Mizoguchi realized it when he burned down the temple and realized the importance of life. References Hesse Hermann, ‘’Siddhartha’ first part, 1st chapter ‘ Son of Brahman’ , translated by Hilda Rosner, publisher, New Directions (US) 1922-1951 Mishima Yukio, ‘The Temple of the golden pavilion’ Translator, Ivan Morris, Publisher, Shinchosha, 1956 Read More