Siddhartha: List 4

by Hermann Hesse
In this translation from German by Hilda Rosner, a young man named Siddhartha, not entirely satisfied with the religious ways of his Brahmin family and Gotama the Buddha, decides to seek his own path to spiritual enlightenment.

This list covers Part Two from "By the River"–"Govinda."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4
40 words 362 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. ennui
    the feeling of being bored by something tedious
    He was full of ennui, full of misery, full of death; there was nothing left in the world that could attract him, that could give him pleasure and solace.
  2. efface
    remove completely from recognition or memory
    There was nothing more for him but to efface himself, to destroy the unsuccessful structure of his life, to throw it away, mocked at by the gods.
  3. headlong
    with the upper or anterior part of the body foremost
    He saw his face reflected, and spat at it; he took his arm away from the tree trunk and turned a little, so that he could fall headlong and finally go under.
  4. devoid
    completely wanting or lacking
    So that was what he had come to; he was so lost, so confused, so devoid of all reason, that he had sought death.
  5. immersion
    complete attention; intense mental effort
    Softly he said the word Om to himself, over which he had fallen asleep, and it seemed to him as if his whole sleep had been a long deep pronouncing of Om, thinking of Om, an immersion and penetration into Om, into the nameless, into the Divine.
  6. transitory
    lasting a very short time
    Remember, my dear Govinda, the world of appearances is transitory, the style of our clothes and hair is extremely transitory. Our hair and our bodies are themselves transitory.
  7. permeate
    spread or diffuse through
    And at that moment, in that splendid hour, after his wonderful sleep, permeated with Om, how could he help but love someone and something.
  8. invincible
    incapable of being overcome or subdued
    He remembered that at that time he had boasted of three things to Kamala, three noble and invincible arts: fasting, waiting and thinking.
  9. assiduous
    marked by care and persistent effort
    He had learned these three arts and nothing else during the diligent, assiduous years of his youth.
  10. revere
    regard with feelings of respect
    I was in search of Brahman and revered the eternal in Atman.
  11. expiation
    the act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing
    As a young man I was attracted to expiation. I lived in the woods, suffered heat and cold. I learned to fast, I learned to conquer my body.
  12. acclaim
    praise vociferously
    I have had to experience so much stupidity, so many vices, so much error, so much nausea, disillusionment and sorrow, just in order to become a child again and begin anew. But it was right that it should be so; my eyes and heart acclaim it.
  13. pomade
    hairdressing consisting of a perfumed oil or ointment
    In the place from which I escaped there was always an atmosphere of pomade, spice, excess and inertia.
  14. carouse
    celebrate or enjoy something in a noisy or wild way
    How I hated that world of riches, carousing and playing!
  15. thwart
    hinder or prevent, as an effort, plan, or desire
    How I hated myself, thwarted, poisoned and tortured myself, made myself old and ugly.
  16. thoroughly
    in an exhaustive manner
    He felt he had thoroughly tasted and ejected a portion of sorrow, a portion of misery during those past times, that he had consumed them up to a point of despair and death.
  17. hinder
    be an obstacle to
    Too much knowledge had hindered him; too many holy verses, too many sacrificial rites, too much mortification of the flesh, too much doing and striving.
  18. penitence
    remorse for your past conduct
    His Self had crawled into this priesthood, into this arrogance, into this intellectuality. It sat there tightly and grew, while he thought he was destroying it by fasting and penitence.
  19. futile
    producing no result or effect
    That was why he had to undergo those horrible years, suffer nausea, learn the lesson of the madness of an empty, futile life till the end, till he reached bitter despair, so that Siddhartha the pleasure-monger and Siddhartha the man of property could die.
  20. devout
    deeply religious
    I am not a learned man; I do not know how to talk or think. I only know how to listen and be devout; otherwise I have learned nothing.
  21. perpetual
    uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing
    They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, of perpetual Becoming.
  22. precocious
    characterized by exceptionally early development
    He thought lovingly of him, remembered his path to salvation, and smiling, remembered the words he had once uttered as a young man to the Illustrious One. It seemed to him that they had been arrogant and precocious words.
  23. pallid
    pale, as of a person's complexion
    There was pain in her face; Siddhartha read the pain on her mouth, in her pallid face.
  24. encompass
    include in scope
    But Siddhartha went outside and sat in front of the hut all night, listening to the river, sunk in the past, simultaneously affected and encompassed by all the periods of his life.
  25. pyre
    wood heaped for burning a dead body as a funeral rite
    Kamala died on the same bed where my wife died. We shall also build Kamala’s funeral pyre on the same hill where I once built my wife’s funeral pyre.
  26. constrain
    restrict
    Do you not compel this arrogant, spoilt boy to live in a hut with two old banana eaters, to whom even rice is a dainty, whose thoughts cannot be the same as his, whose hearts are old and quiet and beat differently from his? Is he not constrained and punished by all this?
  27. exhortation
    a communication intended to urge or persuade to take action
    Who protected Siddhartha the Samana from Samsara, from sin, greed and folly? Could his father’s piety, his teacher’s exhortations, his own knowledge, his own seeking, protect him?
  28. forbearing
    showing patience and self-control in difficult circumstances
    He was silent and waited; he began daily the mute battle of friendliness and patience. Vasudeva was also silent and waited, friendly, understanding, forbearing.
  29. humble
    cause to feel shame
    In the meantime, his son let him commit his follies, let him strive, let him be humbled by his moods.
  30. pious
    having or showing or expressing reverence for a deity
    This father was a good man, a kind gentle man, perhaps a pious man, perhaps a holy man—but all these were not qualities which could win the boy.
  31. worldly
    characteristic of secularity rather than spirituality
    He saw how he had arrogantly and contemptuously looked back on his Samana days, how he had proudly and eagerly begun his worldly life.
  32. fester
    decay with an offensive smell
    He felt a deep love for the runaway boy, like a wound, and yet felt at the same time that this wound was not intended to fester in him, but that it should heal.
  33. vanity
    feelings of excessive pride
    Their vanities, desires and trivialities no longer seemed absurd to him; they had become understandable, lovable and even worthy of respect.
  34. tenacity
    persistent determination
    These people were worthy of love and admiration in their blind loyalty, in their blind strength and tenacity.
  35. indignation
    a feeling of righteous anger
    They all belonged to each other: the lament of those who yearn, the laughter of the wise, the cry of indignation and the groan of the dying.
  36. predecessor
    one who goes before you in time
    But most of all, I have learned from this river and from my predecessor, Vasudeva. He was a simple man; he was not a thinker, but he realized the essential as well as Gotama.
  37. assent
    agreement with a statement or proposal to do something
    Everything is necessary, everything needs only my agreement, my assent, my loving understanding; then all is well with me and nothing can harm me.
  38. intrinsic
    belonging to a thing by its very nature
    But what you call thing, is it something real, something intrinsic?
  39. benevolence
    an inclination to do kind or charitable acts
    He preached benevolence, forbearance, sympathy, patience—but not love. He forbade us to bind ourselves to earthly love.
  40. gait
    a person's manner of walking
    But Siddhartha’s hands and feet, his eyes, his brow, his breathing, his smile, his greeting, his gait affect me differently from his thoughts.
Created on Tue Jul 18 11:45:09 EDT 2023 (updated Tue Jul 18 19:21:57 EDT 2023)

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