By The River

Mentally: Mentally, Siddhartha was looking at his reflection in the river and was disgusted and disappointed in himself. He felt that the love and compassion that he had for learning new things about life and experiencing things for himself was lost somewhere along his journey. He begins to reflect on how his life was before he became who he was now, and he misses the curious person that he once was, always wanted to learn more and experience new things within his life. Siddhartha has an epiphany about his life and decides to change his life and start over with his journey all over again. The reflection in the river made him realize what was really happening to him, and Siddhartha needed to rejuvenate himself back to spirituality.   


Physically: Physically, during the beginning of Siddhartha's journey by the river he begins feeling very weary and depressed, and he feels disappointed in himself knowing that his ulitmate goal to achieve Nirvana was slipping away and it didn't seem as important to his life anymore. He mentally started making himself believe that there was nothing left in the world to give him any sort of internal pleasure. When Siddhartha came to this realization within himself he began to change his lifestyle once again, and he changed into a new person with a different perspective of the life around him. Siddhartha had grown old, but he decided to renew his life and start over with a clean slate to try and get his life on the right track, and to achieve what he always wanted, internal Nirvana. 

Spiritually: Spiritually, Siddhartha's mind finally realized what was right, and it led him back onto the right path. When he began reciting the holy prayers and was back to his old customs, his internal spiritual soul made him come to the realization that the way he was living was not right, and that he needed to follow along the path of holiness to reach his goal of Nirvana and true spiritual enlightenment. He left behind everything that was in his life and became new again, refreshed and eager to achieve what was set out for him. 


Socially: Socially, Siddhartha is basically alone and has no one with him or no one to talk to. He looks back on the life that he once lived and all the people around him that he loved and had left behind to continue with his journey. Siddhartha ends up seeing his good friend Govinda, but Govinda did not recognize him at first. He realized once he was closer that this was not the life that Siddhartha had set out to live, and he could see all of the experiences that has changed the way that he was living. He knew that he needed to sit down and change his life, Govinda had given him advice about his path, and he knew that he had to continue his journey to achieve his goal. 


Quote: "How strange this is! Now, no longer young, my hair already half gray, my powers failing now, now i begin again at the beginning as a child!" (75). This was a moment in Siddhartha's experience that he realized that he needed to change because he was getting old and his time to reach his goal would be cut away if he kept living life how he was. This was the realization that he needed to go back onto the right path of spirituality and achieve what he was set out to do.