Synthesized answer
The passages highlight several questions that remain unanswered for Siddhartha. He questions where the Atman, the self, the innermost and ultimate part of oneself, resides, as it is not flesh, bone, thought, or consciousness [1]. He wonders if there is another way to reach this self that is worthwhile, a way that no one, not even his father, teachers, or wise men, has shown or known [1].
Siddhartha also ponders the purpose and efficacy of offerings and sacrifices to the gods, questioning if they truly provide happy fortune or if the gods themselves are merely creations subject to time and mortality [3]. He reflects on whether the Brahmans and wise men who have collected vast knowledge have succeeded in living it, in bringing their familiarity with the Atman into their everyday lives and actions [5]. Furthermore, he expresses a profound thirst for knowledge and states that he has always been full of questions, implying that these questions have not been fully answered through his years of seeking from Brahmans, holy Vedas, and Samanas [4].
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
s to the gods? For whom else were offerings to be made, who else was to be worshipped but Him, the only one, the Atman? And where was Atman to be found, where did He reside, where did his eternal heart beat, where else but in one’s own self, in its innermost part, in its indestructible part, which everyone had in himself? But where, where was this self, this innermost part, this ultimate part? It was not flesh and bone, it was neither thought nor consciousness, thus the wisest ones taught. So, where, where was it? To reach this place, the self, myself, the Atman, there was another…
ain and becomes void. Please forgive me for expressing this objection.” Quietly, Gotama had listened to him, unmoved. Now he spoke, the perfected one, with his kind, with his polite and clear voice: “You’ve heard the teachings, oh son of a Brahman, and good for you that you’ve thought about it thus deeply. You’ve found a gap in it, an error. You should think about this further. But be warned, oh seeker of knowledge, of the thicket of opinions and of arguing about words. There is nothing to opinions, they may be beautiful or ugly, smart or foolish, everyone can support them or…
the love of his friend, Govinda, would not bring him joy for ever and ever, would not nurse him, feed him, satisfy him. He had started to suspect that his venerable father and his other teachers, that the wise Brahmans had already revealed to him the most and best of their wisdom, that they had already filled his expecting vessel with their richness, and the vessel was not full, the spirit was not content, the soul was not calm, the heart was not satisfied. The ablutions were good, but they were water, they did not wash off the sin, they did not heal the spirit’s thirst, they did not…
le one, not a single one, will reach the nirvana. We find comfort, we find numbness, we learn feats, to deceive others. But the most important thing, the path of paths, we will not find.” “If you only,” spoke Govinda, “wouldn’t speak such terrible words, Siddhartha! How could it be that among so many learned men, among so many Brahmans, among so many austere and venerable Samanas, among so many who are searching, so many who are eagerly trying, so many holy men, no one will find the path of paths?” But Siddhartha said in a voice which contained just as much sadness as mockery,…
these verses, all knowledge of the wisest ones had been collected here in magic words, pure as honey collected by bees. No, not to be looked down upon was the tremendous amount of enlightenment which lay here collected and preserved by innumerable generations of wise Brahmans.—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 to live it? Where was the knowledgeable one who wove his spell to bring his familiarity with the Atman out of the sleep into the state of being awake, into…