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Literary Review
Relevance of Hesse today
THE politics and writings of this Nobel Laureate are particularly relevant in this, his 125th birth centenary, because he had the courage of his convictions to protest against German militarism in the years during and after the First World War. On November 3, 1914, Hesse wrote an article that hurled him into the maelstrom of controversy. Sharply critical of his colleagues who had defected to the "camp of the super patriots", Hesse pleaded for an upholding of the historic standards of German culture. Hesse implored for the defeat, not of foreign nations, but of "unreasoning war and modernised brutality". The results were immediate: his books disappeared from bookstores and he was lambasted for being a traitor, and unpatriotic pacifist. This call to action, however, softly interwove a desire for contemplation. In 1951 Hesse told his friend Miguel Serrano: "You should let yourself be carried away, like the clouds in the sky. You shouldn't resist. God exists in your destiny just as much as he does in these mountains and in that lake. It is very difficult to understand this, because man in moving further and further away from nature, and also from himself."
Hesse was born in 1877 in Wurttenberg, Germany. He was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father, a Protestant missionary but like the eponymous protagonist of Siddhartha, he wandered from one vocation to another in search of contentment. Siddhartha, probably Hesse's best known work, emerged out of his profound regard for Indian philosophy. It portrays the quest of the Brahmin Siddhartha who seeks to conquer suffering and fear. His exacting path leads him through the temptations of luxury and wealth. He learns to sleep on the wave, to lead a life in harmony with Nature. In the course of the novel, Siddhartha becomes a ferryman and realises that only by living a life of both the spirit and the senses will he gain peace. He has a mystical experience when he sees the bearers of pleasure and pain in his dramatic life blend with the river which is flowing towards its goal and in the process become vapour, cloud, rain and river again.
Here, suffering, joy, laughter, sorrow, anger, happiness represent the human predicament. All humans become part of this timeless oneness. Siddhartha, like our children today, struggles with choices at every stage in his life. While there is freedom in choosing, it is not without responsibility. Siddhartha shows that you can communicate knowledge but not wisdom, which everyone must gain through their experience of life.
Knulp, first published in 1915, is the story of a man fashioned as a modern tramp, a misfit who cannot settle down in the ordered world of commercial life. This story is concerned with the artist's dilemma, with the apparently purposeless existence of the poet and the painter. Eventually, however, there is acceptance and reconciliation. In an imaginary conversation with God, Knulp convinces himself that all had been for the best, he was as God had made him and he had lived as God had intended he live. God replied to Knulp "I could only have used you as you are." Through Knulp, Hesse shows us that even an ordinary man has the right to self-esteem and humanity and that it must be above material excellence and accomplishment.
Hesse's Demian encouraged his readers to look within themselves for a source of strength at a moment when the rest of the world seemed to mock their nation. Demian is not a separate physical being since he is never separated from Sinclair, the narrator of the story. Demian is Sinclair himself — his deepest self, an archetypal hero who exists within each of us, an essence that remains unchanging. Towards the end of the story, Demian approaches Sinclair and says "Listen, little one, if you ever need me again, do not expect me to come back so openly on a horse or a train. Look for me within yourself." Hesse was forced to find a Demian within himself at the moment that he abandoned his country because of the war that encompassed Europe. Demian resides within each of us.
Hesse's books represent his search for truth and personal identity and thus resonate with the dilemma of all those who live in this world of contemplation and action, seeking to square their realities with quintessential existential dilemmas.
JYOTI NAIR BELLIAPPA
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