WORKS OF HERMANN KARL HESSE: A QUEST FOR SPIRITUALITY

Abstract

Hermann Karl Hesse was born on 2 July 1877 in the Black Forest town of Calw in Wurttemberg, German territory. He is considered as one of the most creative German psychic traveler, poet, critic, painter and novelist. He is one of the most extensively read German language authors. He is one of the most famous 20th century writers. His best-known works include Demian, Steppenwolf, Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game. All of his books discover an individual’s search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality. He travelled almost all the Continents for a conscious human evolution into higher magnitude of awareness. Much of the current appeal of Hesse can be endorsed to the fact that his writings invite his readers to identify their quests for an integral inner life with that endless struggle for self-realization. To a large extent Hesse achieves this effect by addressing himself to just those channels which communicate most directly with our deepest reactive processes-archetypal forms, the most basic personal and social conflicts, and universal philosophical and religious quests. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died on 9 August 1962. This paper, through Hermann Hesse’s tremendous works, tries to scrutinize the ultimate goal of the journey that is to attain spirituality and the path through which Nirvana can be attained.