Hesse's Siddhartha as it Parallels Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Several parallels can be drawn between the psychologist Abraham Maslow's theoretical hierarchy of needs and the spiritual journey of Siddhartha, the eponymous main character in Herman Hesse's novel. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is somewhat of a pyramid that is divided into eight stages of need through which one progresses throughout one's entire life. During the course of his lifetime, Siddhartha's personality develops in a manner congruent with the stages of Maslow's hierarchy. Siddhartha's progress from each of the major sections of the hierarchy is marked by a sharp change in his life or behavior.
Siddhartha is the story of a young man's journey in search of truth. Early in life, Siddhartha and his friend Govinda hear the teachings of the Buddha. Govinda is convinced of the validity of the Buddha's teachings and becomes one of his followers. Siddhartha, on the other hand, was not satisfied with the Buddha's teachings because he believed that it was not possible to obtain true enlightenment through the words of others but that it must be experienced empirically. Siddhartha therefore rejects the life of a Brahmin to become a Samana (a wandering person who gives up material possessions for his faith). After he tires of this life, he moves on to learn the art of love from a woman named Kamala and the art of business from a man named Kamaswami. He lives his new life for many years but then begins to feel that his mind has become stagnant and that he needs something new in his life. He abandons the surroundings he now finds decadent and becomes friends and lives with a ferry-man who he met years before. He spends the rest of his life with ...
... middle of paper ...
...e of material wants and was truly happy just to exist. He realized his potential and found wonder in the world around him.
At some time during life, everyone must face Siddhartha's challenge. Everyone spends their life trying to attain self fulfillment and true contentment. And during that time, one must remember the importance of the journey itself, not only the actual achievement. Although not everyone reaches that goal, it is that goal which motivates people to strive to be their very best, knowing that lasting happiness sits shining atop the pyramid.
Works Cited
Hesse, Herman. Siddhartha. New York: New Directions Publishing Company, 1951.
Glenn, Jerry. Monarch Notes. The Major Works of Herman Hesse. New York: Monarch Press, 1973.
Schultz, Duane . Theories of Personality. Monterey, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1976.
There are a lot of synonyms for the word best friend. Some of the many include soulmate, companion, ride-or-die, sister/brother, husband/wife, and that does not even begin to cover it. The term is so broad with a vague definition, but has a strong meaning to almost everyone. Most people that are asked have someone they consider to be their best friend in some form, either a friend or a spouse. Often times these two people have gone through so much with each other, the good and the bad. These people are so important to everyday life because they help to reach important needs, they help people to discover themselves, and they help to maintain healthy aging.
Spendthrift, the perfect connotation of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) economy and how any one team can dominate free agency and the player market. As long as they are financially superior to the rest of the league, they will remain on the upper edge of talent. Unlike the other three major sports leagues (NFL, NHL, NBA,) the MLB presents one key underlying feature…the lack of a salary cap. A salary cap, or lack of salary cap in any sport, can do one of two important things: create parity, or create Darwinism amongst small market teams. If a salary cap is to exist in baseball, a sense of parity may arise leaving all teams with equal chances of landing big name free agents.
Under the protection of Major League Baseball’s (“MLB”) longtime antitrust exemption, Minor League Baseball (“MiLB”) has continuously redefined and reshaped itself according to Baseball’s overall needs. But while MLB salaries have increased dramatically since the MLB reserve clause was broken in 1975, the salaries of minor league players have not followed suit.
Siddhartha is a much respected son of a Brahmin who lives with his father in ancient India. Everyone in their town expects Siddhartha to act like his father and become successful. Although he lives a very high quality life, Siddhartha is dissatisfied and along with his best friend Govinda- wants nothing more than to join the group of wandering ascetics called Samana’s. This group starves themselves, travels almost naked and must beg for the food they survive on. This group of people believes that to achieve enlightenment and self-actualization: body image, health, physical and material desires must be thrown away. Although this is the life Siddhartha wished for himself, he soon discovers that it is not the right choice for him. Near desolation, Siddhartha happens upon a river where he hears a strange sound. This sound signifies the beginning of the life he was born to live – the beginning of his true self. Hesse uses many literary devices to assure Siddhartha’s goal of self-actualization and creates a proper path for that success.
The 1994-95 baseball strike was the fourth strike in 22 years and has been known as the worst strike in sports history. The major impact was approximately 948 games canceled along with the World Series resulting in millions of dollars lost. Team owners proposed a salary cap agreement to the players due to difficult financial situations the league was experiencing. The owners said that teams needed to share broadcasting revenues to make it equal amongst the teams to prevent market clubs from falling. This meant that smaller teams would not lose their bigger players to teams that c...
Each of us has innate desire to understand the purpose of our existence. As Hermann Hesse illustrates in his novel Siddhartha, the journey to wisdom may be difficult. Organized religion helps many to find meaning in life but it does not substitute careful introspection. An important message of Siddhartha is that to achieve enlightenment one must unite the experiences of mind, body, and spirit.
The beautiful courtesan, Kamala, taught Siddhartha the importance of love along with the pleasures of it. While in the town of Samsara, he was introduced to a life of luxuries by her. She taught him how to please a woman and how to keep her satisfied. He also learned how to gamble and the art of running a business from her friends. Although Siddhartha felt moments of joy, nothing fulfilled the longing in his soul. Over the years, one of the more important lessons he gained from Kamala was that he could have this life of pleasurable things and yet still yearn for a deeper meaning in his heart.
While it seems as if Siddhartha’s early stages of following the teachings of others and immersing himself in material goods did not help Siddhartha on his quest, Siddhartha views these stages in a positive way. “I experienced by observing my own body and my own soul that I sorely needed sin, sorely needed concupiscence, needed greed, vanity… and to love it and be happy to belong to it.” (120). Siddhartha states how he needed sin, vanity, and all of these feelings to realize how corrupt his view of enlightenment was. Siddhartha understands, through viewing his own body and soul, that he needs to accept the world he lives in for what it is, and learn to love it. This flaw that Siddhartha has throughout much of the novel is crucial, as Hesse is able to display how wisdom can only be achieved by looking within the self, not through the words or doctrines of others.
Siddhartha, in Herman Hesse's novel, Siddhartha, is a young, beautiful, and intelligent Brahmin, a member of the highest and most spiritual castes of the Hindu religion, and has studied the teachings and rituals of his religion with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Inevitably, with his tremendous yearning for the truth and desire to discover the Atman within himself he leaves his birthplace to join the Samanas. With the Samanas he seeks to release himself from the cycle of life by extreme self-denial but leaves the Samanas after three years to go to Gotama Buddha. Siddhartha is impressed by the blissful man but decides to lead his own path. He sleeps in the ferryman's hut and crosses the river where he encounters Kamala, a beautiful courtesan, who teaches him how to love. He is disgusted with himself and leaves the materialistic life and he comes to the river again. He goes to Vasudeva, the ferryman he met the first time crossing the river. They become great friends and both listen and learn from the river. He sees Kamala again but unfortunately, she dies and leaves little Siddhartha with the ferrymen. He now experience for the first time in his life true love. His son runs away and Siddhartha follows him but he realizes he cannot bring him back. He learns from the river that time does not exist, everything is united, and the way to peace is through love. Siddhartha undergoes an archetypal quest to achieve spiritual transcendence. During his journey, he both embraces and rejects asceticism and materialism only to ultimately achieve philosophical wisdom "by the river".
At the beginning of the book Siddhartha is in training to become a Brahmin and follow in the footsteps of his father. He is a promising young student who has everything going for him but he is secretly unsatisfied and feels that the path he is taking will not lead him to achieving enlightenment. Siddhartha feels he has already learned everything he can from his father and the surrounding community. He confides in his best friend and travel companion throughout the book, Govinda, and together they end up joining a group of Samanas. Siddhartha’s father is very unhappy but Siddhartha cannot be swayed and he leaves with the Samanas.
...at the key to happiness is an equality of self, knowledge and love. Without these key ingredients the path for harmony becomes twisted and unmanageable. With Siddhartha's wise findings and example, it is much easier to reach the destination of balance. From Siddhartha's philosophies, the most consequential lesson I acquired is not to draw boundaries or label. In Siddhartha's progression, he falters twice, and then attains his goal. He overcame all obstacles, with perseverance, and his life can truly be defined as a legacy. Siddhartha's journey broke a cultural barrier for me and taught me a valuable lesson in acceptance. Not only did Siddhartha's determination cause metamorphoses in his own part, but gave me hope for progress and the achievement of my goals, through implementing his fundamental principles and all that I have previously acquired.
Nemee, David. “100 Years of Major League Baseball.” Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications Infernational, Ltd, 200. Print.
Readers have been fascinated with Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha for decades. Written in 1951, Hesse’s most famous novel provides the reader with a work of literature that, “presents a remarkable exploration of the deepest philosophical and spiritual dimensions of human existence” (Bennett n.p). Siddhartha takes place in India while the Buddha has first began his teachings. The book follows the life of a man by the name of Siddhartha, on his journey to reach enlightenment. The main theme in Siddhartha is reaching enlightenment without the guidance of a teacher or mentor. Siddhartha believes that he must learn from himself, and the guidance of another teacher will only distort his goals of reaching enlightenment. Siddhartha says that he must, “learn from myself, be a pupil of myself: I shall get to know, myself, the mystery of Siddhartha” (Hesse 36). On Siddhartha’s journey to reach Nirvana, the highest level of peace in the Buddhist culture, he undergoes three stages all of which are critical in helping Siddhartha find peace within himself.
Humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) developed a model that represents the motivational needs of humans. In this model, Hierarchy of Needs (1943), Maslow conceptualizes that human needs are met in five steps that begin with the basic physiological need (those of hunger, thirst, avoidance of pain, procreation, elimination). He then goes on to say that we may then become motivated to meet the needs for safety (of self, home, and those we love or care for), for love and belongingness (emotional bonds for intimacy, friendships, and social connections), to feel esteemed (the need for achievement, respect prestige, status, and/or approval) (Nevid, 2013). Maslow's hierarchy ends with the highest need, that of self-actualization. He feels that only after we meet the lower needs, can we begin to move up each step until we reach the fulfillment of human potential at the stage of self-actualization.
ONGC envisages organizing Import/International Sale of Crude Oil and Export of Petroleum Products through Tendering Procedure for all the Group Companies. However, it would be restricted to the Companies/ Firms/ Vendors registered with ONGC on its approved Vendor Lists.