Resurrection of the Self: A Comparative Thematic Study of Rumi’s Selected Poems and Hesse’s Siddhartha

Abstract

This research aims to trace a journey towards spiritual development by underscoring different stages which are essential for a mystic to cover a long distance of spiritual development and reach his/her goal, i.e. self-fulfillment, a higher state of a man’s existence in which the Phenomenal Self immerses into the Divine Self. In order to chart out the stages of such a journey, this research does a thematic analysis of Hesse’s masterpiece, Siddhartha, and Rumi’s selected poems and draw parallels in the themes projected by both the writers. The objective of the study is to make inter-generic reading of the mystical texts and derive common features from them. The motive behind the selection of these texts is to highlight the phenomenon of resurrected self from two different perspectives i.e. Eastern Sufism and Western Mysticism and to merge them to propose a comprehensive perspective to understand the Divine. Taking inspiration from Fowler, we have categorized the spiritual journey into three stages which are labeled as The Childhood stage, The Adulthood stage and The Young stage.[1] At the first stage, a person remains focused on his/her selfish desires such as the desire to achieve reputation, honor and wealth which eventually leads him/her towards different recalcitrant feelings like jealousy, anger and hatred. At the second stage when a person becomes a little mature, s/he starts swimming against the current of naive attempts to attain happiness and struggles to find the eternal source of happiness and peace. At the third and the last stage, s/he achieves the ultimate source or truth of happiness and is considered as a divine source for others.