Knecht and Dienst: A Probe
Hermann Hesse, in the “Foreword” to the 1946 edition of If the War Goes On….mentions that “three strong influences, at work, throughout my life, have made me what I am”. He then lightly lands on such influences: his Swabian German pietistic upbringing, Chinese thinkers, and Jakob Burkhardt. What might bind together such influences that made Hesse “what I am?” Perhaps, such a hint and pointer might be found in Book I of The Journey to the East.
The narrator in The Journey to the East has been part of a significant group called “The League”. The League is a conscious group of spiritual thinkers that have drawn together the best that has been thought, said and done in the history of the human journey into a grand synthesis of insight and wisdom. Each and all in the League are committed to, in a personal and communal way, understanding and living forth the wisdom and meaning of such insights. What, though, might be the core and centre of such an abiding vision?
The narrator in Book I encounters Leo who seems, at first glance, to be the servant and Sherpa of the league. Leo packs up the bags for the pilgrims, brings their food, does their dishes, carries the bulk of their belongings (and much else) that eases the material needs of those on the quest. Leo, for all intents and purposes, seems to be the hired hand for those with deeper, grander and greater spiritual commitments and longings. And yet? And yet? There is a telling conversation between Leo and the narrator that is a portal into Hesse core vision. Leo suggests that there is a law or structure at the heart of things that we ignore to our peril and those on the quest for meaning and life must learn it. What is such a law?
“The Law?” I asked curiously. “What law is that, Leo?”
“The Law of service. He who wishes to live long must serve, but
He who wishes to rule does not live long”
There is much compressed into this compact and not to be forgotten insight of Leo, and such an insight can be found in much of Hesse’s writings as a counterpoint to other options.
Most of Hesse’s more mature short stories and novels probe, ever further and deeper, the diverse nature of the human soul, paths to take as a means of fulfillment, meaning and purpose and consequences of such choices. Some of the darker and more ominous novels such as Demian and Steppenwolf are more about indulging various appetites and desires, speculations and possibilities of life, much being liquid and fluid, willing wishes and living from such willed wishes. There is a sense in which Demian and Steppenwolf are must-reads for the simple reason
that inner and willed exploration (and the individual freedom to indulge such a journey) is at the heart and core of the authentic life. But, is this Hesse’s final word or merely a phase that, by day’s end, is a cliff’s edge and cul-de-sac? And, what might Hesse-Leo mean by the law of service?
Hesse had a tender and probing mind and heart and his notion of the law of service had both a core and radiated ever outwards. First, the inner law of service had much to do with serving, being attentive to,
heeding the deeper inner life and being part of birthing the real self rather than pandering to the inflated wants of the imposter ego (and its multiple addictions and erratic choices). It was in this attentive listening and responding to the inner depths (and living from such a place) that the ego could be seen for what it was and a more meaningful life might be lived. This is why, although Hesse explored a variety of identity options, he realized many were rabbit trails. Second, if the law of service was, initially, meant to be one in which the self was properly birthed, matured and grew, so service was meant to be front and centre in the communal human journey also. If, in short, the spiritual and religious quest bypassed service, the quest was an opiate of sorts.
We can see, in Hesse’s novels, short stories and much else, those who seem to be overcoming the bourgeois and philistine way of life, in fact, are only reacting to it and, in reality, gorging the ego. So, what seems to be an overcoming is, in fact, a being caged by the ego. All this is so subtle and yet so real, the overcoming not a deeper overcoming. The real overcoming is when the self-overcomes the demands of the ego and this is best illuminated by the discipline of service and care for the self and others (at a variety of levels). We can see this worked out in most of Hesse’s novels: Peter’s turn to St. Francis, Siddhartha, Narcissus, Leo and Joseph Knecht but echoing the same motif. It is significant to note that, in Greek myth, narcissus (from which we get the narcissistic personality) is seen as a place not to go. The longing of Narcissus, of course, is the desire to know true identity—needless to say, the shallow surface of the water is not the place to look—only a surface reflection is returned as the answer. But, Hesse realized that the longing of Narcissus is legitimate, but the places gone to are the problem. Hence in his superb novel, Narcissus and Goldmund, Hesse highlights the nature of proper and genuine self-love and other love (community being the context within which such a reality is lived forth). The more Hesse’s pondering and reflections matured, the more he moved from the lone individual searching for a meaningful identity (in all sorts of convoluted and complex ways) to the role of persons in community and how community and personhood are, when properly understood, a hand and glove fit.
Narcissus and Goldmund, The Journey to the East and The Glass Bead Game embody and reflect Hesse’s notion of service within the context of community. Joseph Knecht, magister of the glass bead game, means the one who serves, knecht, in German meaning servant—the word also overlaps with the English word for knight (again, one who serves).
Leo is the servant of all servants yet he is the leader of the League. There are two words in German that embody layered ways of understanding the meaning of servanthood (Knecht and Dienst)and throughout most of Hesse’s novels, he is ever massaging the meaning of the words at a personal and political level. It is somewhat significant that in the passage quoted above in which Leo ponders the meaning of service, he uses the German word Dienst. Dienst, unlike Knecht, has decided political overtones and implications---such acts of serving the other can, of course, take place at the familial, friendship and social levels, but to serve, in a meaningful way and responsible way, at the larger public and political levels was also something Hesse and Leo were acutely aware of and the need for it. The obvious use by Hesse of the two German words of Knecht and Dienst walks the attentive reader into Hesse’s fuller vision of the meaning of faithful service at many-layered levels and such words incarnate and embody Hesse’s more mature notion of the true overcomer when compared to the more inadequate notion of the overcomer described in Klingsor’s Last Summer, Demian or Steppenwolf.
In sum, therefore, the golden key that will open the door into Hesse’s novels and life is the key to the law of service and Hesse, again and again, returns to this core theme in his writings and life. If, therefore, we are to understand Hesse, we must return to such a persistent theme and be attentive to how Hesse understands it. I might add, then, by way of conclusion, that what Hesse’s German Swabian pietistic upbringing, his interest in Chinese thinkers and Burckhardt shared in common was an understanding of service as the portal into life and life abundant.
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