PURUSHARTHA: Purpose of our Life .

PURUSHARTHA: Purpose of our Life .

To understand the purpose of our life we get nothing looking outside as to where the world is heading to, but should rather look within, as to what we really aspire & achieve. The things that we aspire should satisfy us and make us feel the fulfillment of purpose of our life. Our so called goals are always an end to our small aspirations and never come under the category of satisfying eternally. Modern society has made us blindly follow other people’s aspirations and fall in the rat race and in the end realize that we have been on a meaningless trip, by then it is too late. So let us pause and try to understand what is it that which we really want, what is that attaining which we can fulfill the purpose of life. Let us look within, introspect, & discover. The knowledge of self starts with such fundamental questions. The scriptures do not ask us to blindly follow but only help us conduct this inquiry. This is called the inquiry into Purusharthas of life.

Ancient seers articulated the blueprint for the fulfillment of the objectives of our birth called "Purusharthas" . 'Purusha' means an individual or person, and 'Artha' means meaning or objective or purpose.

As per our ancient Hindu scriptures, Purushartha is classified into four categories.

1. Dharma 2. Artha 3. Kama 4.Moksha.

1. Dharma:

It is quiet ambiguous for a common man to understand the meaning of Dharma. We get always puzzled with our actions as right or wrong to justify in our conscience. A Right thing for some else becomes a wrong action/effect for some others. Is it a complex matter to contemplate? Not at all, Dharma is the principle of co-existence. Our Universe exists from immemorial times based on a strict code of conduct - live & let to live. As per science, the Universe is a mass of energy and the ultimate source of all type of energy for us is the SUN, the pivot or axle our system.

2. Artha:

This is a familiar word for everybody, world is behind the pursuit of Artha means wealth. Amassing the material possessions by adopting the Dharma principles is called Artha. Wealth is for fulfilling our worldly matters and it is inevitable in the part of our life.

3. Kama:

Most of us misunderstand the word ‘ Kama’ as sex or lust. But ‘Kama’ means all type of desires of our life. In spirituality, it is called the flames of our sense organs. The more you feed; the flames of the fire will go high and higher & decimate the body itself. So, restrict the urge of our mind is necessary to upkeep the body for achieving the next important factor of Purushartha- Moksha.

Moksha :

Moksha means complete freedom, relieving from all botherations of our life. Again, the Moksha is categorized into four types:

1. Salokya 2. Sameepya 3. Saroopya 4. Sayoojya.

Scriptures say that Dharma and Moksha are like the river bed to Artha and Kama which are rivers, if the river is breached and flows out of river bed it is disaster.

Salokya..... Means maintaining friendship with the Lord or the Almighty. The friendship can be developed by selfless Karma yoga & performing Yagnyas, Offerings, Sacrifices etc as per the guidelines prescribed in Vedas like, Rajasooya yagnya, Brihaspathi yagnya etc. Salokya rewards you with heavenly life.

Sameepya.... Is reach nearer to the Lord as a humble servant by surrendering everything at the feet of the Almighty. The benefits & losses or happiness & sorrows are considered as the ‘prasad’ of the Lord. This is called the ‘Niskama Bhakthi’ yoga which leads you to ‘Ananya Bhakti chaithanya’. Sameepya ensures absolute security & majestic life of happiness along with omnipresence.

Saroopya.... Makes you a Diety, in other words, you will achieve all qualities of the God i.e. become a demigod. The path to attaining the state of Saroopya is Kriya Yoga or Yoga sadhana.

Sayoojya..... Is the ultimate Moksha that dissolve you in Almighty, like crystals of salts immersed in sea. You lose the identity of self by unifying with the Almighty. This is considered as the superlative degree of all type of Mokshas. The only way of achieving Sayoojya is by Wisdom, i.e Gnyana Yoga.

Accordingly, the human life passes through four different stages:

1. Brahmacharya: to obtain knowledge through education,

2. Grihastha - : to acquire wealth for maintaining family life,

3. Vanasprastha : to retire or relieve from the family responsibilities

4. Sanyasa - : to attain sainthood for achieving ‘Moksha’.

Likewise, our Vedas are also arranged and organized in four different parts as......

1. Samhita,2. Brahmanam, 3. Aranyakam and 4. Upanishad.

Pursuit Of Kama And Artha: Know Your Limits

Few management or psychology students will be unfamiliar with Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which he proposed in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” in the Psychological Review.

Maslow explained that one has to finish the lower level of needs before moving up. After physiological needs one strives for personal security, emotional security and so on. Then one wants to have intimacy with friends and family and then, ego satisfaction.

After satisfying all the above, comes Self-actualisation which is, essentially, "What a man can be, he must be”. Beyond Self-actualisation is Self-transcendence.

Swami Dayanand Saraswati’s exposition to explain this. Before going into the ancient Indic hierarchy of needs, let us understand some basic concepts mentioned in Vedanta. These are: sadhya, that which is desired; sadhak, one who strives for sadhya; sadhana, practice, the means of achieving sadhya; and siddha, a sadhak who has achieved sadhya.

Another essential concept is Purushartha. In this context, Purush does not stand for a male human. It means the indwelling one, regardless of gender. Purushartha is what is prayed for (arthyate) by Purush; it is what people strive for.

There are four levels of Purushartha: arth, basic security; kama, enjoyment, ego satisfaction; dharma, ethical conduct and attitude; moksha, denoting freedom from all insecurities.

There is one level beyond these four, enlightenment which is fundamentally different from these, since in it, the desire for anything at all – even the desire for moksha -- vanishes.

Though defined expansively as denoting all kinds of security, in terms of this hierarchy, artha is mainly financial and physical security -- what we mean by roti, kapda, makaan – food, shelter, and clothing, that is, basic necessities for survival.

Once basic needs are satisfied, we move up to kama, enjoyment, that also includes ego satisfaction. We listen to music, dance, enjoy sex, read, travel, paint, build empires – all of these are kama-related activities.

Dharma is ingrained in the concept of rising above oneself. One cannot be complete without striving to rise beyond one’s base nature. We have to move from lack of dharma, that is, adharma, towards aspiring to be more than what we seem to be. Vedanta tells us about sadhanas, practices, to achieve dharmic conduct. The objective is to make artha and kama become subservient to dharma.

In our minds, there is a constant background noise – “I want this, I want that”. Some want more money, others, more power. There are those who want both. These pursuits are not bad in themselves. They become ‘bad’ when we undertake them greedily and without dharma. Because if one followed dharma, then one is caring, compassionate and considerate while ensuring artha and enjoying kama without coercion and violence.

Even in dharma, there are some insecurities left – “what will happen to me when I die” is one of these. Moksha is eliminating all insecurities including this one. There are sadhanas in Vedanta which enable the seeker to achieve this sadhya, this goal.

It is clear from these examples that Indic ancient texts clearly describe the hierarchy of needs; they also show us how dharma or the lack of it can modify the intent; it also indicates how we can rise higher in these. We need to include this kind of value-based knowledge in the education system so that future generations grow up with a strong ethical sense that respects the dignity and rights of individuals, communities and societies.

J.KANNAN, M.Com, FIATA

"WE DON'T THINK TO BREATHE
WE BREATHE TO THINK"