When I got the “job” to talk about “the four purposes of life,” I was puzzled.

As far as I understand, each one of us has a purpose in life; that’s why we are here on this planet! A divine spark, surrounded by subtle mind-stuff – yes, you could call it Purusha – chose this incarnation, infused by life energy (prana) and called it “me,” as far as time, space, family, problems, and joys are concerned. I am here, we are here because there is something to work out, something to learn in the school that we call life on earth.

But then I realized that the topic has an added meaning in the context of Indian, cultural, and spiritual context, here the ‘purpose’ of life is summarized in four Purusharthas.

If we look at the word, I am sure you can easily recognize the word “Purusha” in it. Let’s say it means the indweller of this body, soul, consciousness, core energy – around which all your other personality stuff sticks … until it dissolves again. (That is another topic.) I like to think of this in the metaphor of fire. Ultimate consciousness is like a fire and the part that is the cause with which “I” am identified as “me” is the spark of that fire. Now, let’s not enter the discussion of whether the whole Fire is called Purusha, or just the spark; we can leave that to thousands of years of scholarship quibbles.

The second part of the word Purushartha is “artha”. It refers to that which is gained, be it wealth/experience/health or…whatever! The point to be aware of is that we look at this through the eyes of a certain philosophy. Reality is shaped by our basic thought matrix. Yes, how we experience reality is dependent on what mind-makeup we wear, what shapes the pattern of the matrix we look through (which in turn is shaped by the society we live in). In Yoga we are called to be aware of our mind-make up, and that, of course, includes what we feed our mind.

In this way we need to be alert to what the ‘mind–makeup was and is; and what “food we feed it.” Just as the food we eat builds our body and mind, so we build our own perspective, our own matrix through which we experience the world. Swami Rama talked about building one’s own philosophy of life. He said:

You are the architect of your life. You build your own philosophy and construct your own attitudes.

We study Yogic, Indian philosophy…thus we feed our mind certain patterns of thinking, which, of course, have implications. So when we talk, in the traditional Indian context of Purushartha, it refers to the general goal of human existence from a certain perspective. In this way, for the traditional Indian (Vedic) society, there are four such purushārthas, namely:

• Dharma: “(religious, social and/or moral) righteousness, both spiritual and ritual”
• Artha: “(material and/or financial) prosperity as well as pursuit of meaning”
• Kāma: “(material) pleasure “
• Moksha: “(spiritual) liberation; or renunciation as well as detachment”

Over the long history, there have been different ways these have been considered. In the earlier texts, there were three dharma , kāma, artha; later ones include the notion of moksha . At times artha and kama have been grouped together as the lower goals (to be fulfilled first), and the higher goals: dharma and moksha.

The details of this system and its unfoldment we find in the traditions of the Dharmaśāstras and the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. These are relatively later than the Vedas (how much later, varies…anything from a couple of thousand years to 500…who knows). The prime scripture of the Dharmashastras is the Dharma sutras.

You soon will see why I was so careful in the beginning. These scriptures describe what dharma is basically as “how a Brahmin male should conduct himself” (there are but few general issues). How life is to be conducted from the beginning, with the initiations the male child receives, etc. Yes, there are a few general issues described, but mainly it details duties, rites, rules, and responsibilities for the male Brahmin.
Now in our “day and age”… this seems a very limited culturally bound portrait. What about the other groups in society? What about women???? Dharma is described in these base scriptures as right behavior in terms of ritual moral and social spheres of behavior for men and for priests. At times there is even conflict, or should I better say, incongruity with the Vedas.

It is hard to underestimate the importance of this. Because there is in many ways not only a difference in that society ‘then…and now’, but there is a difference in the perspective of the mind-make-up in the oriental mind (I choose a word wider than India) for the relationship of the individual to society and the so-called “Western mind”. These are two quite different perspectives.

In the Orient, especially in ancient Indian society, the focus is entirely on the society, the ways, structures, and belief systems of a particular society must be maintained!! Therefore if an individual misbehaves…it can be ‘sacrificed’; if the family has a problem, the individual’s happiness or even life can be sacrificed. If a village is having a problem, the family might well be sacrificed; if the tribe/clan/community is in difficulties the village might well be sacrificed. And so on.

The individual person has their place, hence their goals of life…within a certain set of social rules, which are to be fulfilled. Even now in India… the clan, the village, and the cast determine much of the behavior of the people!

In the West, the focus is not so defining on the community/ the society but much more on the goal of the individual to find and fulfill his own life’s goal. I am not saying this is better than that; I am merely highlighting the differences because from here dharma, one’s duties are somewhat different!

The duties in Indian society are strongly focused on family, village, and social strata, i.e. cast, etc. You are born into a certain family and thus you have a certain duty shaped by that, i.e. Arjuna was born a Kshatriya so it was his dharma, his duty to be a warrior, including killing people! As a warrior it was not wrong to do so, he was merely an instrument of the divine will.

One is born, into a certain set of circumstances and stays there, fulfilling one’s dharma there! i.e. one is to follow the rules and rites of that group.

A similar understanding is had in the Jewish Tradition. There is a story in the Old Testament (which can serve as a pointed example): A man is found picking up sticks on the Sabbath. So Moses is asked what to do with him, the man has violated the dharma of the society! So Moses asks God; God answers: He should be stoned to death, he has broken the ritual law!

Often the word dharma is translated as virtue, but cultures differ, and what is a virtue in one, might not be a virtue in another.

In the traditional Hindu society, then and now … just as in the Jewish traditional society…, virtue meant obeying the laws of rites and customs of society. The function of these laws and rituals was to bind the individual into the group/caste/ family/ faith (and the benefit of it is that things are preserved!)

The way of fulfilling our duty in the Western context is based on a very different mental frame. Religion and obligations have a different places. We might be born into a set of circumstances, but have a choice to grow or opt-out! We can choose the religion, we choose the rites and rituals, and we choose what we want to do with our lives.

Yes, we have incarnated with certain lessons to learn; (just as in India), but we are self-responsible for learning it, walking that path, or choosing a different one…especially once we have learned from it! (To some extent, of course, we too, due to our mental matrix, follow the pattern of the society which builds our matrix, but there is a noteworthy difference. It is hidden… thus more difficult to know, but once known easier to escape).

This difference we also find in the different understanding that the word dharma has in Buddhism: there it refers to the individual’s “suchness”, intrinsic beingness… the tree has the dharma of treeing….so the dharma of the individual is much more concerned with the individual finding its way to its true goal/ nature, the Divine within.

One could say: In the ‘Hindu-Indian’ society attention is first paid to kama and artha; and later to the individual’s “dharma” and moksha. Where in the Buddhist tradition (and maybe in the Western matrix), dharma has more the flavor of walking to Moksha…however that word is understood!

I propose to step out of the narrow confines and try to go beyond these limitations and find the meaning of the Purusharthas that is valid across time and space. From this angle: what do the four aspects /goals for human life, dharma, artha, kama, and moksha, mean?

Artha

The purpose of one’s life; in order to fulfill the purpose of our incarnation, we need a stable foundation in the world. For that, we need to have a good look at ourselves, what our tendencies, talents, desires are and where our desires come from, which of these need to be fulfilled to progress. One could say: what lessons we need to learn in the school of life which would serve as a foundation to be able to progress to secondary school or university.

In order to build these foundations, the Purusharthas tell us, we need to be taking care of our needs. In agreement with psychology, we could say: Artha is gathering the means to fulfill our basic needs for food and shelter, for safety. In the Vedic society especially, but not exclusively this issue is solved within the social strata; i.e. the group looks after its own! Gathering the means to support one’s need, in our modern materialistic world generally means “earning/having money to provide the essentials.” Artha refers to recognizing this level of physical or material need and says: it has to be taken care of! As long as we live in the world, in a physical body… we need some measure of material wealth, to look after it… be it concerning food, or shelter.

As with many things, the scale, or depth is questionable. Each person has some measure of insecurity, propelling him/her to satisfy these base needs in a different way. (For example, in some societies these base needs include fathering a son!)

Insecurity, lacking any of the above is not a comfortable feeling, it distracts from progressing to the higher goals. On this base level providing security is the goal.

In our society, money is the most important worldly resource to provide us with security (food and shelter) so that’s what people want – desperately. The amount of desperation is many times directly proportional to the extent of insecurity within. We can’t think of life anymore without money, for it is also a means for getting enjoyment and comforts of life “which we need”.

Nevertheless, every person must be taught the art of acquiring money/wealth to have a certain sense of physical safety. Hopefully, this can be done in a way that is compatible with the person’s nature and beneficial to society. The problem of human tendencies is, however, that as soon as the base level is achieved one finds new avenues of insecurities, because money can never completely answer the problem of providing security. As soon as one gets it, one worries about how to protect this hard-earned money itself; i.e. one remains insecure.

The task of artha remains and hopefully progresses to gaining that which is beyond the material level which makes it safe and secure. Keep inquiring about yourself until you become really secure within.

So you acquire wealth and a measure of stability, then what? Now allow me to make a cartoon of the old Vedic society: “share it with – the church, ah sorry, – with the priests, the ruling strata, the religious people in power – in order to keep the society going.”

There is another way: once you made money, more than you need, help those who haven’t got enough to buy food, shelter, medicine, etc. Use it to care for humanity (rather than a specific society) as we are all One humanity as Swami Rama points out!

Kama

The second Purushartha is Kama, referring to pleasure. Kama has to do with the fulfillment of desires in the world. Without deep, latent desires (samskaras) there would be no incarnation. There is something you “want to get out of this incarnation”. “Kama” is different from “karma.” The meaning of “karma” is “action” and refers to the playing out of our deep impressions of attraction and aversion. Kama is the enlivened desire that springs forth from those latent conditionings. To say that these are not there and that they all must be renounced is virtually not practical. Desires must be acknowledged and reasonably fulfilled with mindfulness so as to move towards freedom from them, not adding to a continuous cycle of fulfilling and intensifying.

So Kama refers to the art of enjoying pleasures. Having acquired some money, and having got some security the next step for everyone is to use this money for your comfort, enjoy yourself and enjoy fulfilling your duties and responsibilities.

But as with artha, there is a higher level to it. Kama is not there for its own sake, but to free you from the need to be bound by it. Being fully present, and fully available to enjoy is the secret.

I am reminded of the often-told story of Swami Veda asking: Do you know how to sip orange juice. ??? Once you experienced and satisfied your desires and hankerings after egoistic pleasures you are available for higher experiences and a higher purpose. Move on!

Dharma

Now as the base needs are covered, we touch on Dharma, we touch on the purpose, the individual purpose of life. We have provided security, we have enjoyed what there is to enjoy in life, and now we can inquire into the deeper purpose within the context of our existence.

One of my teachers summed it up: ‘first obligation is to fulfill, – is to your parents, then to society, then to your teacher/wise man/the dharma teachers…. then to your Higher Self.’

For this we have to learn to listen, to observe ourselves, and our reactions, we have to observe others as what we see in them is like a mirror for ourselves; beyond that, we have to tune into the environment and find ourselves; we have to listen to the song of our soul within the universe. With that alignment, we get closer to the awareness of “how I fit into the multidimensional web of the universe.” From there I can become aware and fulfill my unique task/purpose, paint my unique picture, fulfill my existence in this context, and naturally flow with a calm clear mind to Truth, God, and the Divine.

Dharma has been called natural law, harmony, truth, duty, wisdom, and the inherent nature of things: Our place in the web of existence. The word “dharma” is from dhri, meaning to hold together, to sustain. It’s a two-way thing, my point in the web holds the web together, and the web holds me in my place.

To live in dharma is to live with our individual nature to be in accord with the whole of the flow of things, in harmony with life itself.

To live one’s dharma, is to live taking care of yourself so that you can take care of others. As SVB said many times… take the least and give the most… that is the right dharmic life.

Everything in this universe is connected in an infinite many dimensional Web, man cannot exist alone; so dharma makes us sensitive to the connectedness, to the need of others, on all levels, in all aspects and parts of the world/existence. We are one whole. Awareness of dharma, helps us to expand our family, and brings about a holistic vision! NOT LIMITED to our society, or clan our family, but to all!!!!

The moment we see the whole world as one great existence, we also become sensitive to a supreme intelligence, that is inherent to this great Web in which we exist. Thus dharma wakes us up to the higher, wider Totality – you may call it God. We partake in this Web that is HIS/HER body. Live in this “Divine Matrix,” in a spirit of surrender & love.

Dharma teaches that the creation is so orderly, beautiful, and purposeful that we cannot in our wildest dreams think that we are separate from it. Look upon the whole creation as a great, grand orchestra that is already presenting beautiful music; we are part of the orchestra and should be sensitive to the harmony and tune ourselves to it.

Just as only that person can enjoy the music who becomes sensitive to it, so also only that person can enjoy holistic living who sees basic harmony and order around.

Acceptance of being the great Web and in it having to play our part, being in God as God… we could say….is the real essence of dharma. This acceptance prepares us for our real goal in life, called Moksha. The general and personal Goal is to reach the state Moksha or Kaivalya in Yogic terms.

Moksha

Moksha is the final liberation from all of the deep driving impressions that continually play out in the mind and the world, that keep causing us to come and go from bodily form to bodily form. Moksha means that the deep conditionings no longer bind us. Moksha is freedom from the bondage of the ropes of karma that seem to bind us.

Moksha is the direct experience of the Absolute Truth or Reality, along with the total setting aside of all false identities of who we think we are. Self-realization, the direct experience of our true nature as pure consciousness, Purusha or Atman is one stage, once that experience permanently transcends all conditionings – moksha is reached.

Thus Moksha is freedom from all limitations: so far we looked at what we need to take care of in terms of security and pleasure here in this life (each of us in our own unique way), then we start seeing ourselves as beings in the web of the existence; once we realize our relationships in that web and have learned to take care of others, with respect and love – then we realize, we are the WEB. What more is there?

For that last step, we need Grace. We may even have become great humanitarians, but still, it’s not all. The Great Vedic thinkers know that ultimately even that great desire for Moksha has to go. When that desire, when that desire too has become redundant, such a person will be happy always and everywhere. “You are that”; this is what the Upanishads tell us: you are the Web, not just the point on the crossing of threads.

The four Purusharthas

The four Purusharthas can be described as stage posts of awareness. Understand and inquire into yourself, into your being, and into your Sadhana, and check whether you live aware of the highest goals of life…and that at all times, while you are acting and being in this world!

Hari OM