Goals of Human Life (Vedanta Pt-1)
Sanatana Dharma is a school of thought primarily based on God-Given texts called “Vedas”. As the Vedas are endless in nature, one cannot scale the whole set of texts in one lifetime. We attempt to explore the deep meanings that the Vedanta delivers through a series of articles.
In this attempt, we first need to understand the Goals of Human Life. These goals are called “Purusharthas” in the Vedas.
Purusharthas:
In the vedic age, Purusha essentially meant human beings. The word Artha has various meanings in Sanskrit such as wealth, meaning and destination. In this context, Artha means goals. Thus leading to Purushartha meaning Human Goals. In deeper texts, the Shastras also describe Purushartha to mean choice, free will and effort.
Animals and humans are similar in a lot of ways. Purushartha becomes the distinguishing factor in describing humans and other organisms.
आहार-निद्रा-भय-मैथुनानि सामान्यम् एतत् पशुभिर् नराणाम् ।
ज्ञानं नराणाम् अधिको विशेषो ज्ञानेन हीनाः पशुभिः समानाः ॥
āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunāni sāmānyam etat paśubhir narāṇām |
jñānaṃ narāṇām adhiko viśeṣo jñānena hīnāḥ paśubhiḥ samānāḥ ||
The Hitopadesha quotes the above shloka, which describes the difference between Human Beings and the other organisms of the world. The actions of eating, sleeping, living in fear and propagating one’s species are common to both humans and other beings. The only quality that humans possess which make them special is judgement and introspection. This makes humans self conscious. While animals rely only on instinct based thinking, humans possess the ability to plan, think and process things.
There are four Purusharthas, namely Dharma, Artha, Kaama and Moksha. The first three are collectively called Preya, while Moskha is called Shreya.
Artha:
Artha in this context refers to sheer physical survival or security. In essentiality, Artha comprises all the activities which involve removal of the sense of insecurity amongst humans. The acts of procuring and planning for pursuit of food, shelter and clothing come under the ambit of Artha. Unlike animals which only procure Artha for the particular situation, humans possess the ability to plan for future procurements also. Eg: Most humans save their wealth for the future.
Artha can be multi-dimensional in the context that after one has finished planning for one’s security, one plans for the security of their family, their village and so on. An important seminal text in the field of Artha, is the Arthashastra by Chanakya. The work provides a deep insight into securing large areas like Kingdoms or Mahajanapadas.
Kama:
Once the basic instinct of survival has been achieved, the Kaama purushartha kicks in. Kaama does not limit to meaning sexual interest as misinterpreted by many writers. Any activity that entertains the human being without any survival motive behind it is termed as Kaama. Luxury, Comfort and Entertainment, which enhance the lifestyle of the living being, but absence of which does not threaten the existence of the human come under the tag of Kaama Purushartha.
Animals also have the sense of Kaama but as mentioned before they are merely instinct based. Human beings on the other hand possess the ability to plan for the Kaama. A few seminal texts in the field of Kaama are Vatsyayana’s Kaama Shaastra and Thiruvalluvar’s Thirukkural which has a section named Inbathu Paal, which talk about Kama in various aspects including bodily pleasure.
Dharma:
Dharma refers to the invisible wealth that contributes to betterment of one’s lifestyle by impacting one’s pursuit for Artha or Kaama. Due to its invisible nature, it is often called Paroksha or Adhristha. In Tamil, the same is referred to as அதிர்ஷ்டம். Dharma is achieved by performing good acts and meaning well during an act.
Dharma plays a huge role in determining the characteristics of one’s next birth. Perhaps the most important role Dharma plays is in determining the upbringing of one in the initial years. The choice of good parents, nourishment during the infant stage and aid for all activities when one is very young is not in one’s hands. Dharma is the hidden factor which influences all these important activities. As childhood events impact the behavior of one’s adult self, Dharma thus spreads its impact across one’s whole next lives. Dharma has been extolled in the Smritis elaborately. A few famous texts include Yagnyavalkya Smriti, Narada Smriti and Manu Smriti.
Moksha:
The final Purushartha has been explored by Sages and Saints in detail in various texts and is described as inner freedom or detachment. Moksha is described to be freedom from anything that has enslaved us.
If an object’s presence or absence impacts one in a very disastrous manner, the human is said to be enslaved by the object. The object can be animate or inanimate, and can trigger a variety of emotions beginning from immense happiness to deathly grief by its mere presence or absence. In such cases the human is said to be dependent on the object for one’s happiness and is thus not truly happy.
Therefore Moksha is the most difficult Purushartha to achieve and is therefore sought only by the most mature, intellectual and balanced human beings. India has seen several thousand Sages and Saints who have attained moksha and thus become free from the cycle of birth and death.
Written By : Krishna for Dharmika
Edited By : Sushrut and Vikram for Dharmika
Illustration By : Aditya Damodhar
