The fourfold human pursuits

Discerning what human beings really want

As human beings, we are always in search of happiness. Pursuit of this can take the form of making money, buying a house, getting married, career growth, etc. The goals of any two persons at a given point of time may not be the same. Even in the same individual the source of happiness keeps changing depending on the circumstances. But in the whole process, the underlying assumption that the attainment of our chosen goal will give us happiness is common to all. Vedanta makes us realize that our happiness lies not in the object that we desire and addresses this need of a human being.

Whatever is fundamentally sought after by every human being is called Purushaartha in Sanskrit. Although each individual seeks something peculiar, all the goals can be broadly classified into four categories namely Artha, Kaama, Dharma and Moksha.

Artha: Artha literally translated into English means 'wealth'. In this context it can be translated as 'security'. Security can be economic, emotional or social. Primarily everyone needs to have the basic necessities of life viz. Food, clothing and shelter. After this is taken care of, security is sought through relationships. This can be achieved from within marriage, the family or from friends. Finally we also seek security in the form of social recognition like a good position, title and recognition from the society.

Kaama: Kaama means 'desire' i.e. seeking pleasure. Here it is taken to mean anything that satisfies the senses, that pleases the mind that touches the heart and evokes in us a certain appreciation. Sensory pleasures may be anything from eating a particular delicacy, hearing music etc. to intellectual pleasures like playing certain games, solving puzzles etc. Any form of pleasure that is derived from home, for example, or from a relationship, is Kaama. Even pleasures like enjoying a sunrise, nature or a beautiful painting which are aesthetic and neither sensory nor intellectual also are a kind of Kaama.

Dharma: There is a third Purusaartha, Dharma, which is neither Artha nor Kaama. The word Dharma has many meanings. Here, it refers to the pleasure born out of harmony, the pleasure derived from friendship, sharing, helping another person, and so on. Dharma is the adherence to universal values like non-injury etc. Dharma can also mean the debt we owe to our family, friends, society, etc. because if we are successful in our lives it is due to the resources all these people have provided us with. Dharma accounts for the maturity of a human being in that, the more mature a person is, the more Dharmic he/she is. In order to become emotionally mature, an understanding of Dharma and conformity to it becomes of prime importance in one's life. Thus if we list the purusharthas by their order of importance, Dharma viz. adherence to universal values, occupies the first place.

The following is a translation of a traditional verse in Sanskrit.

"Eating, sleeping, fear and copulation are instincts which are common to both animal and man. It is the presence of the intellect (which gives self awareness and thus self judgment) which differentiates man and animal and without the proper use of the intellect a man is no different from an animal."

What is Moksha?

Freedom from sorrow and seeking to become.

Every intelligent person who pursues Dharma, Artha and Kama will, in due course of time come to realize that these three Purushaarthas suffer from many innate defects/limitations. These defects can be broadly classified into three:

• Being inherently mixed with pain: Artha, Kaama and Dharma suffer from the defect of being mixed with pain/suffering. The pleasures and sense of security that accrue from the pursuit of Artha, Kaama and Dharma are mixed with equal or more amounts of pain. Their acquisition and preservation involve a lot of effort and being time bound, they are bound to be lost and their loss causes further pain.

• The inability to produce a sense of fulfillment/completeness: We find that no amount of Artha, Kaama or Dharma produces fulfillment/the sense of "I have enough". The more one has the more one sees what he doesn't have. There is always the desire to get more. Wanting is the constant drone behind all acquisitions and ever remains in all gains and losses.

Causing the pursuer/possessor to be dependent upon them or possessed or bound by his possessions: The pursuit of Artha and Kaama can make a person completely addicted to them. They make the pursuer dependent on them. When you cannot wake up in the morning without tea, tell me, are you drinking tea or is tea drinking you? This petty object is dictating your life.

When a human being realizes these defects in Artha, Kaama and Dharma (Even though the basic instinct or animal aspect of a human being is to be guided by his senses) he does not feel fulfilled even after satisfying all his desires. At a particular stage of the human evolution process, it is natural to stop and think whether this constant hankering after pleasures is really worth it. In fact, this looking back, is what separates us from animals. Animals on the other hand are fulfilled once their senses are satisfied because they cannot think further and they don't feel the want of anything more. This seeking for permanent happiness/complete fulfillment from the time bound/limited pleasures that we have been experiencing all along, in other words, seeking the freedom from the feeling of want is the seeking for Moksa. Moksa means freedom from something that I do not want (read as 'unhappiness' here). And because Moksa is a human pursuit, a human end common to all, wanting to be free is not peculiar to me alone.

The fact that I am attached to particular forms of security reveals a certain fact about myself - that I am insecure. You may ask yourself: Can the insecure ever become secure through insecure/limited means and ends? That I also seek pleasures, reveals that I am restless, that I am not satisfied with myself as I am now, I have to do something in order to please myself, which means that I am displeased with myself. Again ask yourself; can I find permanent happiness/contentment through constantly changing means viz. five senses and ends viz. Sense objects?

Only a very few discriminative people recognize Moksa as a pursuit in any given generation. This is due to a certain maturity or insight about life which involves discerning the limits of means and ends, seeing the limitations of experiences intimately is required to understand it, although in all this seeking, this fact remains, everyone is only seeking freedom.

The rare one who discerns Moksa as the only human end and finds out what is the means of accomplishing it becomes an informed seeker. This informed seeker is one in a million.

Note; Swami Paramarthananda, a senior student of Swami Dayananda, wrote This article. Swami Vagishananda has replaced some technical Sanskrit terms with English translations, some commentary and added conclusion.