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Purusharthas
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In Hinduism, a (a Sanskrit tatpurusha compound translating to "human purpose") is one of the canonical four ends or aims of human life. These goals are, from lowest (most basic) to highest (most sublime):
Moksha as ultimate transcendental liberation ranks as the chief goal or parama-puru?artha. The relative value and hierarchy of the preceding three are the subject matter of a discussion between Yudhisthira, Arjuna, Bhima, Nakula, Sahadeva and Vidura in the Mahabharata (12.161).
Historically, the first three goals, kama, artha and dharma, were articulated first (Sanskrit: trivarga), and the fourth goal, moksha, later (Skt.: chaturvarga).
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Encyclopedia
In Hinduism, a (a Sanskrit tatpurusha compound translating to "human purpose") is one of the canonical four ends or aims of human life. These goals are, from lowest (most basic) to highest (most sublime):
- Kama - "sensual pleasure, eros"
- Artha - "wealth, prosperity, glory"
- Dharma - "righteousness, duty, morality, virtue, ethics", encompassing notions such as ahimsa (non-violence) and satya "truth"
- Moksha - "liberation", i.e. liberation from Samsara, the cycle of reincarnation.
Moksha as ultimate transcendental liberation ranks as the chief goal or parama-puru?artha. The relative value and hierarchy of the preceding three are the subject matter of a discussion between Yudhisthira, Arjuna, Bhima, Nakula, Sahadeva and Vidura in the Mahabharata (12.161).
Historically, the first three goals, kama, artha and dharma, were articulated first (Sanskrit: trivarga), and the fourth goal, moksha, later (Skt.: chaturvarga). In living tradition, the notion of the four purusharthas represents a holistic approach to the satisfaction of man's physical, emotional and spiritual needs.
There is a popular correspondence between the four purusharthas, the four stages of life (Skt.: asrama: Brahmacharya [student life], Grihastha [household life], Vanaprastha [retired life] and Sannyasa [renunciation]) and the four primary castes or strata of society (Skt.: varna: Brahmana [priest/teacher], Kshatriya [warrior/politician], Vaishya [landowner/entrepreneur] and Shudra [servant/manual labourer]). This, however, has not been traced to any primary source in early Sanskrit literature.
Swami Dayanand Saraswati explains the concept as follows:
- "Dharma occupies the first place in the four categories of human goals, because the pursuit of security, artha, and pleasures, kama, need to be governed by ethical standards. Artha, striving for security, comes second, because it is the foremost desire of everyone. Everyone is obedient under the doctor's scalpel precisely because everyone wants to live. Granted life, one then wants to be happy, to pursue pleasures, kama. I want to live and live happily; and both pursuits, the struggle for security and the search for pleasure, must be governed by ethics. The last category is the goal of liberation, moksa, ranked last because it becomes a direct pursuit only when one has realized the limitations inherent in the first three pursuits."
See also
Further reading
- Anna Dallapiccola, Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend (ISBN 0-500-51088-1)
- Patrick Olivelle, The asrama system: the history and hermeneutics of a religious institution (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993) (ISBN 0-19-508327-X)
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