Purushartha -The four pillars!
Hello all,
Hope this post finds all of you in good health and happiness, pursuing the things you very much want in your life. Today we will discuss a concept that is central to the Vedic or Eastern particularly Indian Philosophy called 'Purusharthas'. Many times people interpret 'Purusha' as males. But as we have discussed before in Eastern Philosophy, much importance is given to the soul or the inner being. In that realm there is no male or female, it is just the inner being or the soul. So in my mind whenever I think about Purusha the image that comes is a great being, can be male or female. So 'Purusha'- Great being and 'Artha'-meaning or the purpose. So it becomes the 'purpose of a great being'.
Every single one of us has the potential to become a great being. Nobody is excluded from that. But many times we have obstacles, which we have to overcome to reach that stage. The obstacles can be in the form of circumstances, diseases, poor health, negative people or even our own inner demons. It is always by our own sheer mental strength and agility we can overcome the circumstances or whatever that have been thrown at us. So today we will discuss the concept of 'Purushartha'.
In Vedic or Indian Philosophy there are four pillars or concepts on which a 'Purusha' or a great being has to stand and lead their life. These are called the 'Purusharthas'. They are Dharma (duty or virtue), Artha (wealth or prosperity), Kama (desire) and Moksha (salvation). Now as a young child we have not reached the maturity to go behind the Purusharthas; but then even as an adult many times we need the mental maturity, discipline, and dedication to reach these higher states of being. Let us discuss each one of these principles.
1, Dharma (Virtue): Dharma is the virtuousness or the duties each person or Purusha is supposed to do in accordance with the Spiritual or Universal laws. According to what I understand (of course, I can very much be wrong), each one of us is born with a unique and sacred purpose. As we discussed in our last post, many times we are clear about it and at other times we are not very sure about it. This purpose can be something very different from what our family, friends or even others do. But then that is our very own duty or Dharma. And almost every time we are given talents and skills, hidden or explicit, that very much help in our pursuit of this life purpose.
The Dharma is not our career alone, though that is very much a part of it, it is all the things we are supposed to do as a family member, friend, relative or even as an acquaintance or just as a plain human. Now the talents and the skills that we are given towards our Dharma may be in the starting stages or have not been fully formed when we come to the realization. Even the pursuit of acquiring the necessary knowledge towards developing our skills becomes part of our Dharma.
Let us take the example of a musician, say Michael Jackson. He was born as a very talented singer with a golden voice. But even then he had to practice a lot during his childhood, under the strict eye of his father, to become the Michael Jackson the world saw later in his adulthood. He also had to go through many struggles and difficult circumstances in the childhood, as well as later in life. So even if we are born with an inherent talent that very much opens our path to our Dharma, we are indeed asked to work on our talents, polish it, burnish it and buff it to shining in brightness ,so that we can use it first for ourselves and later for the greater good, whether it is for entertainment, knowledge or the upliftment of the society or a group.
In the realm of Dharma, the duty or virtuosity is not just for ourselves and our immediate family. It almost always involves some aspect of work or duty towards our greater family, society, country or even humanity. And the path many times may not be that easy to traverse, with obstacles and blocks littered along the way. But then with this kind of purpose, there always will be the pull of the heart or calling that leads us and paves the way. This is the Dharma in its truest sense.
To give importance to this fact, in the Indian flag at the very center is the 'Dharma chakra' (Wheel of Dharma) of Emperor Asoka, shining a torch into the path of 'Dharma' for our good as well as for the greater good.
2, Artha (Prosperity): This is the second pillar that comes in line to become a great being. Artha is wealth or prosperity in all its widest sense. It is the money that puts food on the table, the roof over one's head, medicines during a sickness or books for the education of the children. But this is just a small but important part. Prosperity is also the happiness a family feels when all are happy and healthy, it is also the extra money we can have in our purse to go for a movie or go to a restaurant once in a while. It also very much involves the ability to help a friend or a family in their day or time of need. But the money, the food or the medicine is the tangible prosperity we can touch and felt with hands.
But there are also other forms of prosperity that are qualities that very much come under the same umbrella but can only be felt, like courage, knowledge, higher ideals, fame, impeccable morals, beauty, ethics, intelligence, wisdom and many more. In Tamil, the elders give a blessing, "Pathinarum petru peru vazvu vazka", which means 'May you have a wonderful life after acquiring the 16 kinds of wealth'. So from this blessing, we can realize that there are 16 kinds of prosperity or wealth that make a human life extremely blissful.
Now another point is, if we are struggling to build our prosperity, many times we cannot concentrate on fulfilling our Dharma. If we are struggling to have food on our table or worry about having a roof over our head, how can we even think of pursuing our talents or following our sacred purpose? This is where the difference comes between just pursuing some job that gives us wealth and prosperity and really using our talents and skills to pursue our true Dharma and making money and wealth out of doing our Dharma.
Because as long as we don't pursue our true Dharma, the pull of the heart or the gentle inner reminders are going to be there always. And many many times just running after some job to pursue wealth or money takes away bit by bit from our soul value and we start to feel hollow inside. So the best way to make our own Artha or prosperity is to do a job or a career that very much align with our Dharma or true purpose. In that way, we are building our prosperity and wealth along with pursuing our true Dharma that very much also align with the Universal intention of what is our real unique purpose in this earthly rendezvous.
3, Kama (Desire): Now to pursue both Dharma and Artha we very much need Kama or desire. Kama is the desire or the inner urging we have to pursue what we want in life. Without the Kama or desire, our body or mind does not have the spark or the energy to pursue the things we desire for our life.The desire here is not the shiny car we see at the dealership, the glittering shoes at the mall or the twinkling jewelry at the shop window. Kama in its truest sense is the desire of the soul or the inner being to pursue the very thing that brings it the amazing content and the joy. So here Kama is the one or many things that the soul or our inner being desires to bring very much into our life.
Now almost hundred percent of the time, the true sense of Kama we feel bring us pushing back to our Dharma and we start putting actions to realize our truest Dharma. For Kama example, think about Walt Disney who was the inventor of the Disney brand. Disney was a very talented boy who had a flair for drawing. He took drawing classes, worked as an illustrator in his teens and later set up his studio, Disney brothers with his brother. Using his talent for drawing and animation he developed Mickey Mouse in 1928 and it became popular and that led to several things and finally the brand of Disney.
Now let us analyze. Walt Disney was born with a talent for drawing, animation, and entertainment. He took the necessary steps to strengthen and bring out his talents by attending drawing classes and working as an illustrator. As mentioned before, many times our talents may not be fully developed and we very much have to pursue them wholeheartedly and that also is very much a part of our Dharma. Disney's Kama or desire further pushed him to set up the studio, make the character Mickey Mouse and later expand his brand to become 'Disney'. Without his inner push or drive, he would never have been able to accomplish what he accomplished.
Here Disney did not go for the wealth or the money. Instead, he pursued his talents, skills, desire, and passion and the wealth ended up chasing him. So it is always better to pursue or take action using our passions and skills to bring out truest Dharma to the existence and on the way, we will get to work on our Kama and will be able to build our Artha as well. Now the Kama or Artha as such is not dangerous as that is necessary to pursue our truest Dharma. But when it reaches an unconscionable level of greed or pursuit of money, then only it becomes immoral and unethical. But if we are pursuing our truest purpose without obstructing another being or taking advantage of another one, Why not? Even the Universe will stand behind us helping us as a drop in the ocean, with the whole might of the ocean behind us.
4, Moksha (Salvation): Finally Moksha or there is the concept of salvation. Salvation in this context can be interpreted as inner joy or bliss (the other interpretation is enlightenment). Many times according to the Indian or eastern perspective it is thought that Moksha or salvation is to renounce everything and go to the forest and meditate on the divine to become enlightened or Self-realized. But can't there be other ways to get salvation as well? Let us come back to our examples of Michael Jackson and Walt Disney. Michael Jackson was so talented in singing, he became the world-famous icon of music. For him, his true salvation was to bring his divine music to the masses and uplift them to the higher realms of musical bliss. He would not have reached salvation if he had given up on his music to go to the forest or the mountaintop to meditate.
Now to Walt Disney. For him, entertaining people with Mickey Mouse, animation, theme park and his movies were the way to bring his talents to the people and by making people laugh, he found his salvation. So what we are seeing here is many times the Moksha or salvation aspect is not going to the forest and pursuing the enlightenment, but it is very much to find our salvation using our talents to bring something worthwhile for the greater good of the masses. And those who have the Dharma of being among the people and destined to find their salvation by imparting their gift to the people will not be able to get the inner peace or salvation by going to a remote mountaintop. This is because they are leaving their sacred pact with the Universe to go in search of something their mind seems to suggest to them.
So Moksha, of course for people pursuing enlightenment is very much to go to a mountain or forest to pursue enlightenment in the aloneness. But for many of us ordinary normal individuals it is to first find ourselves, our true inner purpose or Dharma, work to bring it to higher status and using our Dharma, pursue our Kama or desires to bring in Artha or prosperity to us as well as our immediate family. After that our job or purpose is not over. Once we stand in our true power and authenticity it becomes very much imperative to bring our talents and skills to the world and use it to help for the greater good. It can be a gardener making a beautiful garden for others to enjoy, a librarian getting books from the shelf for a customer to read or a professor imparting knowledge or showing the light to the students to lead them to their purpose in life. In this way helping others we find our salvation or inner joy. Many times pursuing our Dharma itself will pave the way for the fulfillent of our desires and bring in the wealth and prosperity.
So for each and every one of us, we need to find our true purpose or Dharma, pursue it relentlessly towards our desire or Kama, make our prosperity or Artha and then find our salvation or Moksha by helping others with our talents and skills. Isn't it a beautiful way to lead our lives? May this post help everyone find their true Dharma, then work towards their Artha using their Kama and finally find Moksha standing in their authentic 'Swaroopa' to help others towards finding theirs!
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉
Next week: The realm of Greatness!
Note: Images from Wikimedia Commons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".
All rights reserved to the author (SwaroopaStargazer) and SwaroopaBlog.
To my Blog readers: As all of you know, the European Union has passed laws regarding the collection of the user data. This is just to inform all my EU blog readers, I use Google Analytics, which Google provides, to look at from where readers are reading my blogs. I also use Specific feeds for their service for subscription. I don't collect or intend to collect user data to sell or provide to third-party applications. Regards,
SwaroopaBlog.
Disclaimer: This is a personal blog. The opinions and viewpoints shared here are that of the author/owner only. Even though the author/owner will try to research well before posting the information, the author/owner of this blog does not make any portrayal of the accuracy or correctness of the content on this blog or the links provided. The author/owner will not be liable for any omissions or inaccuracies occurred. The author/owner will not be liable for any damages or losses due to the use or display of this blog. These terms and conditions can change at any time. This blog is purely for informational purposes only.
©SwaroopaStargazer and Swaroopa, 2017- Eternity.
Hope this post finds all of you in good health and happiness, pursuing the things you very much want in your life. Today we will discuss a concept that is central to the Vedic or Eastern particularly Indian Philosophy called 'Purusharthas'. Many times people interpret 'Purusha' as males. But as we have discussed before in Eastern Philosophy, much importance is given to the soul or the inner being. In that realm there is no male or female, it is just the inner being or the soul. So in my mind whenever I think about Purusha the image that comes is a great being, can be male or female. So 'Purusha'- Great being and 'Artha'-meaning or the purpose. So it becomes the 'purpose of a great being'.
Every single one of us has the potential to become a great being. Nobody is excluded from that. But many times we have obstacles, which we have to overcome to reach that stage. The obstacles can be in the form of circumstances, diseases, poor health, negative people or even our own inner demons. It is always by our own sheer mental strength and agility we can overcome the circumstances or whatever that have been thrown at us. So today we will discuss the concept of 'Purushartha'.
In Vedic or Indian Philosophy there are four pillars or concepts on which a 'Purusha' or a great being has to stand and lead their life. These are called the 'Purusharthas'. They are Dharma (duty or virtue), Artha (wealth or prosperity), Kama (desire) and Moksha (salvation). Now as a young child we have not reached the maturity to go behind the Purusharthas; but then even as an adult many times we need the mental maturity, discipline, and dedication to reach these higher states of being. Let us discuss each one of these principles.
1, Dharma (Virtue): Dharma is the virtuousness or the duties each person or Purusha is supposed to do in accordance with the Spiritual or Universal laws. According to what I understand (of course, I can very much be wrong), each one of us is born with a unique and sacred purpose. As we discussed in our last post, many times we are clear about it and at other times we are not very sure about it. This purpose can be something very different from what our family, friends or even others do. But then that is our very own duty or Dharma. And almost every time we are given talents and skills, hidden or explicit, that very much help in our pursuit of this life purpose.
The Dharma is not our career alone, though that is very much a part of it, it is all the things we are supposed to do as a family member, friend, relative or even as an acquaintance or just as a plain human. Now the talents and the skills that we are given towards our Dharma may be in the starting stages or have not been fully formed when we come to the realization. Even the pursuit of acquiring the necessary knowledge towards developing our skills becomes part of our Dharma.
Let us take the example of a musician, say Michael Jackson. He was born as a very talented singer with a golden voice. But even then he had to practice a lot during his childhood, under the strict eye of his father, to become the Michael Jackson the world saw later in his adulthood. He also had to go through many struggles and difficult circumstances in the childhood, as well as later in life. So even if we are born with an inherent talent that very much opens our path to our Dharma, we are indeed asked to work on our talents, polish it, burnish it and buff it to shining in brightness ,so that we can use it first for ourselves and later for the greater good, whether it is for entertainment, knowledge or the upliftment of the society or a group.
 |
| Michael Jackson By Zoran Veselinovic [CC BY-SA 2.0] via Wikimedia Commons |
To give importance to this fact, in the Indian flag at the very center is the 'Dharma chakra' (Wheel of Dharma) of Emperor Asoka, shining a torch into the path of 'Dharma' for our good as well as for the greater good.
2, Artha (Prosperity): This is the second pillar that comes in line to become a great being. Artha is wealth or prosperity in all its widest sense. It is the money that puts food on the table, the roof over one's head, medicines during a sickness or books for the education of the children. But this is just a small but important part. Prosperity is also the happiness a family feels when all are happy and healthy, it is also the extra money we can have in our purse to go for a movie or go to a restaurant once in a while. It also very much involves the ability to help a friend or a family in their day or time of need. But the money, the food or the medicine is the tangible prosperity we can touch and felt with hands.
But there are also other forms of prosperity that are qualities that very much come under the same umbrella but can only be felt, like courage, knowledge, higher ideals, fame, impeccable morals, beauty, ethics, intelligence, wisdom and many more. In Tamil, the elders give a blessing, "Pathinarum petru peru vazvu vazka", which means 'May you have a wonderful life after acquiring the 16 kinds of wealth'. So from this blessing, we can realize that there are 16 kinds of prosperity or wealth that make a human life extremely blissful.
Now another point is, if we are struggling to build our prosperity, many times we cannot concentrate on fulfilling our Dharma. If we are struggling to have food on our table or worry about having a roof over our head, how can we even think of pursuing our talents or following our sacred purpose? This is where the difference comes between just pursuing some job that gives us wealth and prosperity and really using our talents and skills to pursue our true Dharma and making money and wealth out of doing our Dharma.
Because as long as we don't pursue our true Dharma, the pull of the heart or the gentle inner reminders are going to be there always. And many many times just running after some job to pursue wealth or money takes away bit by bit from our soul value and we start to feel hollow inside. So the best way to make our own Artha or prosperity is to do a job or a career that very much align with our Dharma or true purpose. In that way, we are building our prosperity and wealth along with pursuing our true Dharma that very much also align with the Universal intention of what is our real unique purpose in this earthly rendezvous.
3, Kama (Desire): Now to pursue both Dharma and Artha we very much need Kama or desire. Kama is the desire or the inner urging we have to pursue what we want in life. Without the Kama or desire, our body or mind does not have the spark or the energy to pursue the things we desire for our life.The desire here is not the shiny car we see at the dealership, the glittering shoes at the mall or the twinkling jewelry at the shop window. Kama in its truest sense is the desire of the soul or the inner being to pursue the very thing that brings it the amazing content and the joy. So here Kama is the one or many things that the soul or our inner being desires to bring very much into our life.
Now almost hundred percent of the time, the true sense of Kama we feel bring us pushing back to our Dharma and we start putting actions to realize our truest Dharma. For Kama example, think about Walt Disney who was the inventor of the Disney brand. Disney was a very talented boy who had a flair for drawing. He took drawing classes, worked as an illustrator in his teens and later set up his studio, Disney brothers with his brother. Using his talent for drawing and animation he developed Mickey Mouse in 1928 and it became popular and that led to several things and finally the brand of Disney.
Now let us analyze. Walt Disney was born with a talent for drawing, animation, and entertainment. He took the necessary steps to strengthen and bring out his talents by attending drawing classes and working as an illustrator. As mentioned before, many times our talents may not be fully developed and we very much have to pursue them wholeheartedly and that also is very much a part of our Dharma. Disney's Kama or desire further pushed him to set up the studio, make the character Mickey Mouse and later expand his brand to become 'Disney'. Without his inner push or drive, he would never have been able to accomplish what he accomplished.
 |
| Walt Disney By New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer: Fisher, Alan, photographer.; via Wikimedia Commons |
4, Moksha (Salvation): Finally Moksha or there is the concept of salvation. Salvation in this context can be interpreted as inner joy or bliss (the other interpretation is enlightenment). Many times according to the Indian or eastern perspective it is thought that Moksha or salvation is to renounce everything and go to the forest and meditate on the divine to become enlightened or Self-realized. But can't there be other ways to get salvation as well? Let us come back to our examples of Michael Jackson and Walt Disney. Michael Jackson was so talented in singing, he became the world-famous icon of music. For him, his true salvation was to bring his divine music to the masses and uplift them to the higher realms of musical bliss. He would not have reached salvation if he had given up on his music to go to the forest or the mountaintop to meditate.
Now to Walt Disney. For him, entertaining people with Mickey Mouse, animation, theme park and his movies were the way to bring his talents to the people and by making people laugh, he found his salvation. So what we are seeing here is many times the Moksha or salvation aspect is not going to the forest and pursuing the enlightenment, but it is very much to find our salvation using our talents to bring something worthwhile for the greater good of the masses. And those who have the Dharma of being among the people and destined to find their salvation by imparting their gift to the people will not be able to get the inner peace or salvation by going to a remote mountaintop. This is because they are leaving their sacred pact with the Universe to go in search of something their mind seems to suggest to them.
So Moksha, of course for people pursuing enlightenment is very much to go to a mountain or forest to pursue enlightenment in the aloneness. But for many of us ordinary normal individuals it is to first find ourselves, our true inner purpose or Dharma, work to bring it to higher status and using our Dharma, pursue our Kama or desires to bring in Artha or prosperity to us as well as our immediate family. After that our job or purpose is not over. Once we stand in our true power and authenticity it becomes very much imperative to bring our talents and skills to the world and use it to help for the greater good. It can be a gardener making a beautiful garden for others to enjoy, a librarian getting books from the shelf for a customer to read or a professor imparting knowledge or showing the light to the students to lead them to their purpose in life. In this way helping others we find our salvation or inner joy. Many times pursuing our Dharma itself will pave the way for the fulfillent of our desires and bring in the wealth and prosperity.
 |
| Indian flag showing the 'Dharma chakra' in the middlevia Wikimedia Commons [Works in the Public domain of India] |
So for each and every one of us, we need to find our true purpose or Dharma, pursue it relentlessly towards our desire or Kama, make our prosperity or Artha and then find our salvation or Moksha by helping others with our talents and skills. Isn't it a beautiful way to lead our lives? May this post help everyone find their true Dharma, then work towards their Artha using their Kama and finally find Moksha standing in their authentic 'Swaroopa' to help others towards finding theirs!
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉
Next week: The realm of Greatness!
Note: Images from Wikimedia Commons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".
All rights reserved to the author (SwaroopaStargazer) and SwaroopaBlog.
To my Blog readers: As all of you know, the European Union has passed laws regarding the collection of the user data. This is just to inform all my EU blog readers, I use Google Analytics, which Google provides, to look at from where readers are reading my blogs. I also use Specific feeds for their service for subscription. I don't collect or intend to collect user data to sell or provide to third-party applications. Regards,
SwaroopaBlog.
Disclaimer: This is a personal blog. The opinions and viewpoints shared here are that of the author/owner only. Even though the author/owner will try to research well before posting the information, the author/owner of this blog does not make any portrayal of the accuracy or correctness of the content on this blog or the links provided. The author/owner will not be liable for any omissions or inaccuracies occurred. The author/owner will not be liable for any damages or losses due to the use or display of this blog. These terms and conditions can change at any time. This blog is purely for informational purposes only.
©SwaroopaStargazer and Swaroopa, 2017- Eternity.
![By Zoran Veselinovic [CC BY-SA 2.0]via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMichael_Jackson_in_1988.jpg){kind=link}
![via Wikimedia Commons [Works in the Public domain of India]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_India.png){kind=link}
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