In Hinduism, it is taught that a person must achieve the following four goals in life. The correct order is Dharma, Artha, Moksha and Kama. But as an ordinary human being I believe that the sequence should be Artha, Dharma, Kama and Moksha. The reason is – in today’s world if you do not have Artha (sufficient money), you cannot perform your Dharma (duty to self or family). If you are able to have first two, you should enjoy the pleasure out of it, but do not get stuck into it and then at the same time peruse for Moksha of self liberation through spiritual path. You cannot think about spirituality if the first three basic needs are not fulfilled. The temple of Khajuraho teaches us the very same understanding that before entering into the temple, fulfill your worldly desires. If they are not fulfill, your body may be in the temple but mind will be wandering somewhere else. Here is my understanding on these goals
1. Dharma (Righteous duty to self or family) – The true meaning of Dharma is - that which upholds or supports the laws of the universe. Some people refer Dharma as Religion, in Rig Veda, it is stated that “Dharayti sah dharma”, means something which can be uphold is Dharma. That means 2 people following same religion, may have different Dharma under same circumstances. For example, if there are two brothers of almost same age, one is strong and can carry 50 pounds does not mean that other brother must carry 50 pounds as well if he is not strong.In reality, in our daily life we get through contradictions of our own dharma and when we could not decide what is right or wrong for self and the family, or our family expects different than what we can truly deliver to them, this creates unhappiness right there. It is impossible to make everyone happy but one should perform his duty accordingly to consciousness.
2. Artha (Material Prosperity) –It is one of duties of a person in householder stage of life, in which a person must accumulate as much wealth as possible without being greedy, to help and support his or her family, to achieve widespread fame (if can), to elevate social standing.
Some people become a money making machine and try to visualize their success based on money only. The reason is very simple because they can easily count the numbers and see how rich they are on the paper. At this point some of us don’t even remember about basic duty to self like staying healthy. In later part, they spend the same money trying to gain back the same health which they lost to make the same money. Is this really a success? I believe we all need to check our self, as how far we need to go and how much is too much.
3. Kama (Physical, Sexual and Emotional pleasure) – Interestingly this goal is the only goal I can see is very natural. Nature has built this desire in each of us. Everyone is looking for some pleasure to fulfill the desire in many different ways. If not fulfilled anguish, anger, jealousy, frustration and many negative tendencies arises. A man is expecting pleasure from women and vice-versa, a wife from husband, a friend from another friend. You can see in any relationship there is certain level of expectation is always desired in visible or invisible form from each other. If they do not get fulfilled, same beloved slowly becomes the devil. Man has different level of physical, sexual and emotional needs than woman, both enjoy the same pleasure in slightly different ways, and it’s by design and probably the way their hormones are, no one to blame for this. This is how creator made them. So if both do not have the same level of awareness, displeasure is not far away. For example it’s said that in martial relationship, sexual pleasure if only 10% of whole relationship, but if that is not going right, 90% of the problems and displeasure comes out in different form and can easily spoil a good marriage. It’s interesting and contradictory that our land which gave Kamasutra to the world, most of its sons and daughters shy away from openly talking and discussing about it.
4. Moksha (Liberation from birth and death cycle or Salvation) – This is the highest goal one should always look for. But some people have misunderstanding that one should be thinking about this only when you become old or senior citizen. One should opt a spiritual path from the beginning like planting the seed at early age so that slowly over the time when you keep pouring water seed grows into a plant and then tree and finally starts giving you fruit.
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