Gita, lesson 13: the four aims of life and what each one can give

Security, pleasure, goodness, and freedom: almost everyone chases at least one of these, even without naming it. The thirteenth chapter of Swami Dayananda Saraswati's series organizes these desires into the four puruṣārthas, the aims of human life according to the Vedic tradition.

The four aims

Artha is the pursuit of material security, power, and competence. Kāma is the pursuit of pleasure, sensory, aesthetic, or emotional, which includes the paradise some religions promise. Dharma is the assimilation of universal values, that is, inner maturing. Mokṣa is liberation from the feeling of limitation. Dayananda says these aims are not dogmas but facts of experience: every human being pursues them, whether they know it or not.

Legitimate, but limited

Artha and kāma have their place, he says, but they operate in the terrain of comparison and desire, and for that reason they bring no lasting satisfaction. Seeking security in unstable things would be like planting a post in shifting sand.

Dharma emerges as what distinguishes the adult. Dayananda describes it as an ethic based on reciprocity, which comes down to not doing to others what one would not want done to oneself. Aging happens on its own; maturing demands conscious effort. And the payoff of living this way is concrete: fewer conflicts, more mental space, and greater clarity about what one is actually seeking.

What is missing when everything else is in order

Many people, the chapter notes, become so occupied with the means that they never reach the end. They want approval and will only find peace through self-approval. Mokṣa, in this light, is not an experience to be won, but the removal of ignorance about who one is. The chapter does not propose rejecting the world. It proposes living in it with discernment, knowing what each aim can and cannot offer.

The full study appears in the book The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, by Swami Dayananda Saraswati.