Many people ask the very same question, "What's the purpose of life?" That's
actually a very profound question, but sometimes, it's asked too casually,
or even flippantly. My own guru once responded to that attitude by answering very tersely,
"The purpose of life is to live!" That's true, of course, but there's a lot more to it.
What does it mean to live? In the world of nature, to live is to grow. As long as a plant
grows, it lives. When it stops growing, the plant dies. If we apply this principle to our lives,
we could say, as long as we continue to grow, we live, and when we stop growing, we start dying.
That's a really powerful observation about our lives, but what exactly does
it mean for us to grow as human beings? Plants mostly grow in size, but our growth has
several dimensions. Four different kinds of growth are identified in the Vedas, the source scriptures
for the Hindu tradition. These four kinds of growth are indispensable for every single person,
so they're called the four fundamental goals of life - dharma, righteousness, artha, wealth,
kama, pleasure, and moksha, liberation. We'll discuss these one by one, so don't worry if the
words aren't familiar. We'll start with kama. Kama means pleasure and it's the most basic of
the goals. By implication, kama includes happiness, joy, love, and contentment.
All living beings seek pleasure in one way or another. It's part of our genetically hard-wired
instinct for survival. Even one-celled creatures called amoebas seek pleasure,
in a manner of speaking. If you put an amoeba on a wet microscope slide with vinegar on one side
and and sugar on the other, the amoeba will swim away from the vinegar and towards the sugar.
It might seem surprising that the sacred Vedic scriptures consider ordinary worldly pleasure
important enough to be included among the four fundamental goals of life. But its inclusion
has great significance. Consider this. Western religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam,
teach that there's one and only one goal of life - to avoid eternal damnation and reach heaven
after you die. But, making heaven the one and only goal of life leads to some big problems.
If heaven alone is important, then the value of worldly life becomes
greatly diminished. After all, who cares what happens in life as long as you get to heaven?
This highly negative view deeply affected some religions, like that of the Puritans
and Calvinists. They characterized worldly life as being degrading, impure, and evil.
As a result, they prohibited frivolous talk, playing music, dancing, and even
brightly colored clothes. Also, this single-minded focus on going to heaven
led many religions to develop an excessive value for ascetic practices. Pious people would
not only forgo worldly pleasures, but they'd sleep very little, lying on the hard ground,
they'd fast from food and refrain from speaking, and some would even practice self-flagellation
all this to be purified of their sins for the sake of reaching heaven.
No doubt, some of these practices and attitudes can be found in Hinduism as well,
but that certainly doesn't reflect the Veda's inclusion of kama, worldly pleasure,
as one of the four fundamental goals of life. Instead of considering worldly life to be
degrading, impure, or evil, the Vedas see it as a gift of God that we can all enjoy with
hearts full of gratitude. Yet, it's impossible to enjoy anything at all if you don't have a roof
over your head and food in your stomach. For this reason, the Vedas include artha, wealth,
among the four fundamental goals. Wealth is needed to ensure that we can enjoy the
pleasures of worldly life not only today, but tomorrow, and for the rest of our lives.
Unfortunately, some people pursue kama and artha, pleasure and wealth, in ways that cause harm to
themselves or others, or in ways that are dishonest, immoral or unlawful. But that's
prohibited because the Vedas also include dharma, righteousness, among the four fundamental goals.
Pleasure and wealth are to be pursued only in ways that conform to dharma.
Dharma is considered a fundamental goal of life for this reason. Based on the doctrine of karma,
by following dharma, you can accumulate good karma and avoid bad karma. Your accumulation of good
karma can help you gain more pleasure and wealth, later in this life or in future lives. And,
if you accumulate enough good karma, you could even reach heaven, svarga, in your next life.
As we saw before, going to heaven is the one and only goal for Western religions. Hinduism also
accepts heaven, but doesn't consider it to be the ultimate goal of life. Why not?
According to the doctrine of karma, heaven is not eternal; it's a temporary state,
a finite lifetime of pleasure. Heaven is the result of accumulated good karmas,
but those good karmas are not infinite in measure. Your finite good karmas can't possibly
result in an eternity of heavenly pleasure, nor can your finite bad karmas condemn you
to eternal damnation. Instead, after enjoying a lifetime of pleasure in heaven, or after suffering
a miserable lifetime in hell, you'll eventually get reborn and begin another life, elsewhere.
It's really important to pursue these first three goals, dharma, artha, and kama simultaneously,
in a balanced, harmonious manner. If you overemphasize kama, you could become a hedonist,
a glutton, narrowly focused on sense pleasures. If you overemphasize artha,
you could become a miser, clinging greedily to your wealth and resources. And, if you
overemphasize dharma, you could become so focused on getting to heaven that your lengthy prayers and
extensive daily rituals leave you little time for worldly affairs. Balance is essential.
Now then, what about moksha, liberation, the last of the four goals of life, the
final dimension of human growth. It's mentioned last in Vedic scriptures for two reasons.
First, moksha is meant to be pursued only after the first three goals have
been accomplished to a reasonable degree. That makes sense because it's impossible to perform
most spiritual practices if you completely fail to pursue kama, artha, and dharma,
and as a result, you end up hungry, homeless, or under arrest for criminal activities.
The second reason moksha is mentioned last is that it's utterly unlike the first three goals.
As we saw before, dharma, artha, and kama are all for the sake of enjoying happiness,
joy, love and contentment - either right now by pursuing kama, or
later in this life by pursuing artha, or in future lives by pursuing dharma. Yet,
the Vedas also teach that the actual source of all such happiness is the true, inner self, atma.
We all say, "Happiness comes from within," but the Vedic scriptures go further by providing
a roadmap, so to speak, to help you discover the actual inner source of happiness.
That discovery is moksha, liberation or freedom. It's freedom from any further suffering in this
life, and freedom from ever being reborn and subjected to suffering in future lives.
Also, whatever happiness you gain through your pursuit of dharma, artha, and kama is fleeting,
it's momentary, short-lived. Your pleasure when eating a splendid meal soon comes to an
end. The pleasures afforded by wealth last only until your bank account is emptied.
And even the pleasures of heaven eventually come to an end when you're reborn into your next life.
On the other hand, atma, the true self, is an everlasting and limitless reservoir
of happiness, joy, love, contentment and inner peace. When you become enlightened by discovering
atma as your own true nature, you become totally free from suffering and blessed beyond measure.
For all these reasons, moksha is distinguished from the other three goals
as being the ultimate goal of life.
If you vigorously pursue all four goals, throughout your life, you'll grow and
thrive like a plant that gets plenty of sunshine, water and fertilizer.
Unfortunately, those who fail to pursue these goals start to die, prematurely, like neglected
houseplants that slowly wither away. To live is to grow, to grow in all four ways discussed here,
and to continue growing, each and every day. This is the tenth video in a series that answers
questions submitted by viewers. If you have a question that would serve as a good topic
for a video like this one, please email me at this address, and be sure to indicate
"video question" as the subject of the email. I'll try to address your question in a future video.