PURUSHARTHA (INDIAN CONCEPT)

There are four stages man is prescribed through in rightful living. They are collectively known as Purushartha. This consists of Dharma, Artha, Kaama Moksha.  These are comparable with the Western model of Maslow’s Pyramid of Hierarchy of Needs. While Maslow’s Model addresses need fulfillment, Purushartha model addresses the duty-based necessary and sufficient that is a must for appropriate spiritual growth.

In the Purushartha model we have Dharma taking the first and foremost stage through an individual is duty-bound to start his life learning process. Largely, this stage is characterized by Value-sowing and nurturing and strengthening the character and ethical base of the individual at the early age. “Catch them young” is the approach. Dharma is the path of righteousness and truth. This “training” is imparted through the “hard approach” through the rigorous but highly effective Gurukul method of education.

After the “convocation” the student returns to his abode (home) and enters into the next stage. He enters into the next stage of life duty, Artha fulfillment, meaning the creation of material wealth through Dharma path and setting up his home and making himself self-sufficient and adequately comfortable. This again is a duty, not a whim which one could “take it or leave it”

Having made himself comfortable materially, man enters into fulfilling his desires in the Kaama stage of duty fulfillment, in which he is prescribed to fulfill all his desires with Dharma as the guideline following the path of moderation (not overindulging, neither repressing his desires).This includes settling with a married partner, having a family, raising children, nurturing them and sowing Values in them (all activities of involved living, in short)

The last duty for man should strive to fulfill is the attainment of Moksha. In the Kaama stage, he goes through involved living of life. Although it is prescribed that he has fulfill his Kaama tendencies through moderation, man tends to overindulges or underindulges as a result he experiences a certain attachment with his “not fully experienced and not fully expressed” desires. Through understanding and careful steps he should address these issues and enter into Moksha stage, where the individual enters into transcending (going beyond the twin attributes of attraction and repulsion, not getting affected by the extremes, by joy or sorrow). He practices the wise art of detachment both mentally and physically from the world of interaction, involvement and indulgence. At the end he is “ready” to meet the Creator through “shedding his mortal coil” (physical death) into the life thereafter. This stage is prescribed to make the transition spiritually easier and meaningful and less painful.

One could compare the Purushartha model with Maslow’s Pyramid. The basic notable difference is that in the Indian context need fulfillment has to happen with Dharma as the first stage not through the physical need fulfillment as the first stage. Artha, Kaama Moksha stages are similar to the five stages of the Maslow’s Pyramid, with the additional base at the base of Dharma.