Vedic goal of life: Purusharth

The conscious practice of Dharma help internalizes “the duty”; to preserve, protect and spread the consciousness of Vedas and Rta. This liberates the individual from a mean self-seeker to a divine warrior.

What is the goal of Human Life?

This is probably the most primitive question the humans are asking themselves. But, why not? Humans struggle lifelong to retain dignity, gain wealth, feed family, seek pleasure, chase happiness, stability and security only to find them less worthy in the old age with a resigning realization of impending dissolution of all these upon death.

So are all those struggle worthy of life? Or, what is the life all about?  

What is really unique here is, the question itself is pointing to the deeper ability of Human to observe and understand the insightful dynamics of life, which is most probably an off limit to any other animals regardless how intelligent they are!

The crux of the question exactly lies here!

Unlike the Marxist thought, the human desire is not the summation of a hearty meal or security of housing. He understands his surrounding; the nature, the vastness of it, better than others. He knows the limitations of his own daily struggle to chase pleasure and happiness for which he is his own observer.  Hence he likes to know what is exactly his position within the vast nature and how can he conduct his life more meaningfully under the sun.

This yearning to give a meaning to own life makes a human; a rather different league compares to other animals.

So let’s come to the question. What is the goal of human life?

Vedas came forth through the ascetic intuition of the rishis of Vedic age. Regarding the complexity of the daily life, the rishis saw two principal pursuits of human life;

Preyas (pleasant): 

All of our needs of physical survival can be termed with Preyas.  It is the outcome of our biological instinct and need of survival. It is the materialistic path of self-referent actions. The materialistic yearning to gratify our senses to support our physical and psychological needs and to support the well-being of our outward lifestyle. Humans are naturally inclined to that, which gives them maximum pleasure, be it sensual or be it simply psychological. Which in turn amplify our appetite; magnify our ego, self-image, prestige etc.

But there are some limitations to that. We live in a society and in the broader nature that is inhabited by creatures other than us. A sharp inclination to self-gratification would lead to greed, over blown self-interest and an insatiable urge for forceful material gain. This self-seeking attitude is bound to clash with others and a battle of interest will ensue. This is a horrible situation for the family, society, state and the world. It will not allow us to harmonize with natural order Rta, but will reduce us to arrogant savagery and cannibalism. This scenario is simply unacceptable for a Vedic Arya.   

Sreyas (good): 

It is the solution of the limitation of Preyas. Sreyas is universal good. An ethical basis to the conduct of Preyas. It harmonizes man with the natural order of the universe; the Rta. It is not about seeking pleasure. It channelizes the human pursuit towards a broader, fulfilling goal. It encourages collective well-being, make human strive for a just cause, a sensible ethic, a stable society, a functional state and at the highest, it makes man a guardian to pursue harmony among others in the broader nature. It ultimately leads human to come out from the closet of individual self-interest to gradually align with the greater universal consciousness of the world.

This journey from individuality to the universal consciousness, from a self-seeker to the preserver of Rta, from docility to the spirited fight against unjust meaness, against the savage materialism, against self-consuming greed is the spirituality that is enshrined and encouraged in the page after pages of Vedas.

Svasti matra uta pitre no astu

Svastigobhyo jagate purushebhyah.  (Atharva Veda 1/31/4)

May the welfare of our parents, the cows, the whole world and the mankind.

Visvabhrta stha rastrada rastram me data. (Yajur Veda 10/4)

O gods, you are the protector of the world. May you provide us such an ideal nation, which may nourish the whole world.

Living through the welfare of the world is the virtue and duty of a Vedic Arya. This is the spiritual nature of man. This is the human journey to the immortality, through his achievement and struggle for good cause.

This is the way to realize the divine nature of human, the divinity of the nature and finally reach “The Omniscient One”, who is refulgent even in the unseen! 

So Preyas deals with the practical order of the life and Sreyas qualifies it with subtle senses of spiritual reality. Without the later, human endeavor in the world reduces to the primitive practices of animal instinct.

Nothing more than that.  

Having said all these, we could contemplate these 2 principal human pursuits into 4 categories; Kama, Artha, Dharma, Moksha.

“Kama” means legitimate desires and “Artha” means material pursuit. These are under the aegis of Preyas.

Under the “Sreyas” comes “Dharma” and “Moksha”. It is Dharma; which is the ethical spiritual basis of “Artha” and “Kama”. Human must be on the path of truth and eternal law (which govern the cosmos in physically and spiritually in a most sublime way). Belief (in God and themselves), kindness (towards fellow humans and broader nature), strive for knowledge; understanding (divinity of things both physical and metaphysical) makes a man noble, wise and graceful. This path has to be harnessed to uplift the man, family, society, state and mankind through the all-round spiritual development.

This development brings the urge to struggle for the collective welfare of the world, urge to see the whole nature not different from us humans but as a wholesome living entity like an extended family, which is to be supported, nourished, protected vigorously with all of the will and capacity one can summon.

And if there are forces contrary to that, a Vedic Arya will fight with unmatched ferocity as a dutiful preserver of “Rta” (The Nature and its order).

The conscious practice of Dharma help internalizes “the duty”; to preserve, protect and spread the consciousness of Vedas and Rta. This liberates the individual from a mean self-seeker to a divine warrior. It discloses the divinity within human, the divinity within nature and finally the union with God. This earth will become “Swarga” (Heaven) upon him. He will immortalize here and hereafter. This is the END of the struggle. This is “Moksha”, the BLISS!

Martasah santo amrtatvam anasuh. (Rig Veda 1/110/4)

The devotees (of God), in spite of being mortals, become immortals by dint of virtuous deeds.  

Krinvanto Vishyamaryam; May the world become Arya.

Namaste

Ayan Chowdhury