Swamiji and the Four Purushârthas

Swami Gautamananda

Swami Gautamananda is the President of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, a trustee of the Ramakrishna Math, and a member of the Governing Body of the Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math.

I understand that this topic of the four Purushârthas will be a part of the wider subject called 'Codes to Organize Life'. Any code or discipline is always meant for achieving certain goals or ends. Hence 'any code of life' should aim at life's eternal goals (Purushârthas) which have been classified by Vedic seers as four, viz., Dharma, Artha, Kâma and Moksha.

These codes have varied in their secondary details from age to age as Manusmriti¹ says: 'Different are the codes in Krita Yuga and different from them are they for Treta and Dwapara and different from the last are those for Kaliyuga.'

Swamiji (Vivekananda) was of the opinion that in the present age India requires a new Smriti and he exhorted his disciples to write that. In his conversation with Sarat Chandra Chakrabarty (his scholar disciple) Swamiji asked him to attempt writing a 'New Smriti'. He said, 'It is true that all the ancient Vedic laws will not have a go but if we introduce additions and alterations in them to suit the needs of the times, codify them and hold them up as a new model to society, why will they not pass current?'²

In another incident in the life of Swami Vijnanananda, his brother monk, Swamiji told Vijnanananda that he had given a 'new Smriti' to this country (through his teachings) and it would accept it.

Thus we can be sure that the teachings of (Sri Ramakrishna and) Vivekananda have already become the source of a 'new Smriti' (code of conduct). Both householders and Sannyasins are accepting their ways and means for achieving the highest goal of life, viz., Spiritual Illumination, through Tyâga (Renunciation) and Sevâ (Service).

I am only highlighting here a few of Swamiji's outstanding remarks on the four Purushârthas to indicate how relevant and refreshing they are for this age. For a complete knowledge of the same, I have no other suggestion but to point to the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda and the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.

Modern Man and Purushârthas: The modern man wants 'total happiness' but he does not understand that it is possible only when man succeeds in achieving the four Purushârthas, viz., virtue, wealth, worldly enjoyments and spiritual freedom step by step. Misunderstanding the physical enjoyments alone as 'total enjoyment or fulfilment' man has gone headlong to achieve it overthrowing all values and virtues. Swami Ranganathananda states the following fact in his book³: In 1960s, Sweden was considered as the welfarest State even among the other welfare States of the West. A famous American film, 'Trouble in Paradise' exposed the myth and showed that nobody there was happy in spite of everything being there--food, drink, clothing, home, education, unemployment insurance and even a place in heaven after death provided by the State Church. But people were suffering from an inner emptiness amidst all this outer plenty! This inner emptiness has resulted in a crisis. The rising number of incidents of violence, alcoholism, drug-addiction, divorces, suicides, child-abuse, sex-crimes, all indicate the symptoms of a very unhealthy social and psychological life.

The quest of the four Purushârthas can turn the powers of body and mind of men and women into healthy channels of expressions and thus these distortions can be decreased. What do we mean by this quest of Purushârthas?

Let us take up the four goals of life, viz, Dharma, Artha, Kâma and Moksha as discussed by Swamiji.

Artha and Kâma, Goals of Wealth & Enjoyment: These two goals are mutually contributive. Wealth enables a person to enjoy 'sense-pleasures' through the five senses. These in turn create the need for more and more wealth and thus is created an unending circle of wealth leading to enjoyment, thirst for more enjoyment, need for more wealth and so on.

But the thirst for enjoyments has to be controlled for the following two reasons: a) The senses have their limitations and therefore overdoing any enjoyment may bring in diseases and premature death. b) The interfering with others' freedom to enjoyment and wealth would create clashes and struggles and would not be conducive to happiness.

Who is to control this thirst for enjoyments? None other than one's own conscience. This is the consciousness of 'Dharma', righteousness, virtues or values.

Thus Dharma should form the basis for the acquisition of wealth and enjoyment. (That is why Vyâsa says: 'From Dharma comes Artha and Kâma, why not hold on to Dharma then?'). The modernists' argument that they need no 'values' (i.e., Dharma) in acquiring wealth or in enjoying life, seems absolutely 'shallow' in the face of the above facts. The Gita says that God incarnates time and again to guide humanity along the lines of a new Dharma to suit a new age. 'Such an Incarnation has come,' says Swamiji.

In a glorious tribute to his Guru, Swamiji said, 'Let me now only mention the great Sri Ramakrishna, the fulfilment of the Indian sages, the sage for the time, one whose teachings is just now & most beneficial. And mark the divine power working behind the man. The son of a poor priest & today is being worshipped literally by thousands in Europe and America and tomorrow will be worshipped by thousands more.'

We infer from the above that Swamiji's ideas on the four Purushârthas are none other than Sri Ramakrishna's which are most relevant to the present age. It is, as it were, Sri Ramakrishna who speaks through Swamiji. He (Swamiji) describes the glory of man thus: 'This human body is the greatest body in the universe and the human being the greatest being. Even gods will have to come down again and attain to perfection through a human body&.' The first duty of man is to realize his own glorious nature which is divine. To achieve this he should have faith in himself and in God. 'He who has no faith in himself can never have faith in God,' says Swamiji.

We should note that by the above glorification of man, Swamiji reiterates that 'Caste' is no bar for highest achievements, be it secular or religious. He is one with the Mahâbhârata ⁴ which says that neither birth, nor sacraments nor ancestry, nor study makes a man twice born, but character and conduct alone.

Having described man's inherent glory, Swamiji now describes how we can achieve happiness in this world. He says, 'Man thinks foolishly that he can make himself happy & and finds out at last that true happiness consists in killing selfishness.'⁵ This happiness can be at the physical or mental or spiritual level, the durability and intensity increasing at each succeeding level. This happiness is directly proportional to freedom and thus the Advaitic spiritual joy is the highest joy because Advaitic knowledge gives absolute freedom.

Food and Happiness: Food is an important thing in man's happiness. Swamiji advises us on it as follows: 'Some regulations regarding food are necessary to make it conducive to pure thoughts.' But fanaticism in food choices--vegetarian or non-vegetarian or eggetarian--should be eschewed. After a slight rise in spiritual life, any food, vegetarian or non-vegetarian, which one is habituated to from his early childhood should be good for that aspirant. Swamiji advises that meat-eating cannot be outright condemned in the face of the glaring evidence that among the meat eating Kshatriyas are the authors of Upanishads, Râma, Krishna, Buddha, Tirthankaras, etc. And also the majority of the followers of all major religions are meat eaters. 'Can we say with reason that the whole lot of them are bad or are condemned by God from Moksha?'⁶ But Swamiji also declares that for a sannyasin, vegetarian food would be better. 'To eat meat is surely barbarous and vegetable food is certainly purer... for one whose one end (of life) is to lead solely a spiritual life.'⁷

Education and Happiness: Education plays a vital part in making a man's life happy or otherwise. Hence Swamiji spoke about education often. He called good education a 'Man-making' one because it promoted man's all-round growth, i.e., physically, intellectually, emotionally, morally and spiritually. He called education as 'the manifestation of the perfection already in man'.

An educated man should develop a strong will, which comes from the power of knowledge and emotion coming together. He can accomplish whatever he wills. It should also guide him along the 'right' path and enable him to work efficiently, i.e., achieve maximum result spending minimum energy. Good education should make persons good-natured, kindly, philanthropic and courageous to fight for right causes.

As the whole creation has come out of the Supreme Soul (and man's soul is this Supreme Soul), man has the knowledge of everything 'hidden within his mind'. Education is just 'discovering' this 'covered up' knowledge. This 'concept' of Education as a manifestation from inside gives hope to all the ignorant and illiterate people that they too can become the greatest in intellect etc. if they struggle hard.

Householders and Happiness: Thus through a good education, an enlightened society is created in which, necessarily, the majority will be householders. Hence Swamiji speaks about how these men and women in their family situations can live happily. Swamiji says: 'A householder must earn money with great effort and by that must support & and bring comfort to his family and to others.' He continues 'the rule for a householder about the expenditure of his income is, 1/4 for his family, 1/4 for charity, 1/4 for self and 1/4 savings for emergency.'⁸

Hence a 'good' householder has to exert himself or herself utmost to earn well and spend well. Swamiji calls this a 'worship' equivalent to a monastic's spiritual practices because behind both is 'the same virtue of self-surrender and self-sacrifice, prompted by the feeling of devotion to God and to all that are His.'

Again, the householder has to be a man of character. Swamiji says, 'Chastity is the first virtue in man or woman.' The husband should look upon on all other women as his mother, daughter or sister. The woman has a greater responsibility of bringing back a wayward husband through the power of her love and chastity.

A householder should behave towards his family members as a 'nurse' in a rich man'shouse, believing that all of them are not his but really His! To his enemies, he must be a hero; he must resist, never talk of non-resistance. But to his friends and relatives, he should be like a lamb. He should eschew bad habits of gambling, company of the wicked etc. and struggle to earn a good name.

Thus a householder's life itself would give him the training in selflessness, service, sacrifice and renunciation which would make him 'a sannyasin without a garb'. That is, he can step into the highest quest of God through contemplation and meditation at the successful completion of his householder's life, say, at 60 or 65 years.

Women and Happiness: When we refer to a householder's life, we have to look at the ideals Swamiji sets for our women. 'Hindu women are very spiritual and religious, perhaps, more than any other women in the world. If we can preserve these beautiful characteristics and develop their intellects, the Hindu woman of the future will be the ideal woman of the world.' Our women should honour their development of morality, spirituality and purity as higher than development of mere intellect.⁹ Swamiji always praised the role of women as mothers. Manu spoke of the mother as equal to a million teachers.¹⁰

Swamiji had faith in the Indian women's role in spiritualizing the world. He wrote to a lady: 'If bold and talented women like yourself, versed in Vedanta, go to England and preach, I am sure that every year hundreds of men and women will become blessed by adopting the religion of the land of Bharata& If an Indian woman, in Indian dress preach there the religion which fell from the lips of the Rishis of India--I see a prophetic vision--there will rise a -great wave which will inundate the whole of the Western world.'¹¹

Swamiji on Dharma: Till now we have seen some of the unique ideas of Swamiji regarding the 'happy-life-in-the-world' (Abhyudaya).

Now let us turn our attention to his unique message for Nihshreyasa, the spiritual life. Swamiji's first message is to awaken man to his own spiritual glory. He says, 'No books, no scriptures, no science can ever imagine the glory of the SELF that appears as man, the most glorious God that ever was, the only God that ever existed, exists or ever will exist.'

To manifest this divinity within ourselves, Swamiji advises thus: 'Our first duty is not to hate ourselves; because to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God &.'

Duty becomes easy if it is in line with our aptitudes. We should select such works which we like by nature to serve ourselves and to serve society. This becomes 'duty-by-choice' (Swadharma). This can give us great concentration of mind, purity of heart and finally spiritual enlightenment. Swamiji says, 'Every duty is holy and devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God.'

We are all born with likes and dislikes and hence certain duties suit our nature whereas others do not. Let us not grumble about others having different works to do. That would rouse envy and kill all kindliness in our heart for the neighbours.

If we remember this, we love our works, and our duties become sweet. This is how parents love their duties to children, husbands their duties to their wives, etc.

Dharma and Strength: Swamiji teaches that real strength should be both physical and mental. Mental strength lies in our faith, in our own divinity. Swamiji says, 'Men are taught from their childhood that they are weak. Teach them that they are all glorious children of immortality, even those who are the weakest & Say to your own minds, "I am He, I am He" & That is truth; the infinite strength of the world is yours.' This strength is in ourselves. It is goodness. It is fearlessness. That is what our Upanishads teach. Swamiji says, '& the only religion that ought to be taught is the religion of Fearlessness.'

Dharma and Ethics: Doing one's duties to others, seeing in them God alone, is Karma Yoga. This makes one thoroughly free from all selfish feelings. Swamiji called selflessness as the essence of all goodness. Ethics, the science of good and bad behaviour etc. is based on the oneness of all creatures. Karma Yoga is the religion where by serving everyone with this idea of 'oneness', one attains to the highest spiritual enlightenment by developing highest selflessness thereby.

Dharma and Evil: The antithesis of oneness is 'privilege'. The enjoyment of any advantage over another is 'privilege'. The aim of morality is its destruction & through 'unity without destroying variety'.

Swamiji says that good and evil are results of two sets of habits. Hence they can be changed by efforts. We call less or more manifestation of Atman as evil or good. 'We should look upon man in the most charitable light ... you are good because you cannot help it. If you were in his (wicked one's) position, who knows what you would have been? & All the thieves, murderers, the unjust, the weakest, wickedest, the devils they are all my Christ. I owe a worship to the God Christ and to the demon Christ & all are my saviours!'

Thus we find some of Swamiji's unique ideas on Dharma for the modern age. Now we shall turn to his ideas on Moksha, the final goal of human life according to Vedanta.

Moksha and Self-confidence: 'Moksha cannot be attained by the weak,' says the Kathopanishad. Hence Swamiji exhorts us to have faith in our infinite capacity to achieve everything. He says, 'All such ideas as we can do this or cannot do that are superstitions. We can do everything & Vedanta says a man who does not believe in himself is an atheist &.' He further says, '& to preach Advaita aspect of the Vedanta is necessary to rouse up the hearts of men, to show them the glory of their souls.'

On the Nature of Moksha: And what becomes of a man after perfection? Swamiji says, 'He enjoys infinite and perfect bliss.' 'This Nirvâna (Moksha) can be attained here and now so that we do not have to wait for death &.'

'Salvation (Moksha) means knowing the truth. We do not become anything, we are (then) what we are & It is a question of knowledge.'¹²

'It is not that when a man becomes free, he will stop and become a dead lump. But he will be more active than any other being because & he works through not compulsion but freedom.'¹³

God Is Freedom: God is a deep necessity for humans. Those that deny this fact have been proved liars by history. Hence Swamiji says, '& so long as there is such a thing as death in the world & there shall be faith in God.'

'The concept of God is a fundamental element in the human constitution& In Vedanta Sat (Existence), Chit (Knowledge) and Ãnanda (Bliss) is the highest concept of God possible to the human mind.'¹⁴

Swamiji wonderfully argues that all quest of freedom is quest of God because God is of the nature of absolute freedom! No amount of conception of God can satisfy the soul. It needs realization of Him. Realisation needs spiritual practices. What are the spiritual practices Swamiji prescribes for realizing God? He says, 'Be strong and stand up and seek the God of Love. What power is higher than the power of purity? This love of God cannot be reached by the weak. Therefore be not weak physically, mentally, morally or spiritually.'

This love of God comes easily by serving His creatures. Swamiji says, 'After so much austerity I have understood this as the real truth--God is present in every Jiva; there is no other God besides that. He who serves Jiva serves God indeed.'

The freedom is attained, says Swamiji, through work, worship and knowledge:

a) (Work means) constant unceasing effort to help others and love others. b)Worship consists of prayer, praise and meditation.c)Knowledge (is realization) that follows meditation.

Moksha and Avatâra: God incarnates as a human being so that man can have direct experience of the existence of God and his numberless graces like love, compassion, etc. Swamiji testifies this fact for the modern man and says, 'Higher and nobler than all ordinary ones are another set of teachers, the Avatâras of God in the world. They can transmit spirituality with a touch, even with a mere wish. The ... most degraded characters become in one second saints at their command. ... we cannot see God except through them and indeed they are the only ones whom we are bound to worship.'

Avatâras are like tidal waves which inundate the whole land and one can get water in every place. So does spirituality reach every home and every person when an Avatâra comes.

Harmony of Religions: When we understand this principle behind all prophets, we can be liberal and worship all of them. That is the special teaching of Vivekananda. Swamiji says, 'The Hindu can worship any sage and any saint from any country whatsoever ... and that is good.'

In a unique prayer Swamiji says about the liberal attitude in the worship, 'Our salutations go to all the past prophets ... whatever may be their race, clime or creed, ... to all Godlike men and women who are working to help humanity, & to those who are coming in the future, the living gods, to work for our descendants!'.

Moksha and Guru: If Moksha is experiencing spiritual enlightenment, then its teachers are the most needed ones for the spiritual seekers. Swamiji speaks about this teacher, the Guru. 'The soul can only receive impulses from another soul and from nothing else.& The person from whose soul such impulse comes is called the Guru, the (spiritual) teacher.'

How to get a real guru? Swamiji answers, 'It is a mysterious law of nature that as soon as a field is ready, the seed must come, as soon as a soul wants religion, the Guru must come. When the power that attracts in the receiving soul is full and ripe, the power which answers to the attraction must come.'

Moksha and Common Man: Can all attain the highest spiritual illumination and if so how? Swamiji says, 'You are pure already, free already. If you think you are free, free you are this moment and if you think you are bound, bound you will be.' This thinking can be strengthened and deepened by constantly repeating to ourselves over and over 'I am Atman', 'I am Atman'.

Swamiji further explains: 'How will that knowledge come? Through Bhakti, by worship of God, by loving all beings as temples of God&. Thus ignorance will disappear, ... soul will be free.'

Moksha and Sannyasa: Finally, let us listen to the ideas of Swamiji on that sacred Vedantic Insitution, 'Sannyasa'. He says, 'The real aim of Sannyasa is Ãtmano Mokshârtham Jagat Hithâya Cha. For the highest freedom of the self and for the good of the world.' He further calls monks 'the protectors of Religion.' 'A monk is the soldier of God. What religion dies so long as it has a band of devoted monks?'

Here Swamiji makes a very interesting historical statement: 'The real Sannyasin is the teacher of householder. It is with the light and teaching obtained from them that householders of old triumphed in the battles of life&. Had there been no such mutual exchange in India, people would have become extinct, like the American Indians, by this time.& The bark of householders' life does not sink only because the Sanyasins are at its helm.'

Swamiji's ideas are the essence of all Vedantic teachings given to the modern man in his own language with all the logic of Eastern and Western thinkers. Swamiji exhorted Indians, specially, Hindus, to become 'spiritual first' and try for progress in other fields in and through that. In this he reminds us of the famous sloka of Manu (13.85) with which I would conclude this discussion: 'Of all the Knowledge, the Self-knowledge is the best; because Immortality is attained through it and hence it is the foremost.'¹⁵

References

1. Anye kritayuge dharmastretâyâm dvâpare apare Anye kaliyuge nrinâm yugadrasanurupatah (I.85)
2. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume VII, pages175/6; hereafter CW followed by volume no and page number.
3. Practical Vedanta and Science of Values, p.52;
4. Nayonir na cha samskaro Na shratam na cha santati Karanam dvijatvasya Vrittameva tu karanam (The Mahâbhârata, Vana Parva, Ch.313;108)
5. CW, 1-84
6. CW, IV.359
7. CW, V-485
8. CW, VI-114
9. CW, V-412/13
10. Upâdhyâyân dashâchâryah shatâchâryastathâ pitâ Sahasantu pitrnmâtâ gouravenâtirichyate. (II-145)
11. CW, IV-485/6
12. CW, I-512
13. CW, V-286
14. CW, I-334
15. Sarveshâmapi chaiteshâm âtmajnânam param matam
Taddhyagram sarvavidyânâmprâpyate hyamrtam tatah