India's Ancient Culture

by Swami Krishnananda

Chapter 4: The Fourfold Aim of Life and How to Achieve It

We bestowed sufficient thought on the foundations of Indian culture, which are the Vedas. We observed that the Vedas are not merely a scripture of religion in the sense of an aspiration for a God above the world, and we had occasion to go into the different aspects of the meaning of the Veda Samhitas. They are inclusive of at least five aspects of life. It is religion, of course, because the mantras of the Vedas are addressed to gods, or divinities, above the physical world. But the Veda mantras are also connected with this world, not merely with the other world. They are not merely connected with adhidaiva, or divinities in heaven, but are also connected with adhibhuta, the actual physical world in which we live. The mantras of the Vedas are also connected with the soul of the human being. They are adhyatma and, in that sense, they are also psychology and spirituality. They are also adhiyajna because they give us information about the method of conducting ourselves in our actual performance and action in the world. They are also adhidharma because they tell us the way in which we have to conduct ourselves in relation to other people in the world, in relation to the physical world outside us, in relation to the Creator Himself, in relation to our own selves—in relation to everything, for the matter of that. This is called dharma or law, and it is also laid down in the Vedas Samhitas.

The meaning of the Vedas is, therefore, so profound and inclusive that the Vedas cannot be studied merely from the linguistic or grammatical point of view, which is generally the way in which modern scholars study them. The meaning of the Vedas is fivefold, a hundredfold, a millionfold. That is to say, it is inclusive of every phase of life. Therefore, it is considered as the foundation of the culture of the people of India. To say, therefore, that the culture of India is only religious is to say very little. Sufficient thought is bestowed by the culture of India on all aspects of life, which is highlighted by the inclusion of these phases: adhidaiva, adhyatma, adhibhuta, adhiyajna and adhidharma.

Vast are the Vedas, and difficult is their meaning. We noted that in order to make the Vedas a little easier to understand, the Smritis came up. The Smritis are codes of ethics and law. They are eighteen in number, and three of them are considered as very important: the Manusmriti, the Yajnavalkya Smriti and the Parashara Smriti. The ordinances of the Manusmriti are very strict, the regulations laid down in the Yajnavalkya Smriti are a little easier, and the Parashara Smriti is considered as the only Smriti that is suitable for Kali Yuga, this age where the will of people is weak and the mind is not as strong as it was in the earlier ages of Krita, Treta and Dvapara.

We noticed the purpose of the Smritis. What do the Smritis tell us? They lay down the laws of life. What are the laws of life? These laws depend on the laws of existence itself. Our existence is summed up in our longings or aspirations, and our longings or aspirations are summed up in the fourfold aim of existence, which was mentioned during the previous session: artha, kama, and dharma. The material values of life, our physical requirements or physical needs, are summed up by artha; our emotional needs are summed up by kama; and the regulation of the way in which we have to fulfil our desires for material comfort and emotional satisfaction is the dharma thereof. It does not mean that we can have everything that we want. Dharma restrains us from having excessive freedom. Though it grants us freedom, our freedom is limited by the necessity for others to also have similar freedom. The existence of another person who also requires freedom limits the freedom of other persons. One hundred percent freedom is not possible for any person because each one has to survive, and everyone has to be granted the minimum needs for survival and reasonable comfort.

It is freedom that we seek, finally: freedom from want of every kind, freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from heat and cold, freedom from threat of any kind coming from external sources. This is freedom from the point of view of physical and economic existence. We also want to be free from emotional tension. This freedom, which is external as it is connected with material existence on the one hand and emotional existence on the other hand, is what is required by every person. We should be physically comfortable, and also emotionally comfortable. There should be no tension from either outside or inside.

This freedom which is material as well as emotional is regulated by a law, a system of operation which is called dharma. But who lays down this law? What is the source of this dharma? It should be like this and it should not be like that, says a law-and-order system. We are not supposed to behave in this manner; we are supposed to behave in this manner only; this we can do, but the other thing we cannot do. Who lays down this law? Of course, these laws are written down in the Smritis, but on what grounds do they make these injunctions? Here we have the fourth aim of existence, inclusive of and yet transcendent to artha, kama and dharma. The highest aim of life is not only inclusive of artha, kama and dharma, but it transcends them. That is moksha.

Four are the aims of existence: dharma, artha, kama, moksha. Actually, moksha is not one item among four items; it is that which surpasses and stands above the other three. It is a logical superiority which is over and above the other empirical needs or relative requirements which are physical, emotional and ethical. On what basis and in what manner are we to conceive this foundational concept of moksha? What is it, actually? What is meant by moksha, which is inclusive of all the other values of life? We cannot have a hundred percent freedom in this world because our freedom is restricted by the freedom necessitated by the existence of other people in the world. If two people are living together, the freedom that they need should be shared by both of them in the required proportion. But there is such a thing called absolute freedom. The relativity of the freedom that we can expect in this world is only an indication that there should be something called absolute freedom. In this world it is not possible to have absolute freedom because there is a world outside us which conditions us, and there are people outside which limit us. What then is absolute, because things in the world are relative?

A state of being in which there would be nothing outside which can restrain us, that alone can be regarded as absolute. If there is nobody except us, if we are the only existence, then we can exercise our freedom entirely. We will be one hundred percent free. In this creation we are not alone. There is a multifarious variety in this world of creation; therefore, relativity rules the freedom that we can expect in this world. But we want absolute freedom. Absolute freedom is possible only when there is nothing external to us. Here we enter into the field of philosophy and metaphysical studies, as they are usually called.

How is it possible for us to exist independently of anything that is outside us? The very concept of outside, or externality, has to be completely abrogated and transcended. Is it possible? Normally, we will feel that such a thing is not possible. How is it possible for anyone to be totally alone, with nobody else existing? The idea of somebody else and something outside us is the limiting factor in which we are all involved in this world. Physically, socially, or from the point of view of natural life we cannot be absolutely alone. Aloneness is impossible in this world. Wherever we go, whatever we are, there is something outside us. Everywhere there are people outside us. There is the natural world of the five elements outside us. Space and time are there wherever we go. They are external to us. That means to say, in this world of space and time, and objects and people, absolute freedom is not possible.

But we do not want to be limited in any way whatsoever. Unlimitedness, if possible, is our aspiration. If we would like to have wealth, we would like to have unlimited wealth. If we want to live, we would like to live unlimitedly, for endless years of duration. This is not practicable; we have noticed that. But does it actually exist? “If possible, I would like to be the master of the whole sky and all the time process. If possible, I would not like to die at all. Eternally I would like to exist, transcending time, breaking through the process of temporal duration. If possible, I would like to possess the whole sky.” These ideas arise in the mind of a human being because there is a potential inside us which speaks in this language. We know that in practice this is not a workable procedure, but something that is unworkable normally speaking is telling us that it is workable. This world tells us we cannot be free, but something inside us says we can be free.

There is something in us which does not belong to this world. All that the world is—space, time, objects, and all people—seeks to limit us in every way, from all sides, and tells us again and again that we are bound, very much bound indeed, that we are the slaves of circumstances and conditions, dependent on the events of history, the moods of people and the vagaries of nature. We feel this way. We accept it. But still, there is something inside which says that, if possible, it would be good to break through all these bondages. A person who is a hundred percent bound and entirely involved in bondage as his very nature will not have ideas of this kind—namely, ideas of transcending bondage. The idea of unlimited freedom cannot arise in the mind of a person whose mind is really bound and is incapable of the fulfilment of the aspiration of unlimited freedom.

We, therefore, seem to be belonging to two worlds. One is the world in which we are now, which is bound to spatial and temporal laws. We live in this world where everything is conditioned in every way. Death itself is the ruler of this world. In addition to all the limitations that harass us from all sides, there is a final limitation which ends our existence itself, which is death. We live in a mortal world, a world of death; but we also seem to be belonging to another realm which is deathless, which is immortal.

Our inner consciousness, which is usually known as the Atman inside, is what is responsible for these kinds of aspirations which are very superphysical, dreamlike, and impossible to describe in the language of the mortal tongue. This consciousness, which is what we really are, is something which is required to be studied properly. What are we? We say we are Mister so-and-so, this person. We describe ourselves as the son of somebody, or we describe ourselves in terms of the occupation that we have got. We have some designation as an official or a workman, or we have some other designation as a relative of so-and-so, etc. But this designation, this definition of ours, is in terms of the physical body. This body of ours, which is material, we consider as ourselves, and we define ourselves only in terms of the body. This body is connected to a language, to a regional culture, to a state, to a nationality, to a species.

But every day we pass through various stages in our life which, if studied properly, will tell us that we are not actually this body—for instance, the state of deep sleep. This state of deep sleep is very intriguing indeed. We do not know what is happening to us when we are fast asleep. We are unconscious, but unconscious of what? We are unconscious of this body. This body which we consider as everything and all in all, which is the very dear and near object of our love, which is very important for us from a social, economic and material point of view, this body of ours which is the son of so-and-so, the brother or sister so-and-so, this physical body which is sitting on a chair and calling itself an official or a ruler or a worker, etc., this physical body which is so very important, which is all that we have, is not there in the state of deep sleep. Yet we exist in sleep. Do we exist in the state of deep sleep? Yes. Did we exist as this body? No. As what did we exist there? We did exist minus the body, minus also the mind. Not only was our consciousness of the body not there, we have not even the thought of the body. Did we exist as something independent of body and mind? It seems to be so.

Please think over this matter deeply. Where was the mind in the state of deep sleep? It was not there. There was no thought of any kind. The body was also not there as the physical body. Did you exist minus the physical body and mind? Yes. What was your condition when you were there existing as independent of the physical body and the mind? “I knew nothing.” This is all that you can say. “I cannot say what I was. I was fast asleep.” Who is saying that you were fast asleep? In the morning when you wake up from sleep you say, “I was fast asleep. I had a very happy sleep.” My question is, who is making the statement? When you say “I had a good sleep yesterday”, who is making this statement? Does the physical body make the statement? The physical body was not there. Is the mind saying it? The mind was also not there. Who is making this statement?

It is a statement made by some peculiar thing which has the memory of having slept the previous day. You have a memory that you slept yesterday, and this memory makes you say that you had a good sleep yesterday. But what is memory? It is the recollection of an experience that you had earlier. Unless you had some experience, you cannot have a memory of it. Now you have a memory of having slept. That means to say, you had an experience of having slept. Prior to the memory that you have in the waking condition, you had an experience of something which you now say is sleep. Did you have an experience in sleep? You did not have any experience at that time. You were unconscious. If you had no consciousness in the state of deep sleep, as you say, how is it possible that you have a memory that you slept yesterday? Does an unconscious stone have a memory of anything? Do you believe that you were totally unconscious in sleep? If so, there would not be any memory of it afterwards. Remembrance of anything is not possible if it is totally bereft of awareness. Unconsciousness cannot breed memory. Memory is always of something which was consciously experienced earlier. That is to say, there must have been a consciousness in the state of deep sleep that was covered over by something, due to which you did not have any experience of it. The consciousness that was there in the state of deep sleep was covered over by some cloud-like thing, some darkness which prevented the consciousness from being aware of itself. Thus, though consciousness seemed absent, yet it was there, and that is the reason why you remember that you slept.

Therefore, from the fact of there being memory subsequent to the experience of deep sleep, you conclude that consciousness must have been there in the state of sleep; otherwise, memory would not be possible. You existed in the state of deep sleep as consciousness, not as body, not as mind, not as any psychic function. Pure consciousness was your state, independent of any kind of relation to the body and the mind. No social relation, no physical contact, nothing of the kind was there. You were not there as a person, as an individual. You were there as consciousness; but where was this consciousness? Was it inside or outside? The question of inside or outside does not arise for consciousness because the idea of inside arises only because of the fact that you associate consciousness with the physical body. “The Atman is inside”, “Consciousness is inside”, etc., are statements you make in terms of the physical body. Now we are defining and trying to understand consciousness independent of the relation with the physical body because we cannot say the Atman is inside the body, that consciousness is within, inasmuch as in the state of deep sleep there was no consciousness of the physical body. Therefore, in the state of deep sleep, consciousness was not inside the body, nor can we say it was outside the body. That which is neither inside nor outside, yet exists, has to be everywhere. This is a logical deduction that we are making from the fact of our consciousness in the state of deep sleep being neither inside our body nor outside our body. A universality of consciousness must have been there which was shrouded in ignorance of certain types, ignorance caused by various factors. We did exist as consciousness. Because of the fact that consciousness has to be everywhere, limitation of consciousness cannot be conceived. Consciousness is absolute in every sense of the term.

Our essential nature is consciousness, which is not inside or outside, or in any particular place. It has no particular location because location is a concept that arises in terms of physical existence, but physical existence is completely obliterated in the state of deep sleep. There was not even mental existence. It is super-mental and superphysical existence, pure consciousness which is everywhere. Because it is everywhere, it is absolute. There is nothing to condition us or limit us at that time. That is why our happiness in sleep is greater than the happiness of even a king or an emperor of the earth. Do you know how happy you must be when you are fast asleep? Not the best of delicious dishes, not the best appurtenances of the comforts in life, not even kingship can be equal to the happiness of deep sleep. You get up rejuvenated. Even a sick person feels better after getting a good sleep. You have not eaten any good food in sleep, you did not possess any property, there was nothing worth the while, but you woke up with a joy of having got charged with some force which makes you feel healthier than you were earlier. How this is possible? It is because you were yourself in the state of deep sleep. In the waking condition when you are physically conscious, you are other than what you are. In the state of waking, you have changed your position, your location, into what you are not. This consciousness which is therefore everywhere, which is yourself, is absolute freedom. The attainment of this experience is moksha.

Moksha is the delving into the state of this universality of consciousness, which is the nature of everyone. Inasmuch as universal consciousness can be only one, there cannot be many universal consciousnesses in the case of different people. It does not mean that when you are fast asleep you enter into a universal consciousness different from the universal consciousness which another person enters into in the state of deep sleep. We are all bathed in the ocean and are sinking into a single sleep. The ocean is only one for all the waves. Millions of people may be fast asleep, but it does not mean that they are all entering into different kinds of universality. All the waves sink into the same sea of this universal existence.

We are not aware of it. We are bound by the physical body and conditioned by the mental vrittis or operations, totally unaware of there being such a thing inside us or outside us or everywhere, which is the absolute universality in us. If that state of universality can be directly experienced, we will be omnipresent. Universality means existing everywhere at the same time. Now we are in Rishikesh. A person who is in Rishikesh cannot be in Delhi at the same time. There is the limitation of location, and the limitation of the duration of time, caused by the existence of space and time. All this limitation is overcome in the state of pure awareness, which is consciousness. Attainment of it, or experience of it, is called moksha.

Now, all this description about the nature of moksha is necessary in order to understand what the law and order is which regulates the requirements of our artha and kama. Law and order in life, dharma, as it is called, is the way in which universal existence operates in all particulars. There are many particulars in the world. Many individuals of various types are there. All these individuals are conditioned by one law, namely, the universality to which they belong, of which they are a part, and from which they are inseparable. So whenever we conduct ourselves in life, behave in some way, we have to see that it is in consonance with the universality which is the aspiration of all people. We cannot contend with others. There cannot be exploitation, there cannot be competition, there cannot be hatred, there cannot be ill will. Nothing negative is possible here in this state where universal existence is the common aspiration of all people. This is to mention briefly what moksha is.

Thus, what are the aims of existence? They are dharma, artha, kama, moksha. Inasmuch as moksha is universally inclusive, it is not just one of the four aims; it is the aim which automatically includes the other three, and subsumes the other three. The goal of life is Self-realisation, God-realisation, the realisation of this absolute universal consciousness. This is to say something about the fourfold aim of existence: artha, kama, dharma, moksha.

How are we going to work for it? Now comes the practical question. We have understood that these are the aims of life. How is it possible to achieve it? This methodology of the actual attainment of this great purpose of life is laid down by regulations of a different type altogether, namely, ashrama dharma, the dharma or the law of the order of life, the stages of life. We have to grow vertically, through a process of education, into the expanded state of the dimension of consciousness by overcoming the limitations to which we are subject, which is the ashrama dharma. Brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa are supposed to be the stages through which everyone has to pass. When a person is born as a little child and grows into an adolescent, that person is put under the restriction of a law and order of education, and a discipline which conserves energy. This frees the mind from distractions which, if they are allowed to work with a free hand, may deplete the energy of the system, and the self within may feel weakened by its concentration on things other than its own self. We call this consciousness as Atman, and that which is outside this consciousness is anatman, also known as the subject and the object.

Pure consciousness cannot be an object. It is the knower of all things, the seer of all things; therefore, it cannot be something that is known by somebody else. But we, in our physical condition of embodiment in this body, see something outside—the world in front of us, filled with things, people, etc.—and our mind moves in terms of these external things. This movement of the mind in terms of external things is what we call the Atman moving in terms of the anatman. We are moving in terms of that which we are not. We know that we are something and that the things that we see in front of us are not us, so whenever we think something outside us, or the sense organs pull us in an outward direction, we are concentrating our mind on that which we are not. This is the reason why we become physically and mentally weak. When we are not ourselves and we have become somebody else, naturally all our energy is sucked by that which is not us, the object, and we have poured ourselves, as it were, on that thing which we are not, and we have become weak. A person who is sensorily indulgent, mentally contemplating objects of sense outside, weakens the system physiologically as well as psychologically. This is prevented by the rules and regulations of brahmacharya wherein, at least for a period of 20 to 25 years, it becomes incumbent on the student to conserve energy. A system of this conservation of energy has evolved by which the brahmachari, or the student, is not allowed to indulge in anything that is sensory, and is also not permitted to brood mentally over objects of sense. So for 20 or 25 years—nowadays it is less in number, but originally for the first 25 years, at least—one should live a life of intense self-conserving discipline.

Whatever you have been in your young age will tell upon you when you are old. This is something you must remember. What did you do when you were young? Did you live a dissipated life, an indulgent life, a distracted life, an uncontrolled life? Its effect you will feel when you are old. When you are young, you may not know what you are doing. Everything looks like milk and honey. Little boys do not know the harm that they are bringing upon themselves by living a dissipated life of distraction and mental indulgence in objects. If you want to live a long life and have a strong-bodied existence even in old age, not be drooping and coughing and suffering, your young age should be lived in a disciplined manner. Therefore, the first period of one's life is brahmacharya, the period of discipline, wherein the energy is conserved for those performances which are required to be undergone subsequently through the stages of grihastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa.

Grihastha dharma is what is known as family life, generally speaking. It is also a very difficult life. It does not mean that the disciplined brahmachari suddenly becomes indulgent when he becomes a householder. That is not so. It is another kind of discipline altogether. All the four stages are stages of discipline only, but they are different kinds of discipline. It does not mean that in the grihastha stage you have got a long rope, whereas in brahmacharya you are all controlled. Nothing of the kind. Many a time you will feel that the life of a grihasthi is more difficult, disciplined and controlled than even the brahmacharis because you are actually in contact with things in the world in front of you while living a life of conservation and discipline. The brahmacharin has lesser difficulties; the grihasthi has greater difficulties. Therefore, the discipline that the grihasthi has to undergo in terms of the difficulties of the entanglements in which he is involved is much greater.

A grihasthi is a person who holds the house. That is the meaning of grihasthi: one who resides in the house, and the other ashramas are supposed to be dependent on him. The brahmachari, the vanaprasthi and the sannyasi are taken care of by the grihasthi. In one of the sutras or aphorisms of the Brahmasutra, the grihastha dharma is considered as an integrated existence. Grihastha is the word used there because all-round discipline is necessary in grihastha dharma, whereas a unilateral type of discipline is required in the other stages of life. The physical, psychological and social disciplines required of the householder are more difficult to practise than the ones that are before the brahmachari, the vanaprasthi or the sannyasi.

The daily routine of the grihasthi is more variegated and complicated than the duties of a brahmachari, a vanaprasthi or a sannyasi. The pancha mahayajnas, as they are called, the five great sacrifices which a householder has to perform every day, are very important to make note of. He has to offer his daily worship to the gods who are not only superintending over our sense organs and controlling them, but are taking care of us. The higher divinities in heaven are the superintending powers which are lodged in our various sense organs, and if these divinities were not to operate, we would not see, we would not hear, we would not think, we would not have any consciousness of our existence. Surya—Aditya, the Sun god—is the superintending power over our eyes. The Ashwinis as celestials are the determining factors of our organ of smell. Varuna is the deity superintending over taste by the tongue. The quarters of the skies, called the Digdevatas, are the deities which regulate our organ of hearing, and Vayu Devata, the wind god, is the power superintending over the sense of touch. The Moon determines the mind, Brahma determines the intellect, Vishnu determines the subconscious or the memory, and Rudra decides the fate of our egoism. These are some of the gods who are worshipped daily by the grihasthi in a particular ritual called Deva-yajna—offerings made to the gods.

We have also to pay our gratitude to the rishis who handed over, through a succession of Gurus and disciples, the knowledge which we have gained. The study of the Veda, the study of the Upanishads or any scripture has been made possible to us because of the hierarchy of the knowledge that has come down to us through a lineage of Guru and disciple from rishis who are the originators of these scriptures. Therefore, the study of the scriptures is a daily ritual of the grihasthi, by which he discharges the debt to the rishis. It is called Brahma-yajna.

Our ancestors who are no more here, who have gone to the other world, also expect a recompense from us for all the good they have done to us. Libations are offered during shraddha and related ceremonies, and this is one of the five great sacrifices, called Pitri-yajna.

There is the serving of the guests; at least one guest must be fed every day. The rule is that when your worship and rituals of the day are over, and you are sitting for your midday meal, you have to open the front door and see if anybody is standing in outside it. If anybody is standing there, he must be fed first. An uninvited person who is standing there is called atithi. Atithi is considered as God Himself. A person who suddenly presents himself without your having invited him is God coming. This is what Indian tradition believes. That person has to be fed first, and you take your meal afterwards. So open your door and see if anyone without food is standing in front of it. Give him food, and then take your meal. Every day this has to be done. This is Manushya-yajna—feeding, entertaining the guests. Then you have to feed the animals; there are so many dogs, birds, crows, etc., wandering about. Give them their due. That is Bhuta-yajna.

Thus, Deva-yajna, Brahma-yajna, Pitri-yajna, Manusha-yajna and Bhuta-yajna are the sacrifices which a householder has to perform every day. To do this, he has to earn his livelihood. That is again a very difficult thing, which the brahmachari has not to do. So all these make one feel that grihastha dharma is more difficult. It is a tremendous discipline through which one has to pass in order that one may gradually free oneself from the clutches of the laws of nature, the laws of society, and the laws of the physical world. Freedom from the laws of nature, or any kind of law, is possible only by obeying that law. You cannot bypass a law. When a law is obeyed, it also frees you at the same time; but if you violate the law, it catches hold of you.

Thus, through these stages, the ashrama dharmas, you obey the law of nature, of society, and also of your physical body. By discharging the obligation and the debt that you have to pay to them, you gradually free yourself from them. After the maturity that you gained by living the disciplined life of a householder, you are now given permission to free yourself from all the obligations of a householder. You can become a free to a large extent—become a recluse, a vanaprasthi.