The Purusharthas

Religion is the means of realizing dharma, artha, kama and moksa. These four are called purusarthas.

“Artha” occurs in the term “purusarthas”, but it is itself one of the purusarthas? What a man wants for himself in his life- the aims of a man’s life- are the purusarthas. What does a man want to have? He wants to live happily without lacking for anything. There are two types of happiness: the first is ephemeral; and the second is everlasting and not subject to diminution.Kama is ephemeral happiness and denotes worldly pleasure,worldly desires. Moksa is everlasting happiness, not transient pleasure. It is because people are ignorant about such happiness, how elevated and enduring it is, that they hanker after the trivial and momentary joys of kama.

Moksa is the state of supreme bliss and there is no quest beyond it. We keep going from place to place and suffer hardships of all kinds. Our destination is our home. A prisoner goes to his home after he is released. Since we are now imprisoned in our body, we commit the grave mistake of believing that we are the body. The body is in fact our goal.

Moksa is the state of supreme bliss and there is no quest beyond it. We keep going from place to place and suffer hardships of all kinds. Our destination is our home. A prisoner goes to his home after he is released. But the word moksha also means release or liberation. Since we are now imprisoned in our body, we commit the grave mistake of believing that we are the body. The body is in fact our goal.

Our real home is the bliss called moksa. We must find release from the goal that is our body and dwell in our true home. God has sentenced us to goal (that is he has imprisoned us in our body) for our sins. If we practice virtue He will condone our sins and release us from the prison of our body before the expiry of the sentence. We must desist from committing sinful acts so that our term of imprisonment is not extended and endeavor to free ourselves and arrive in our true home, our true home that is the Lord. This home is bliss that passeth understanding, bliss that is not bound by the limitations of time, space and matter.

Last but not the least we would now discuss the first purusartha, Dharma. Dharma denotes beneficent action, good or virtuous deeds. The word has come to mean giving, charity. “Give me dharmam. Do dharmam, mother, “cries the beggar. Looked at in this way, giving away our artha or porul will be seen to be dharma. But how do we, in the first place, acquire the goods to be given away in charity? The charity practiced in our former birth- by giving away our artha- it is that brings us rewards in this birth. The very purpose of owning material goods is the practice of dharma. Just as material possessions are a means of pleasure, so is dharma a means of material possessions. It is not charity alone that yields rewards in the form of material goods; all dharma will bring their own material rewards.

If we practice dharma without expecting any reward in the belief that Isvara gives us what he wills- and in a spirit of dedication, the impurities tainting our being will be removed and we will obtain the bliss that is exalted. The pursuit of dharma that brings in its wake material rewards will itself become the means of attaining the Paramatman. Thus we see that dharma, while being an instrument for making material gain and through it of pleasure, becomes the means of liberation also if it is practiced unselfishly. Through it we acquire material goods and are helped to keep up the practice of dharma. This means that artha itself becomes a basis of dharma. It is kama or desire alone that neither fulfils itself nor becomes an instrument of fulfilling some other purpose. It is like the water poured on burning sands. Worse, it is an instrument that destroys everything dharmic thoughts, material possessions, liberation itself.

All the same it is difficult, to start with, to be without any desire altogether. Religion serves to rein in desire little by little and take a man, step by step, from petty ephemeral pleasure to the ultimate bliss. First we are taught the meaning and implications of dharma and how to practice it, then we are instructed in the right manner in which material goods are to be acquired so as to practice this dharma; and, thirdly, we are taught the proper manner in which desires may be satisfied. It is a process of gaining maturity and wisdom to forsake petty pleasure for the ultimate bliss of moksa.

Moksa is release from all attachments. It is a state in which the Self remains ever in untrammeled freedom and blessedness. The chief purpose of religion is to teach us how this supreme state may be attained.

We know for certain that ordinary people do not achieve eternal happiness. The purpose of any religion is to lead them towards such happiness. Everlasting blessedness is obtained only by forsaking the quest for petty pleasures. The dictates of dharma help us to abandon the pursuit of sensual enjoyments and endeavor for eternal bliss. They are also essential to create a social order that has the same high purpose, the liberation of all. Religion, with its goal of liberation, lays down the tenets of dharma. That is why the great understand the word dharma itself to mean religion.

There's more to what is Dharma which will be discussed as comprehensively as possible in the ensuing posts

Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitaha- Dharma alone protects!!

There is a law governing the behaviour of everything in this universe. All must submit to it for the world to function properly. Otherwise things will go awry and end up in chaos. It is the will of the Lord that all his creation, all his creatures, should live in happiness. That is why he has ordained a dharma, a law, for each one of them. It is compliance with this dharma that ensures all-round harmony. While Isvara protects his children from rain and sun, he also provides them, when needed, with the warmth of the gentle sun. His love for his children is expressed in the schema ordered by him for the functioning of Nature and the law he has laid down for trees is a part of it.

To be worthy of Isvara's love we must possess certain qualities, certain virtues. If there is a law that applies to trees, there must be one that applies to us also. We shall deserve the Lord's love and compassion only by living in accordance with this law and by working for the well-being of all mankind. What is called dharma is this law, the law governing the conduct of man. Isvara has endowed man with intelligence, but it is by using this very intelligence that human beings keep violating their dharma.

I guess at one point in life or the other  each Individual is faced with questions like "Why did I take birth in this world?" "What would happen when I die?" "Did I take birth only to Die?" and so on..The great men who emerged from time to time in various climes came to believe that the entity called man did not cease to exist even after his body perished. The truth dawned on them that the money and property acquired for the upkeep of a man's body served no purpose after his passing. As a next step they formed a view of what a human being must do in this life to ensure for himself a happy state in afterlife.Religious leaders in different countries taught different ways to achieve
this.

"Love everyone.” "Live a life of sacrifice." "Serve mankind.” Such are the teachings of the various religions. If a man lives according to these tenets,it is believed that his soul will reach God after it departs from his body. Those who subscribe to Advaita or non-dualism declare that the soul will become one with the Godhead. According to another system of belief, after reaching the Lord, the soul will serve him and ever remain happy as the recipient of his compassion. There is no need to quarrel over the nature of the final state. "By following one path or another we attain the Lord. And that will be the end of all our sorrows, all our frustrations and all our failures in this world. There will now be nothing but bliss, full and everlasting. “No more than this do we need to know for the present.

If the Paramatman is to draw us unto himself we must, without fail, perform our duties to him as well as to the world. It is these duties that constitute what is called dharma. Again, it is dharma that serves us when we dwell in our body and when we cease to dwell in it. It serves us in life and afterlife. When we are in this world we must do that which would take us to a desirable state after we depart from it. We take an insurance policy so that our relatives will be able to take care of themselves when we are gone. But is it not far more important to ensure that we will be happy in our after life? Dharma is after life insurance. But in this life too it is dharma that gives us peace and happiness.

To a son going on a long journey the mother gives food to take with him. Kausalya does the same when her son Rama leaves for the forest, but she does so after much thought, for she wants the food to last during all the fourteen years of his exile. And what is that food? Kausalya gives Rama the eternal sustenance of dharma. Raghava, she says to him,"it is dharma alone that will protect you, and this dharma is what you yourself protect with courage and steadfastness.” It is the escort of dharma that the mother provides her son sent out from his kingdom.

 If a man treads the path of dharma he will win universal respect. If he slips into adharma, unrighteousness, even his brother will turn a foe. The Ramayana illustrates this truth. Sri Rama was regarded with respect by the vanaras. What about Ravana? Even his brother Vibhisana forsakes him. Dharma --- and dharma alone is our protecting shield. How did Ravana with his ten heads perish and how did Sri Ramachandra rise with his head held high as Vijayaraghava (the victorious Raghava)? It was all the doing of dharma.One's religion is nothing but the dharma practiced by one's forefathers.

One of the verses by the great Sivavakiyar known as the Sivavakiyams thus says...

Aadu Naadu Thediyum Aanai Senai Thediyum.

Kodi Vaasi Thediyum Kurukke Vanthu Nirkkuma??

Ooki itta pitchaiyum Vanthu Seitha Dharmamum

Saadi vitta Kudharaipol Dharmam vandhu Nirkkumey!!!!

In the ensuing posts we would see as to what does the Hindu religion defines to be dharma.

May all adhere to their dharma with unwavering faith and courage and be rewarded with everlasting bliss.

About the Mahaswami..A true Seer, The Walking God

While during our great and unique freedom struggle of India, Pt Nehru embarked on a journey of "Discovery of India". The 68th Seer of Kanchi Kamakoti Pitha  went about guiding his devotees on a journey towards Discovery of India, a discovery in the spiritual realm,

The Sage of Kanchi was spiritually supreme, intellectually pre-eminent. He was verily an akshayapatra - inexhaustible reservoir - of the spiritual wisdom of India dating back to the beginning of Time, and of Vedic Dharma. So was he with regard to modern knowledge, current affairs and contemporary men
and matters.

In a special easy in the Bhavan's journal this true sanatani hailed Gandhiji,a staunch Hindu and a secularist nonpareil, as one of the "greatest redeemers of Hinduism". Hailing Gandhiji's services to Hinduism, he said: "From the time Gandhiji came into the arena, he augmented his political movements by his spiritual researches and devotion. Almost all the features of Hinduism that were discarded as weeds by the previous reform movements were clearly explained by Gandhiji as being of indispensable utility.

His views on Ramanama, the Ramayana, Varna dharma, Aharaniyama and his definition of God are such that the most faithful Hindu cannot but profit spiritually by digesting them." During one of the satsangas, some members of the Bhavan’s(publisher of Kanchi Kamkaoti peetham's work) family were privileged to have with him, this remarkable advaitin said that Jawharlal Nehru was "an advaitin at heart."

The Mahaswami will shine forever as one of the greatest exemplars of sanatana dharma, the Universal Way of Life. This sanatani extraordinary personified in himself all that is best and noblest in Hinduism. He always stressed that Hinduism is the latter-day name given to mankind's earliest religion - sanatana dharma. It is beginning less (anadi), endless (ananta) and hence eternal (sanatana), because it is in consonance with Nature's Laws.

To drive home the eternal or the sanatana aspect of our religion, the Mahaswami used to narrate a telling episode: "There was a palm-tree around which a creeper entwined itself. The creeper grew fast and within
months it entwined the entire tree. 'This palm has not grown a bit all these months,' said the creeper laughing. The palm-tree retorted: 'I have seen tens of thousands of creepers in my life. Each creeper before you said the same thing as you have now said. I do not know what to say to you'. Our religion is like this tree in relation to the countless detractors it faced."

I am fortunate to have lived in the times, and to hear and view frequently the words and the work of one with such "illuminated Consciousness", whose nearly 100-year- long Pilgrimage on Earth ended on January 8, 1994. He was a realized soul, and whenever he spoke, he spoke in the accents of the Vedic seers precise, profound and authentic words that found a permanent lodgment in the hearts of his listeners.

An Introduction

Dear All,

Iam starting this blog to share with you all  that I have learnt about the religion that is called "Hinduism". The bulk or i must say all of  my posts will be excerpts from a book called "Hindu Dharma The Universal Way of life" which is a compendium of various discourses rendered by HH Chandrashekarendra Saraswati over a period of time during his Life. Although I maybe posting my personal views about it.

The objective of this Blog is not to claim superiority over the other religions. There will be comparisons with other religions but just to understand the "Hindu" Religion better and not to claim superiority over other religions.

Even the Mahaswami doesnt claim any superiority of the "Hindu" Religion over others but urges its followers to live life as per the tenets of the religion..

In am simply voicing his words and I hope that His messages are driven home to the readers just like his own voice used to drill the tenets of "Dharma" in the minds of His audience