The purpose of life and the four Pursharthas

As I was thinking of retirement and the life post retirement the question - what is the purpose of life kept bothering me. In this process of thinking I was nudged to focus on the four Pursharthas and the four Ashrams that we are expected to go thru as per the Hindu way of life. Lot of inputs for this thinking came from the spiritual experiences that I went thru during the Pandharpur Wari and the reading of Bhagwat as I returned.

Ancient seers in India have very clearly articulated the purpose of life as “attainment of Moksha”. We in India have heard the terms Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha several times since our childhood; however the exact meaning and the linkage of these terms were never very clear.

Thru my on process of reflections I have made an attempt to establish these linkages. While I was diving deep in to the meaning and the purpose of these terms I also tried to link them to the four Ashrams that we are expected to go thru. These linkages were crucial to me since it was difficult for me look at the Wanaprastha Ashram or for that matter any stage of life separate from the four Pursharthas. Once these linkages were established it became clear to me on what one focuses at each stage and how to ensure our ultimate objective of Moksha is not diluted or ignored.

Before we talk of these linkages a brief summary on the four Pursharthas is given below. More reflections on each of these will be in my next blogs.

 Dharma:

This is all about the righteous behaviour that we are expected to exhibit. This is all about the norms, the code of conduct, etc.

Dharma deals with duties and responsibilities that human beings have. This term also deals with ethics, moralities, truthfulness, etc.  It will therefore be seen that Dharma becomes the foundation for the life. Dharma acts as a regulator; it provides the frame work within which we must live.

Artha:

This is all about the wealth creation, earning money, this all about the acquisition of the property, and other material possessions, etc.  This is all about worldly prosperity. Money is an essential ingredient for survival and fulfilment of the fundamental needs of a human being.

Kama:

Kama is all about fulfilment of desires. These desires could be in multiple areas: sexual, power, recognition, comforts, good food, right homes, all types of possessions etc. The urge to enjoy pleasures and satisfy the desires, is the most powerful force within all the human beings.

Moksha:

The ultimate reason for our birth and the life we live is to attain the Moksha. This is the final liberation or Nirvana. This can happen after getting the freedom from the bondages of our deeds or our Karmas, after we conquer all our desires. Beyond moksha human beings have nothing more to attain. It is the stage where man’s cravings cease and along with that the need for further attainments also ceases. It is all about waking up of human consciousness at the highest level of reality.

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As mentioned earlier the table below establishes the linkages and may be simplifies our understanding on the interconnections between the stages of life and the Pursharthas. In our pursuit of worldly glories and pleasures some where we forget the purpose of our lives.

Phase of life	Areas for focus	Fundamental guiding force
Vidyarthi dasha. The foundational years.	Acquisition of knowledge, capabilities and skills necessary to become a strong and independent human being. Here the focus is on building the basics which will enable a person become a good citizen.	Bramhacharya Acquire knowledge Acquire capabilities Acquire skills Understand the “Dharma”
Gruhastha ashram. Life of a householde.	Pursuit of Artha and Kama. Fulfilment of worldly desires, so that you are freed to pursue the higher goal of Moksha.	Be a “Karma yogi” Support the society, build / support the institutions, Build a family, & create the progeny. Manage / control the evils illustrated below.
Wanaprastha ashram. The life of a retired individual	Give-up power, position and controls both on domestic as well as the professional front. Freedom from worldly bondages. Be available to advise, support, counsel, as required. Contributing back – selflessly to the society in the chosen areas.	Conquer the evils: Kama, krodha, moh, mad, matsar and Lobh. Do not allow new desires to enter your thoughts, preparation for Moksha.
Sanyast ashram	Spiritual practices leading to Moksha.	Bramhacharya
For all our life pursuits & to live with purpose in the four stages of life we should depend on the foundation of “Dharma”

In my next few blogs my personal reflections and understanding of the terms Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha are illustrated. These blog posts will be published in next few days. Keep looking for them.

Disclaimer: The picture is downloaded from Google Images.

Reflections on Retirement- Life post superannuation

As I stepped in to my fifties, the concept of retirement and the life after that was a topic that occupied my mind a lot which led me to think more on what is this concept of Retirement. As a HR professional, I must have dealt with several hundred people as they reached the age of superannuation. I must have done a lot of counselling and coaching to these people on financial planning and importance of keeping busy post retirement. However, the real meaning of the term retirement was always unclear except that, you stop working, quit your current employment and move to the next phase of life. Many definitions on what retirement is all about are available on several web sites and in several books; none of them gave me a satisfactory answer. What that next phase of life is was never clear. I always knew that retirement was not simply stopping the work but what was that new work was always unclear.

What was happening within me?

My own reflections on what was happening to me are most probably indicative of what must be happening to many people of my age group with of course some differences. These changes in me were clearly indicative of the need to change in to the next phase of life. Some changes that I experienced:

1.    Not having the same mental agility and mental stamina to do the operational tasks or routine work that I was otherwise very good at.

2.    I was losing interest in the active professional life that is full of time lines, execution schedules, pressures of performance, commitments that have to be met, etc.  

3.    Over time I developed new hobbies that are focused on physical fitness like trekking, walking, jogging, etc.

4.    I also developed new interests that are mainly spiritual in nature. I plunge a lot in these areas and therefore I am unable to keep pace with the professional reading, leading to my inability to keep professionally updated.

5.    Somewhere I was also not being diligent in my work, the way I used to be in the past which is mainly due to the lack of interest in those activities, leading to inadequate application of mind. I believe I was moving away from being details oriented person to being more holistic and strategic which is not a bad idea but without being details oriented it does not work in professional world.

6.    As I am getting older I have also realized that I was becoming more and more inclusive and open about the social, cultural, religious and political issues. The areas I was never very good at. I started taking more interest in these areas.

7.    I was however becoming more and more inflexible in the professional sphere, maybe, I was developing certain idiosyncrasies, may be developing strong opinions, etc. If not managed well, I knew it will quickly lead to my losing flexibility and adaptability that is so very crucial for the successful work life.

I guess, I was going thru a process of aging which can easily be well managed by taking up right vocations commensurate with the new interests, the new aptitude, new realities of physical fitness, and the changing times.

 I knew for sure that, time has come for me to move in to “Wanaprastha Ashram” phase. This will also mean to get disconnected from routine and just be available to family, society and the profession, if and when needed. This means longer time devoted for meditation, longer meditative morning walks, attending right sat-sang forums, participate in the discourses from the learned people, etc. coupled with right reading and discussions with the like-minded people and most importantly -  just being with myself.

Like most other Indians I did hear from the very young age the concept of the four stages of life namely:

1.    Bramhacharya Ashram or the period when you are a student,

2.    Gruhastha Ashram wherein you are a householder,

3.    Wanaprastha Ashram wherein you fade away from power, position and be available to the society and lastly

4.    Sanyast Ashram wherein you truly become a sanyasi.

I guess since so called educated people like us read a lot and can talk a lot on these topics over cocktails, I must have also done lot of talking, but I guess those were very superfluous talks without much of thinking.

I observed many of my friends and the relatives who had superannuated from their careers. The purpose was to learn from them on how to lead a life of a senior citizen. In most cases I observed that post retirement these physically and mentally fit colleagues and friends were supporting their families. In modern days the dual income families are a reality. I saw my friends supporting their grandchildren by baby sitting and management of the household of their children while the young couples were at work and the young grandchildren are at home and have to be taken care of. Most of the conversations with these senior citizens are just the same as they used to be when I was young and a new father. The topics are around school admissions, helping in the homework, problems and issues with young children, how to drop the children in to schools, need for tutions, coaching classes, how the education system is deteriorating, our times vs. new times, in some cases about diaper changing, etc. Conversations with the friends of Mugdha (my wife), are all about the old age issues of pain in the knees / back, Blood pressure and diabetes and in spite of all that, how these senior women have to manage the maids, the young grandchildren, etc. Conversations with affluent entrepreneur friends who are senior citizens are all about the succession issues, helping the young heirs succeed the division of enterprise / property, and related topics.

I quickly discovered that in reality none of my senior citizen friends had retired, actually they were doing all those things which they did as young couple. While they were young, they worked to bring up their own children and now they were working to bring up the grandchildren. I quickly discovered that presence of the grandparents in the family is no more a “highly desirable need” of the modern society but has become “must have need” thanks to the double income nuclear families. The thought of Retirement was therefore not very interesting; in fact it was frightening – I certainly did not want to do what I did 30 years back, actually what I am expected to do now is much more than what I did while I was young. Other thoughts like going on long vacations, indulging a bit in things that I never did, may be just idle around, etc. were certainly appealing but not necessarily satisfying.

While I was crossing the milestone of 60, this thought of what is retirement and what is life after that became far more predominant. This led me to do some more reading, some talking to wise people and some more introspection. Some ideas that emerged as a result of this “vichar-manthan” are illustrated below.

What is Retirement?

With the passage of time our own relevance in the professional world to which we belonged for 3 to 4 decades starts diminishing for the reasons illustrated above, which is a very natural phenomenon. As we grow older, we become better at something and start losing out on some things which we were otherwise very good at. We have to fully understand that this is a process of evolution and not necessarily aging, we have to become very comfortable with it. Intellectually I knew all this, but still, the real meaning of the term retirement was not yet clear and what do I do, after the retirement was still a big question.

Based on some interesting spiritual experiences that I went through during Pandharpur Wari, Satsang with few learned people, and some literature that I came across, the real meaning of retirement dawned on me. The Sanskrit word for Retirement is Nivrutti which means - Separated from the world. A deeper insight to the term - Nivrutta (retired person) is - he/she who has conquered the worldly or materialistic six evil tendencies like:

1. Kam – Lust, all types of Wasanas or desires
2. Krodh – Rage, anger
3. Moh / maya / mamata – attachments of all types: towards children, property, position / status, etc
4. Mad – Ego or Ahankar
5. Matsar – Envy
6. Lobh - Greed

I liked this definition of the term retirement or Nivrutti. Now, to me, the term Retirement or moving to the Wanaprastha Ashram has a completely new meaning. Now I know why our ancestors gave importance to this phase of life which is crucial before we can think of Sanyast Ashram. In this post retirement Wanaprastha phase of the life we have to remain focused on conquering these six evils that were otherwise an integral part of our lives in smaller or bigger proportion. Not an easy task, but one has to relentlessly work on this. This has to be coupled with the fulfilment of the five Runas or debts that we have.

More about these six evils of the illusionary materialistic world of maya and the five debts and the Wanaprastha ashram as understood by me in the next blogs.

Disclaimer: Some of the images in this post are downloaded from Google Images