The purpose of life - Artha

Like Kama this is also one of the most misunderstood Pursharthas. Based on my understanding in the past, like many others, I always thought that talking about money, collecting wealth etc. was not in conformity with the tenets of the philosophy of Hinduism. After considerable thinking, some reading and after having heard some wise people, some clarity has emerged in my mind and the same is being shared in this blog post.

  What is Artha?

Artha deals with material prosperity of the individuals and the society. This purshartha or the purpose of life, is all about the wealth creation, or earning money, this all about the acquisition of the property, creating the engine for wealth generation and employment. It is all about entrepreneurship  which makes society powerful and prosperous.

Lu the Chinese God of prosperity and wealth

This is all about worldly or material prosperity. While money is an essential ingredient for survival and fulfillment of the fundamental needs of a human being, wealth is also necessary for the material prosperity and development of the society. Wealth leads to great human endeavors which are absolutely critical or essential. These endeavors lead to building industries that create employment and ensure social security in long term. Wealth creates and nurtures large institutions for education, charitable institutions for the needy, creation and nurturing of the places of worship, institutions for research and development, infrastructure development for the society,  development of the cultural and social institutions, etc. Wealth is certainly not a bad word, it is the basis for the life.

Wealth creation and earning money is therefore not a taboo and should never be shied away from. Wealth creation or “Artha” is an important second Purshartha. In Indian society  Hindus have always worshiped Goddess Laxmi and in Chinese society also  God for Prosperity and wealth is  an integral part of a household. It is expected that during the Gruhastha Ashram phase of life,  people must focus on earning money and ensuring that the money gets utilized not only for the fulfillment of basic needs and comforts of the householders but also for social security and fulfillment of the Runas or debts about which I have talked earlier in the other blog posts.

Laxmi the Hindu Goddess of Wealth

During my journey I also discovered that the term Artha has a broader meaning - The word 'Artha' implies achievement in general. In particular, it implies the kind of achievement that accumulates  meaningful wealth. This wealth may be material goods and possessions; or it may be merit, fame and honor, or knowledge and skill, or good habits and virtuous character.

Even nomadic sanyasi or mendicants also need to earn money for their own survival, they also have to work, we may call it alms, or Bhiksha, whatever you may call it, work has to be performed by them and resources have to be generated either in kind or cash for their own survival and living.

Beware, Wealth or Artha may derail us:

During my discoveries I realized that the wealth creation is an important objective and we have to focus on this while we are in the second phase of our life. One of the reasons why wealth creation is unfortunately considered as wrong by many Hindus was it can derail a human being.

 

I realized that problem is never with the money or wealth on its own, the issue comes-up when the human beings misuse the wealth. Wealth invariably leads to power. Wealth can lead to indulgences of all kinds leading to derailment from the path of Dharma and losing sight of the ultimate objective of life "The Moksha". Wealth can become a cause or an important source of the evils that we talked about earlier - Kam, krodha, moh, mad, matsar and Lobha.  

In the process of wealth creation, somewhere individuals start focusing only on "wealth amassing" or hoarding, since this gives them sense of power, position, name and fame or even false sense of security. Objectives in the life therefore get focused on acquiring more and more. Becoming a wealthy person, earning not only for self but even for the next generations, becomes the sole  objective / purpose of the life. This may even lead to, showing off the wealth in order to get the name and fame. Wealth becomes the means to  fulfillment of several latent desires (Kama) and also creation of new desires which otherwise the individual was not aware of. Wealth can corrupt / spoil an individual very quickly. However if one follows the four Pursharthas completely in letter and in spirit, likelihood of Artha or Wealth corrupting or spoiling an individual gets minimized since the individual will always remain focused on the ultimate objective of the life, i.e.  "Moksha" and work within the frame work of the Dharma.

  

Some jewels that I picked up during my journey of self discovery:

  

• Austerity, simplicity and detachment are the basis for the Dharma however the poverty is never glorified in India; somewhere due to the lack of the true knowledge I had misunderstood wealth creation as a wrong / undesirable activity.
• Most of the Vedic invocations lead to asking for wealth or prosperity - a divine power that leads to individual and social progress.
• Renunciation does not mean give up wealth; it just means get detached from the wealth and this is the most difficult part.
•  Purpose of life is not to generate wealth and to become personally powerful or indulge in luxuries and other undesirable vices, but to generate the wealth for a bigger cause.
• Hinduism talks of moderation, detachment and not aversion to wealth.
• Arha-arjan or earning money is a noble goal as long as the objectives for earning and the process for earning are right. 
•  Hinduism recognizes importance of Artha for overall well-being of an individual as well as that of the society.

If one looks at the Four Pursharthas dispassionately and objectively one will realize:

1.    The Moksha is for self (mainly self-centered, the ultimate objective of the life),

2.    the Kama is also for the self (mainly self-centered, unless the fundamental and latent desires are not satisfied one can’t get to Moksha),

3.    Artha is for self (to fulfill personal needs) as well as to create prosperous and strong society around us. Here the focus is on self as well as the society and therefore discussion on the Runas or debts.

4.    Dharma is for “self-management” as well ensuring harmony in the society.

In the next blog post we will deal with the concept of Moksha as understood by me.

 Disclaimer: The pictures are downloaded from Google Images.