Page 95 - Hinduism
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CHAPTER X PURUṢĀRTHAS
Every animal pursues an end but man alone is conscious of the end. Man has reason or hetuka and he is also morally free and a kartā. His consciousness of the end or purpose is called puruṣārtha; it is his aim of life or goal. Man's physical needs are food, water, fire, air and clothing, i.e., they are for the preservation of his body. He seeks pleasures and their continuance and avoids pains. Hinduism has analysed all the chief ends of life and classified them into four broad kinds. They are called dharma, artha, Kāma and mokṣa. They may be rendered in English as the ethical, the economic, the hedonistic or pleasure-seeking and the religious ends of life. They are not, however, exclusive. They all lead to the super-end of life, namely, mokṣa.
Dharma or righteousness is the ethical end of life. Hinduism gives the practice of dharma the first place among the purusārthas as no man can take a moral holiday. Right conduct is the whole of life and the other ends of life should also be righteous. Buddhism and Jainism also insist on the need for the practice of dharma. But they do not recognise and realise that goodness has its final meaning only in godliness. God is good by nature and the highest good is godliness, to be attained through the Śāstra. So morality or dharma has its full meaning in religion
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