The Relevance of "Puruṣartha" in Contemporary Life

Abstract ‘Puruṣartha’ literally means an entity of Human Pursuit for attainment of fulfillment in life . It is a key concept in Vedic civilization and refers to the four proper goals of human life. The four Puruṣarthas are Dharma, Artha, Kaama and Moksha. The ideas of Puruṣartha have played a very fundamental role in the mythological history of Indian deliberation. Every individual is expected to achieve these four Purushartha with detachment, without any expectation in human life. The purpose of Puruṣartha is to ensure that people would not neglect their obligatory means duties in their deluded state by becoming obsessed with particular desires that may lead to moral and social decadence and destruction of family values. To understand our goals of life we should not look outside, as to where the world is going, but should rather look within inner self, as to what do we really hope and want. In the modern world, society itself progress through the use of huge technological methods, forgetting the final destination of our life. Today modern human lifestyle has weakened the ultimate value of puruṣartha. This paper attempts to show the significance of the ideals of puruṣartha in human life as a guiding principle in all stages of life and also would explore the importance of puruṣartha knowledge that is still relevant to our modern life.