Thus Spake the Divine - Objective of a Religion

Thus Spake the Divine

Objective of a Religion

The prime purpose of any religion is to act as a medium for accomplishment of Purushartham by an individual. An individual has four purposes or goals in life, which are part of this Purushartham. They

are: Dharma (Righteousness), Artha (Economic values), Kama (Pleasure) and Moksha (Liberation). The word Artha is part of the term “Purushartham”. Among the above-mentioned four purposes, Artha comes after Dharma. Purusha means man and Artha means “need something”. Having born as human beings, all those that are needed by a man are encompassed in Purushartham.

In this chapter, Poojyasri Maha Periyava deals at length with the four purposes of Purushartha in an eloquent manner.

What does a man conceive as his needs? We, being in a less mature state of mind, want only money and other worldly possessions. . This is referred to as Artha. The book on economics is called as “Artha Shasthra”. But our Acharya has already established that such economic and monetary needs are the most meaningless ones (anartham). He said so because these needs give us only highly temporary and short-lived pleasure, while denying absolute and eternal Mokha.

In reality, always man aspires for boundless happiness. Happiness is of two kinds. One is to be happy for a short while and another is to be happy forever. It is the lust or pleasure that brings out happiness for a short while. Here, lust refers to all kinds of worldly desires. Unlike short-lived pleasures, it is the eternal bliss that once experienced stays forever and never leaves us. This eternal bliss is known as Moksha or heaven. Only those people who do not know the worth or value of that eternal bliss (Perinbam) aspire for short-lived pleasure (Sitrinbam).

Therefore, what we should aspire for is the fourth purpose, which is heaven (Moksha) or eternal bliss. But what we actually look forward to is the third purpose, which is Kama or lust. If we indulge in a feast, we get happiness. If one happens to hold the position of High Court Judge that gives another kind of happiness. Somebody offers us a welcome address, we are very pleased with that. But such happiness is impermanent and short-lived. With what we earn from this short-lived happiness is some material or substance. It could be in the form of grains; it could be money; it could be a house or even human beings. The material acts as the medium for happiness. We indulge in that happiness and exhaust it within a short while. Then, we again yearn for happiness.

Moksha is that absolute and eternal bliss, which does not trigger an individual to pursue anything else. It is known as the Heaven, which means “House” (veedu) in Tamil. We roam around throughout the day and what we crave the most is to return to our own house. A person is imprisoned in the jail and when he is released from jail, where he goes is to his house. Currently, we are imprisoned in our body, which can be compared to a jail. The real house is the eternal bliss, which is Moksha. We should leave the jail and live in our own house.

As a repercussion of our sins, God has imprisoned us in this body, which is a jail. If we do good deeds, He would condone our punishment and release us out of the jail. Being in the jail (body), we should not be committing any new sins and increase our punishment period. We should get free from the jail and try to unify ourselves with God and reach our ‘true house’. That house alone provides us the boundless bliss. It is only this eternal bliss, which endures forever in this world in terms of time, country and substance.

I will now tell you about the first purpose, which is Dharma. In Tamil, it means doing charity. Beggars ask for “alms” from people. We also say it jointly as “dhana Dharma”. If you look from this perspective, what we give, some “material” or “wealth” (Artha), to others represents Dharma. But how do we acquire such “materials” that we give to others? Only if we had given “wealth” (Artha) to others on charity in our earlier birth, that multiplies with interest in the next birth and conferred on us. The main benefit of Dharma is material. As “material” is the medium for pleasure and happiness, Dharma is the medium for material. It is not only charity of money and wealth, whatever good that is done to others, the resultant outcome is in the form of material.

When we do charity, we must do it without expecting any returns and with dedication that “I don’t want any material outcome for this charity; let God give me whatever he deems fit”. When charity is so done, impurities within us get cleansed and we will attain the state of absolute and eternal bliss. At that juncture, the medium of Dharma that gives material will turn out to be the medium that offers Param Porul at the time of Moksha. Thus, Dharma acts as a medium for material, thereby for happiness and ultimately a medium for Moksha. While, Dharma is the medium for material, the same material can be used by again to do additional Dharma. This helps us develop the “wealth” that becomes the medium for going on doing Dharma.

Moksha is thus a state in which there is liberation from the worldly bonding, wherein the soul experiences a state of eternal bliss with absolute freedom. All religions have emerged only to facilitate us in getting into this state. We also require a “Code of Dharma” as the fundamental base for relinquishing not only happiness arising out of sensory organs but also for attainment of eternal bliss. Such a code facilitates us in setting up a smooth social life. Thus, any religion, which has set Moksha as the goal, has to also establish the Code of Dharma. That’s why the synonym of dharma became the religion for our ancestors.

We, as human beings, aspire for material prosperity and short- lived happiness only because of the power of Maya. Generally, materials and pleasure are not really required for our well being. If we settle ourselves within the underlying Code of Dharma, even materials and lust will not spoil us. We will be able to keep them under control. That’s why Dharma became the first purpose of man. As we aspire for material and lust, we should also aspire for Dharma. Dharma will then extract the poisonous tooth of material and lust and take us to “Moksha”, which is our ultimate goal in life.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.

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