Dharma Artha Kama Moksha- 40 Insights into Happiness

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Artha-shastra is about generating food, i.c. wealth, by creating goods and services; Kama-shastra is about indulging our hungers with this food. Dharma-shastra insists we consider the hunger of others, while Moksha-shastra is about outgrowing our hungers, in order to be detached and generous. Together, these four Hindu shastras provide a framework within which human action, its purposes and consequences, can be defined; together, they validate human existence and give it meaning. In Dharma Artha Kama Moksha, Devdutt Pattanaik uses his unique understanding of mythology to provide an accessible and lucid guide to the Hindu way of thinking, with short essays that are crisp expositions of important concepts.

How can we as human beings live a happy and meaningful Llife (purusha-artha)?

According to ancient Hindu scriptures there are four pillars (chatur-varga) that can help us do that: dharma, artha, kama, moksha.

§ Dharma is about one's responsibility to society at large.

§ Artha is about achievement and success.

§ Kama is about intimacy, sensual and sexual pleasures.

§ Moksha is about freedom from bondage and worldly suffering,

To appreciate this concept, we need to hear the story of Indra, King of Paradise, who one day called upon his architect, Vishwakarma, to build him a palace worthy of godly glory. Vishwakarma built Indra a palace, but it didn't satisfy the king. So, he built a bigger and grander palace. But even this was not good enough for Indra, and Vishwakarma built yet another palace. But no matter what Vishwakarma created, Indra remained unsatisfied-Indra felt that his glory was not matched by the opulence of the structures Vishwakarma was building. Desperate, Vishwakarma went to Vishnu and asked for help. Vishnu appeared in front of Indra, in the form of a child. Indra took him around, showing him the many palaces built by Vishwakarma. Indra then very sheepishly added that none of them really matched his greatness. Vishnu, as the little boy, was not impressed and informed Indra that, although wonderful, his palaces were not as wonderful as the palaces of all the Indras who had lived before him.

This comment startled Indra, and he asked the boy what he meant by 'lived before him': wasn't he unique? The boy laughed and replied that there were many Indras in the world: there had been many Indras before him and there would be many after him. Right at that very moment, in fact, there existed as many Indras in different realms as there were grains of sand on a beach. Each was trying to build a palace worthy of his glory but none was succeeding. Indras came and went with the seasons; and in the universe, which is a canvas of infinity, each Indra is eventually reduced to nothingness. Indra realized that in the denominator of infinity, which is the universe, he had no essential value.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages