Sanatana culture is a culture of humanity which deals with the individual’s performance, action, lifestyle and thought, as well as his spiritual search in relation to society, the universe and the concept of God. It accepts all aspects of life as being relevant to growth and evolution.
Sanatana culture advocates that human beings have come into this dimension or this world with four main aims to pursue. These four aims of human life are known as the purusharthas, which include: artha (material need), kama (emotional need), dharma (ethical law) and moksha (spiritual aim). These four aspects of life are regarded as being necessary in order to experience fulfilment.
1. Artha, or material wealth, is the aim related to our external social life. This material wealth could take the form of a house, clothes, food, money, status, name and fame, etc. Artha is one of the aims to be fulfilled in life. The Sanatana tradition, yoga, tantra or Vedanta are not against the principle of material gain, provided there is no selfish attitude attached to the gain. Material wealth or gain should not bloat one’s ego to such an extent that it explodes.
2. Kama is emotional fulfilment. We all have desires and emotions that need to be fulfilled in order for us to have emotional or mental satisfaction. The Sanatana concept does not say this emotional need is bad, but that it is a requirement of life. So fulfil it and then there will be no craving to pull you down when you begin your spiritual journey.
3. Dharma, or duty, has a very broad vision. It is not the dharma known as religion. It is the duty, the obligation to the body, the mind and the self. We have certain obligations to our body, such as the maintenance of good health. Are you happy when you are ill? No. It is not the dharma of the body to be ill.
There are family dharmas or obligations, social dharmas, moral dharmas and spiritual dharmas. We have to realize and fulfil all these obligations. This is not done by adopting an indifferent or adverse attitude towards life and its situations, but by having a clear concept of what our obligations are, of what our duties are, and fulfilling them.
4. Moksha, or liberation, is the desire to attain transcendence, the desire for freedom. Sanatana dharma says that the desire for spiritual freedom is imbibed when we are still in the womb. During the time that the little baby is inside, it does not have to do anything. It lives in perfect quietude, harmony and peace, in other words, heaven.
The mother is breathing, eating and doing everything for the child in the womb. The idea of moksha, or freedom, is actually implanted then. That feeling of total, self-contained harmony becomes a samskara, a desire and the motivating force in our later stages of life for the attainment of satisfaction, happiness, contentment, peace and bliss.
These are the four aspects of life within the Sanatana culture which provide material and emotional satisfaction. They give us the motivation to fulfil our natural obligations and to pursue our innermost desire to find a state of harmony, contentment and peace.
This is the spiritual tradition from which the yoga and sannyasa traditions have evolved.
Gangha Darshan, October 1992
From the book “Yoga Darshan, Vision of the Yoga Upanishads”, pg.13-15, Sw. Niranjananada Saraswati