Know and Use the World's Oldest Goal Setting Tool

Some among us are of the view that spirituality, philosophy and such other intellectual pursuits are activities to be reserved for the last stage of our lives, which our ancients described as Vanaprasthaashram, or, life in the woods. But consider the life of Henry David Thoreau, the American philosopher, whose philosophical work influenced the likes of Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy and Martin Luther King, Jr. Though by inclination a philosopher, throughout most of his life, he was actually involved in managing his family's pencil company and even invented a new way of making pencil leads. He just thought that making money should never be his life's overriding purpose. He believed, "To have done anything by which you earned money merely  is to have been truly idle or worse." Merely being the operative word. This life-changing thought came to him from two years he spent in the woods contemplating nature and spirituality. 

For those of us who consider any amount of time, (least of all two years in the woods!), spent in contemplating one's life and goals as time spent unproductively, here is a suggested way to combine the philosophical with a practical approach.

Planning the Four Goals of a Balanced Life

Our ancient seers articulated the objectives of humankind asPurusharthas, Purush being  the person and Artha being the objective. The four Purusharthas were defined as; Dharma, Artha, Kama andMoksha. Dharma: righteousness or  duty, Artha: wealth, Kama:  desire and Moksha: liberation. Priya Banati, a keen student of Jyotish, Yoga and Ayurveda gives an interesting contemporary interpretation to the four Purusharthas in one of her blog articles. She defines them as:

Dharma: Doing what best fits your individual aptitude in the context of your familial and societal responsibilities. Dharma comes from a Sanskrit root that means ‘to establish’ and hence is the path through life that establishes an individual as a stable, productive, satisfied human being.

Artha: Resources or more commonly wealth. It includes all our intentions around the acquisition of adequate means for self-support to live life fully. Both money and knowledge when used for self-support falls under Artha.

Kama: The innate urge to relate to others. Commonly interpreted as lust, Kama is actually much broader than that and relates to how we build and nurture relationships with other human beings.

Moksha: The freedom, or the quality of being able to free oneself from the mirage that dharma, artha and kama are able to provide enduring satisfaction.

Everything we do in our life (ie, the sum total of our desires) rolls up to meeting one or more of these four purusharthas. So how do your 2012 resolutions map to these four goals? You are likely to find that much of your resolutions are really focused on one of these purusharthas. If so, then spend some time reflecting on the other purusharthas and ask yourself what you can do to help address them in 2012. Almost all humans need to achieve all purusharthas to at least some degree if they hope to achieve a life well lived. A simple and practical method of applying the wisdom of the ancients to our contemporary lives is illustrated by the following example: 

Suppose one of your intentions this year is to buy a car. This primarily falls under Artha – ie, acquiring material possessions / wealth for self-support

Remember, the more clearly you qualify your intention, the easier it is to pick the predominant bucket for that particular desire. For example, if the reason for buying a car is so that you can go from being an Auto driver to a Taxi driver, then this desire falls somewhere between Artha and Dharma. However if this is a car that you’d like to gift to your daughter for her 18th birthday, then it falls more in the Artha – Kama space. Predominantly though, buying a car falls within Artha.

Desires that fall within Dharma:

Change jobs

Seek a career change.

Start a family

Have a child

Have a second/third child

Run a marathon

Get fit

Lose weight

Desires that fall within Artha:

Get employed

Find a job

Start a business

Do a degree

Take an exam

Improve my financial prospects

Investing in property, shares etc

Desires that fall within Kama:

Get married or seek a long term relationship with someone

Get a promotion

Get voted into office

Make new friends

Engage with Government policies.

Desires that fall withing Moksha

Be more proactive.

Adopt positive thinking.

Recycle regularly.

Give to charity.

Provide free service.

Develop one’s spiritual strength.

Practice Yoga.

The Prescription for a Happy Life
What happens to you in this this year is colored, based on your purushartha lens. If your shares are not doing well, viewing them from an Artha lens will surely bring disappointment – However viewing them through a Moksha lens will help in your spiritual growth. Using the purusharthas in this way, will not only you to decide on your actions but more importantly, act as a tool to help you accept what is happening to you.