Shaḍgītā
The Shaḍgītā is a short talk in the Āpaddharma Parva of the Śānti Parva of the Mahābhārata. Yudhishṭhira asks one question of his brothers and of Vidura: of the three purushārthas (aims of life), which is greatest, dharma, artha or kāma? Each of them answers in his own way. The name Shaḍgītā means “the song of six”, because six people took part: Vidura and the five Pāṇḍavas.
The setting
Bhīshma had finished telling the Khaḍgotpatti narrative and had rested. Yudhishṭhira went home with his brothers and Vidura. There, in the ordinary talk of the household and not at Bhīshma’s bed of arrows, he put his question. Which of the three purushārthas is the most essential? Which is in the middle? Which is the least? And to which of the three should a person turn his ātman (self) in order to win all three?
Vidura: dharma is supreme
Vidura spoke first. He is described here as an avatāra of Dharma himself, born with dharma-awareness as his own nature. His answer was plain.
Dharma is the base of everything. The ṛshis have crossed the ocean of saṃsāra by dharma. The worlds rest on dharma. The devas gained their powers through dharma. Even artha stands on dharma, and without dharma artha has no rightful footing.
He named ten qualities that make up true spiritual wealth (ātma-sampad):
- wide learning
- tapas (austerity)
- tyāga (giving up)
- śraddhā (faith)
- practice of yajña
- kshamā (forgiveness)
- bhāva-śuddhi (purity of inner feeling)
- dayā (kindness)
- satya (truth)
- indriya-saṃyama (control of the senses)
Together these make up dharma. A person who has them does not need to seek artha or kāma separately, for they follow of themselves.
Arjuna: artha is the foundation
Arjuna is described as deeply skilled in the science of artha and in the facts of ruling and living in the world. He took a different view.
This world is karmabhūmi, the land of action. Without artha, which means material means, no other purushārtha can be followed. Farming, keeping cattle, trade and craft all need artha. Even sannyāsīs who seem to have given up artha need food, shelter and the society that produces them. The Vedas themselves say that dharma and kāma are the limbs of artha, and that they exist only where artha exists.
Ascetics with matted hair, merchants, craftsmen, celibate students and learned men all want artha. Even the spiritual path is held up by material conditions. To pretend otherwise is to refuse to see how life is really built.
Nakula and Sahadeva: dharma and artha together
The twins Nakula and Sahadeva spoke together. They said that dharma joined with artha, and artha joined with dharma, is like amṛta (the drink of immortality). Neither alone is complete.
A man without artha has no kāma. A man without dharma has no rightful artha. They depend on each other. A person should first act by dharma, then gain artha in keeping with that dharma, and then follow kāma once artha is secure. This, they said, is the right order.
A person who does not join dharma and artha, and who treats them as separate or as rivals, upsets the whole order of the world.
Bhīma: kāma is supreme
Bhīma held that kāma is the deepest root.
Nothing in this world moves without kāma, which means desire, intention and drive. Take tapas: the ṛshi wants liberation. Take yajña: the yajamāna (the one who sponsors it) wants svarga (heaven) or wealth. Take study of the Veda: the student wants knowledge, spiritual power and the respect of the tradition. Trade, farming, scholarship and war are all moved by some kāma.
Bhīma said that artha and dharma are both rooted in kāma. Butter comes from curds and oil from sesame, and in the same way artha and dharma come out of kāma. Kāma is the juice pressed from the flower of life. Without a wish for liberation, he said, a person would not even seek moksha.
Yudhishṭhira: moksha is beyond all three
Yudhishṭhira listened to all five with care. After a moment of thought he spoke.
He said that all of them were right and that each had seen something real. But he was looking for what lies beyond all three. A person who clings to neither pāpa (sin) nor puṇya (merit), and to none of artha, dharma and kāma, who looks on clay and gold with the same calm, and who is free from the round of sorrow and joy that these three bring, is already free.
All beings have jāti-smṛti, the memory of past births, and they know that old age, death and return come with every life. They praise moksha but do not know what it is. A person with sneha (attachment) to any of the three cannot be truly free. The wise aim at nirvāṇa as their last goal.
Yudhishṭhira said that he chases none of the three. He goes where vidhi, the ordering power of the world, places him. All beings are moved by vidhi, and vidhi is stronger than all three purushārthas. Even the highest artha, won by effort, can be overturned by vidhi. A person who understands this stops chasing and starts to flow.
The assembly praised Yudhishṭhira’s view. He then went back to Bhīshma to continue his questions.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Āpaddharma Parva, Chapter 167 (the Shaḍgītā)