Purushārtha
Purushārtha · purusha-artha, “the aim of a person”
The purushārthas are the four aims of human life: dharma (right conduct), artha (wealth), kāma (desire rightly enjoyed) and moksha (release). Together they are called the caturvarga, the group of four. The Vāmana Purāṇa names Bhagavān Vishṇu as made of the four, and so undivided (akhaṇḍa); praises Bhagavān Śiva as their very form and the one who establishes them; teaches a vrata and a darśana by which all four are gained; and places among the narakas the one who obstructs another from gaining them.
The four in the life of dharma
The maharshis who taught dharma to the rākshasa king Sukeśī gave the tree of good conduct (sadācāra): dharma is its root, dāna its branches, kāma its flower and moksha its fruit, and only one who tends such a tree is a puṇyātmā (Chapter 14). The householder who lives with wife and children in good conduct gathers dharma, artha and kāma, and gains happiness in this world and afterwards in the next (Chapter 15).
When Prahlāda seated Bali on Indra‘s throne, Bali joined his hands and asked his grandfather how, while protecting the three worlds, he should do the duties that accomplish dharma, artha, kāma and moksha; and Prahlāda gave him his teaching on the dharma of a king (Chapter 49).
Among the narakas that Brahmā described to Sanatkumāra, the thirteenth is for those who obstruct others from gaining the purushārthas, who steal the means of them, and who sow discord among good people (Chapter 35).
Bhagavān Vishṇu, the Akhaṇḍa
When the brāhmaṇas left Kurujāṅgala and went north, they came to a forest on the Akhaṇḍa mountain and saw there a great holy āśrama, the abode of the caturvarga. It had four āśramas: facing east the Dharmāśrama, among groves of palāśa; facing west the Arthāśrama, among sugarcane; facing south the Kāmya āśrama, among banana and aśoka trees; and facing north the Mokshāśrama, shining like pure crystal. At the end of the Kṛta yuga moksha dwells there, at the end of the Tretā kāma, at the end of the Dvāpara artha, and at the beginning of the Kali yuga dharma. Because he is made of the four purushārthas, Bhagavān Vishṇu bears the name Akhaṇḍa-tattva, the undivided principle, and he is present there as the four-armed Jagannātha (Chapter 62).
Bhagavān Śiva, their form
King Vena, freed of his pāpas at the Sthāṇu tīrtha in Kurukshetra, praised Bhagavān Śiva as Sthāṇu with a long stotra. Among its names he hails Śiva as pleased by the six karmas, devoted to the three karmas, Caṇḍa (the fierce), Kṛśa (the lean) and Sphoṭana (the one who becomes manifest), and as Caturvidha-purushārtha-rūpa, whose form is the four purushārthas, and Caturvidha-purushārtha-pratipādaka, who establishes them (Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 26).
How the four are gained
The Ekādaśī vrata to Keśava. Pulastya Maharshi taught Nārada Maharshi a year-long vrata of the śukla ekādaśī for those who seek wealth. At its end one bathes Bhagavān Vishṇu with ghee, adorns him, and prays to Padmanābha: “Just as you are complete and fill everything everywhere, so grant, Keśava, that the dharma, artha, kāma and moksha that I practise may be complete and unbroken.” The gṛhastha who keeps this vrata for a year, fasting and with the senses controlled, gains completeness in every matter; all the devatās are pleased, and the four purushārthas are fully achieved (Chapter 18).
The places of Bhagavān Vāmana. Bhagavān Vāmana told Bharadvāja Maharshi of every place on earth, in the lower worlds, the upper lokas and the seven dvīpas where he abides. Devas, humans and sādhyas who see, touch, praise and remember the devatās of those places attain all four purushārthas. “This is certain” (Chapter 63).
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 14–15, 18, 35, 49, 62–63; Saro Māhātmya, Chapter 26