Uncover the moon, or you will dwell in darkness;
Everyone must have a deep, sincere reason for being alive.
~ Shri Gurudev Mahendranath (Dadaji), Twilight Yoga III
The quotation above notably does not insist that the reader's purpose for being alive be this or that. Instead, Dadaji leaves the question open, as we must each ask it of ourselves every single day.
In Hindu tradition, there are four aims of life considered to be legitimate for the individual. These are kama, artha, dharma, and moksha — pleasure, wealth, righteousness, and liberation. Each of these is a large enough topic to deserve its own literature, but let’s take a brief look at them.
Pleasure, in this context, is not just every whim, but is the sort of pleasure which makes life sweet and worth living. Pursuit of pleasure, then, may mean sacrificing a lower pleasure for a higher one, something lesser for something greater. This needs to be individually sussed-out.
Wealth is not the hoarding of riches, but the establishment of enough lucre to take care of one’s responsibilities and to help in support of one’s community. This is social wealth, not merely personal wealth. That’s not to say that it cannot be used for one’s own advancement, but the assumption is that the advancement will be dharmic. Hence:
Dharma, righteousness, is upholding the good of the world. This must of necessity begin where one is, with one’s immediate community. It means making a living in a way which does good, or at least does no harm. It means leaving circumstances better than how we found them. It can also mean taking action to defend who or what needs it. We may all have different notions of what is righteous, but so long as we keep in mind the virtues of compassion, courage, self-control, and the like, we can at least keep moving.
I plan an entire article on liberation, at some point, but suffice for now that this is the final goal. It is freedom from all sources of suffering and the realization of one’s true nature.
All of these objectives are interrelated, of courses. Wealth, pleasure, and righteousness are mutually supporting, like the three legs of a stool. And only by standing on that stool can we begin to reach for liberation.
This can be formulated in any number of ways. Kama, artha, dharma, and moksha are traditional and have stood the test of time. But in my own Nath lineage, we like to say that our goals in this life are Peace, Freedom, and Happiness, and that these conduce to Awakening. Awakening, of course, is identical to liberation, but Peace, Freedom, and Happiness are broader than wealth, pleasure, and righteousness. The two schemes are not in conflict by any means, but can provide good context for one another. Why go after pleasure if not for the happiness which arises from it? Isn’t the freedom we achieve by wealth one of the things which makes it desirable? You can find the combinations yourself.
The balance will also be different for everyone. Not everyone will care as much about one or the other. Maybe wealth, for you, is just the means for pursuing righteous ends. Or maybe you have had enough of these things and renounce them to pursue liberation exclusively.
The point is this: You determine your goals in life. You may or may not achieve them this go round, but they’re yours. This is true of spiritual goals as well.
Hinduism recognizes that each of the Great Gods has their own loka or world. A person with great depth of devotion to one of them will, it is said, go to their istadevata’s world on death. They may only stay there for a time, when their associated karmas run dry. It is also possible that great yogi-devotees will stay there for as long as it takes to achieve liberation.
Perhaps you wish to return to your ancestors. Maybe you want to stick around on Earth as a spirit of place.
It is common in some circles to say that all paths lead to the top of the same mountain. Others say that there are many different paths leading to the tops of very different mountains. My surmise is that both are true. Our paths may be very different. They may lead up very different mountains. But liberation is not at the top of any mountain; it encompasses the whole landscape by becoming both Earth and Sky.