INTEGRAL HUMANISM: AN ANALYSIS OF SOME BASIC ELEMENTS

by Deendayal Upadhyay

The Completeness of Life Artha (wealth) and Dharma (duty), despite apparently being contraries, form each other’s basis. Dharma helps generate wealth. Artha includes state craft and agriculture. Dharma provides the basis for both production and agriculture. Dharma ceases to exist in the absence of artha (wealth). Both sustain each other. This is followed by the purushartha of Kama (desire). We can satisfy our kama (desire) through artha (wealth). But kama lies somewhere between artha and dharma. Hence the thought that on acquisition of wealth anything can be consumed is not right. What is needed is that we consume only as much as is essential and that too in accordance with dharma. Just as dharma and artha, though being antithetical, form the basis for each other, so do Kama and moksha; despite, on the face of it, being contradictory to each other. Moksha is the ultimate human wish, and it is necessary for kama. We can thus wish for a complete life based on the four purusharthas. The four form a cube signifying completeness. That which is complete can never be voided, regardless of what is taken out of it, even though it may diminish in size. Viewed from the front, a thing (purushartha) appears to be all there is. But the wise always ponder over what lies behind it. Some think only in terms of artha, and others only of dharma. Wisdom lies in keeping all purusharthas in mind. All four are inter-connected. Just as water matters when one is thirsty, and food, when one is hung...