The four different 'goals' in life, indicated by the Hindu ṛṣis as wayside halting places enroute the pilgrimage to the ultimate Self, are all disciplines for the ego to lift itself from its present state of consciousness onto the infinite plane of God-consciousness. So long as the ego persists, duties pertaining to these four ‘goals’ of life are to be certainly respected and followed faithfully, as they can prepare the ego for its final merger
