Meanings Of Life🔗

18.29 Now hear Me explain, fully and separately, the threefold division of intellect and resolve, based on modes of material nature, O Arjuna.

18.30 O Arjuna, that intellect is in the mode of goodness that understands the path of work and the path of renunciation, right and wrong action, fear and fearlessness, bondage and liberation.

18.31 That intellect is in the mode of passion that cannot distinguish between principles of right conduct and wrongdoing, and right and wrong action, O Arjuna.

18.32 That intellect is in the mode of ignorance that accepts unrighteousness as righteousness and thinks everything to be that which it is not, O Arjuna.

18.33 Consistent and continuous determination in controlling mind, breath and senses for uniting with the Divine is goodness, Arjuna.

18.34 Craving for results of action while clinging to goals of proper conduct, pleasure and wealth is the state of passion.

18.35 Ignorant resolve that cannot go beyond dreaming, fear, grief, despair and delusion — such is in darkness, Arjuna.

Here Krishna refers to the approach known as defining the puruṣārtha or meanings of life.

Dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa are the four puruṣārtha. These can be translated as righteousness, wealth, desire or lust and liberation. These are the four-fold meanings of life. I prefer not to call them the purposes of life. There is no purpose to life. Once we fix a purpose to life, it becomes a goalpost and attachments and expectations result.

Life is a path without a destination. Once we assume there is a destination, we hurry. The future becomes a stress-inducing factor. Let us say we travel from New York to Washington. Once we fix Washington as our destination, the next issue is, ‘When will we reach there?’ From then on, we are constantly tormented by, ‘When will we reach there?’ It is a different matter that we may have nothing to do in Washington once we arrive, and therefore there is no need to hurry! In the process we do not enjoy the journey. The journey becomes an irritation that we must cross in order to reach our destination.

In life, do not fix a destination. Each journey must be enjoyed. The path and the journey are what life is. Enjoy the people you meet, the experiences you have and what you pick up on the way, without being greedy to acquire more. The journey, the path, becomes so enjoyable that whatever destination you reach is the right destination.

People who attach a purpose to life are disturbed. Philosophers who have no other work create false purposes to life. Philosophers exist to confuse people whereas mystics solve problems and provide guidance to awaken intelligence. When we let life lead us, when we take life as it comes, we enjoy every moment. We truly live in the present, like a God. We realize our potential.

Puruṣārtha provides four meanings to life:

Dharma is right conduct or virtue. Buddha preached this as the middle path.

Artha is the stuff that we pick up on our path and journey, the material things that we need to sustain ourselves.

Kāma is the pleasure of the senses we experience and enjoy on this journey. These are rightful acquisitions and pleasurable experiences. Do not feel disturbed by the need for these. But do not become caught up in them and forget to move on the path and enjoy the journey to the fullest.

Mokṣa or liberation is the ultimate meaning to life. This is the culmination of the liberation from expectation, desires, greed and fear, and liberation from attachment to desires. This understanding that non-attachment and absence of expectation leads to liberation can fill us with bliss.

Here Krishna gives the essence of how we should lead our lives to make it meaningful. He says that goodness or satva is the state in which there is clarity about right and wrong, and whatever we do with our body, mind and senses is done with a view to liberate ourselves from attachment and desires in order to realize that we are divine.

Q: Swamiji, you said earlier that differentiation between right and wrong is only in our minds. Can you explain why Krishna tells us to have clarity about right and wrong?

In purely spiritual terms, in the definition of Existence, there is no differentiation of right and wrong. God does not sit and judge. Nature and God do not keep accounts. An enlightened master is beyond your normal understanding of right and wrong.

However, in day-to-day life, in practical terms, there are social guidelines and limits to what you can and cannot do. You cannot live within a society or even outside a society without following accepted norms of behavior.

Krishna makes recommendations throughout the Gita for everyday practical life, to be in the flow of Existence while simultaneously being in line with societal norms. He does not talk only about people who move to isolated forests to contemplate the infinite. His advice to Arjuna is practical and valid for each of us, whether a student, scholar, householder or businessperson.

Therefore, He speaks about practicality and spirituality. He takes us to Quantum Spirituality. He advises us on how to lead our day-to-day lives while moving up spiritually into Self-realization. For that reason, He advises us to understand right and wrong and to guide our body, mind and senses accordingly, free from attachment and expectations. In this way, we fall in tune with our divine Self.

Another aspect to His advice is born out of His concern for our life beyond. What we do in this life determines what happens after our body perishes. Whatever we do follows us. The intent and result of our action (karma) follows us from birth to birth through the transitions of death. Our current mindset (vāsanā) carries over to the next birth and recreates us in the same mold. We become what we do, as well as what we think, desire and intend.

That is why enlightened masters, the ṛṣis, laid down guidelines. Their guidelines is dharma. In its broadest sense, living in dharma is living in accordance with one's natural inclinations and aptitudes (vāsanās and karmas). Since the very purpose of taking this birth is to experience and exhaust these vāsanās and karmas, following one's dharma helps us to quickly exhaust this store and move on spiritually. Following one's dharma in the true spirit of liberation, without fear or favor and without desires and expectations makes life worth living. It makes the journey blissful.

If, on the other hand, we do not differentiate between right and wrong, and pursue material pleasures with attachment and expectations, we fall into rajas - aggression. This is why businesses often do things that are blatantly antisocial. The pursuit of wealth confuses the minds of top executives that the line between right and wrong becomes blurred.

When we think that the terrible deeds that we do are the best for us and we carry them out with deep emotional attachment to the action and end result, we are in dark ignorance or tamas.

We can only transform ourselves first, and by the light of our transformation influence others. Each one must internalize the truth and transform. Otherwise it will be another coercion; it will be another dictatorship in the name of spirituality.

The truth is that we should evolve renouncing our expectations and attachment. When we see so-called wrong events happening around us, we realize, ‘Yes, they are bad and should not happen.’ We know that we can do little to influence these events. Even so, we know there will be a correction. We will know that Existence may not work like lightning, but there will be a payback. So, we do not become disturbed. We stay still in satva.

This does not prevent us from doing whatever we can to set right what has gone wrong. We must do whatever we can. However, we should not think that we are the corrector, if that is the right word. This will entangle us again in ego and attachment. When we have the intelligence to work without ego and attachment, Existence provides us with whatever we need in terms of power, to do what we need to do.

You may ask, how can we determine what is right or wrong? It is a relevant question. In simple terms, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra lays down straightforward guidelines for right living, as the five yama or disciplines. Patanjali says these are satya, truth; ahiṁsā, non-violence; aparigraha, living simply; asteya, not coveting what others have; and brahmacarya, living in reality. If we use these guidelines for our thoughts, words and actions, we will stay on the right path. I can speak about each of these disciplines for hours; unfortunately there is only limited time here.

In our annual Himalayan trips, those who accompany me do a vraja homa on the banks of the sacred river Ganga at Rishikesh: they take these five vows of yama and wear the sacred thread and saffron cloth that I give them for protection. I do not monitor them to see whether they follow this strictly or not, but they will tell you that these vows make their trip more enjoyable!