The Four Purusharthas Research Paper

Believed to be written by a group of nomads known as the Aryans around the year 1500 BCE, the collection of ancient Sanskrit texts known as the Vedas serves as a guide to discovering the Ultimate Reality and becoming enlightened, according to the religion of Hinduism. Contained in these texts, is the idea of the four Purusharthas, the so called pursuits of life that play a key role in the base of Hindu philosophy. The four Purusharthas include Artha (wealth), Kama (pleasure), Dharma (duty), and Moksha (liberation). Although many have a difficult time grasping these abstract concepts, these same people may actually have already been exposed to the ideas.This is because many Western pieces of literature display evident traces of the four Purusharthas.

Dharma, or duty, is the Purushartha that defines how one must act, what one must accomplish in order to live a moral life. In fact, it is one’s Dharma that defines how they as an individual must receive their Artha and Kama. One key example of Dharma being alluded to in the novel is when Joe tells Pip, “One man’s a blacksmith, and one’s a whitesmith, and one’s a goldsmith, and one’s a coppersmith. Diwisions among such must come, and must be met as they come” (Dickens 224). In the quote, Joe is telling Pip that everyone has their specific duty in life, and it is not up to them to change it. This piece of wisdom from Joe greatly elaborates upon the concept of Dharma, and is a defining moment in the book. Mainly because the quote could be argued as the exact point in time when Pip leaves his worldly desires behind, and starts on a new path in which he correctly follows his Dharma. In Pip’s case, his duty in life is aiding others, and once he begins to accurately follow his duty in life, there becomes a significant change in the way Pip treats others, and his overall

Known as liberation from the human condition, Moksha is the Hindu term for becoming enlightened, which can only be achieved by following one’s Dharma. Although many moments could be defined as the point in which Pip achieves Moksha, one moment stands out in particular. After learning of Orlick’s plan to murder him, Pip’s entire life flashed between his eyes, and even noted of how he had moved on past his worldly desires when Pip says, “The death close before me was terrible, but far more terrible than death was the dread of being misremembered after death” (Dickens 425). In the quote, Pip is describing what he truly values in life, helping others and forming relationships with the important figures in his life, including Joe, Biddy, and Herbert. This displays that Pip has began to subconsciously follow his Dharma, and has achieved Moksha in doing so. The term Moksha is also occasionally defined as a sense of freedom from ignorance. In the same scene, this definition also fits another quote from later in the novel, when Pip is talking about Herbet and he says, “I often wondered how I had conceived the whole idea of his inaptitude, until I was one day enlightened by the reflection, that perhaps the inaptitude had never been in him at all, but had been in me” (Dickens 480). As one can easily see, Pip was one day freed from the ignorance surrounding him,