Unlike western existentialist philosophy which describes our existence as worthless “absurdity”, devoid of any meaning, the Hindu philosophy and theology give a crystal clear raison d’tre to our life. In Sanskrit it’s called purusharth chatustay (पुरुषार्थचतुष्टय). Thus the two points of view, the western and the Indian (Hindu) views are diagonally opposite and contrary to one another as far as human existence is concerned. The western view, expressed vividly in the writings of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) and others, particularly Jean-Paul Sartre posits “existence” before “essence”.
His argument in nutshell is: Existence is absurd. Life has no meaning. Death is the ultimate absurdity: It undoes everything that life has been building up to. One is born by chance, dies by chance and that there is no God.
In his famous expression “existence precedes essence,” Sartre explains that a man comes into this world first, gets his existence and then goes on to give shape and meaning to his existence. Thus the man is what he makes of himself — and that’s his essence. The Hindu view about life is quite contrary to this. The Hindu ethos insists on “essence” before “existence”, that is, “the essence precedes existence”.
The Western thought gives full freedom to man to make his choices in life and grow into a socially responsible human being, an angel — or to go astray and become a Lucifer or a Satan. Man’s freedom is more important in the western ethos than his outcome. On the contrary the Hindu ethos stresses on Man’s outcome, his teleology and has, therefore, laid down well set rules to make man a socially responsible, humane and a committed human being. Since “essence”, among the Hindus, precedes “existence” the Hindu way of life comes with pre-set (or a priori) norms that a devout Hindu must follow — and these are called purusharth chatustay (पुरुषार्थचतुष्टय) — the four basic objectives of a human being.
Four objectives or goals in life
The Hindu scriptures have provided for four basic objectives or goals in life that a devout Hindu must follow:
धर्मार्थ् काम् मोक्ष्कम्
The above Sanskrit shlok can be broken up into four distinct words: (Dharma) धर्म + (Artha) अर्थ + (Kama) काम + (Moksha) मोक्ष. These are the four essential objectives or goals of a devout Hindu that he must endeavour to attain. Unfortunately no present-day dharma guru elucidates on all the four objectives. They preach only the first and the last one, i.e dharma and moksha because that’s what suits them. Out of the above mentioned four basic objectives or goals, the first three i.e. dharma, arth and kama are collectively named trivarga (tri=three and varga means categories). All of them demand human effort and activity or karma. The fourth, the moksha, involves mental faculty only and hence is said to be achieved by meditation, gyan yoga and karma yoga.
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