In today’s article, I would like to tell you about the four foundations of human life, drawing from Vedic sources. To begin with, it is necessary to understand the ultimate purpose of human existence. The goal of our life is, of course, to achieve the highest ideals of the soul.
You may ask: “How can a person reach these higher soul ideals?” To do this, one must understand that our lives are built upon four main pillars.
1. Dharma
The first pillar is Dharma. Dharma represents the rules and duties that must be fulfilled. For example, the dharma of salt is to be salty; the dharma of the Sun is to provide energy. But what happens if we fail to perform our duties? For instance, if a man stops fulfilling his direct responsibilities, fails to protect his family, and behaves irresponsibly, he accumulates bad karma and loses his Solar energy. As we can see, dharma is vital, but we cannot go far with dharma alone.
2. Artha
The second pillar is Artha. Artha is karmic prosperity. Every person needs money to exist; I believe you won’t argue with that. Vedic texts describe how a person can achieve Artha. We must understand that poverty does not appear out of nowhere—it is a matter of consciousness. If a person makes no effort and does not think, finding it easier to drift with the flow and live as a “parasite,” they will never achieve economic prosperity.
3. Kama
The third pillar is Kama. Kama refers to sensory pleasure. Many people associate this only with sexual pleasure, which is indeed part of it, but Kama also includes various parties, movies, restaurants, and so on. Even spending joyful time with one’s family belongs to Kama. No human can live without it. By the way, the Kama Sutra, a scripture well-known to many, is actually just a small section of a larger body of work called the Kama Shastra.
4. Moksha
The fourth pillar is Moksha. Moksha is the spiritual development of a human being. The ultimate goal of Moksha is liberation from all suffering and the mechanisms of karma—ensuring that at the end of their life, a person has transcended lower, animalistic nature.
Astrology and palmistry are tools that help us navigate these four pillars. These sciences assist in identifying a person’s strengths and weaknesses and determining the most auspicious moments in their life.