A request and a disclaimer: Before you begin to read this blog, request you to first read the 3 parts of ‘Stroke in the canvas called ‘The Value of Values’. You may also choose to read the blogs on the values of amAnitvam, adambhitvam, ahimsA (the value of ahimsA is in three parts) kshAntiH, Arjavam, AchAryopAsanam, Saucam, Sthairyam, AtmavinigrahaH, indriyArthesu vairAgyam, anahankAraH and janma-mrtyu-jarA-vyAdhi-duHkha-dosAnudarsanam, asaktiH, anabhisvangaH putra-dArA-grhAdisu, nityam samacittatvam istAnistopapattisu, mayi ananya-yogena bhaktiH avyabhicArinI, vivikta-desa-sevitvam and aratiH jana-samsadi though they are not a prerequisite to reading this value. The language and explanations used by pUjya swAmiji is so profound, that I wish I do justice by aligning my understanding to his explanation, as I parallelly try to relate it to day to day living.. Any error in the way I have blogged upon these values, is due to an error in my understanding alone.

tattva means truth

tattva jnAna means self knowledge

artha means purpose or an end, in the sense of a goal

darsanam (pronounced as darshanam) means sight or vision

tattva-jnAnArtha-darsanam means keeping in view the purpose of knowledge of the truth

This Value is actually the last of the 20 values that is listed in chapter 13 of the Bhagavad Gita. However, from the perspective of a logical analysis leading to understanding, this Value is covered first and adhyAtma-jnAna-nityatva as the last Value.

There is a lot more to this Value than I am able to understand. My mind is perhaps NOT ready for it. I am though going to attempt to understand it, to the best of my ability and present it here. If clarity emerges as time passes by, I will certainly post another blog on my further understanding of this value.

So what is the truth? What is the basic thing that we need to know? The answer seems to be fairly simple yet profound. What we need to know is the nature of oneself, about the creation and also the creator.

Interesting!! We see ourselves and when we see ourselves, we also see the creation and the creator too (I am NOT referring to parents here as the creators:-)). We can see ourselves, the creation and the creator and yet we need to keep seeking answers to find out. Profound, isn’t it? So many hidden layers and each layer needs to be removed to find out.

So how do we go about finding out? While we may have goals that we have kept for ourselves, that we would like to achieve, it is also important to always keep the purpose – which is to know the nature of ourselves (otherwise called self knowledge) in view. In my perspective, when we seek answers to knowing ourselves, we would also know about the creation and the creator (or is it vice versa also?). I wonder if to know the nature of oneself should be running in the foreground or the background!!

Suddenly to me, the process of learning about oneself (the purpose of life) looks so structured. How come I did not see this before? Right place at the right time?

The purpose of Human life is classified into four headings (pls note that there is nothing right or wrong in where our purpose is, within the classification. We need to understand where we are now and where we need to be!!):

dharma – to live a life conforming to the ethical standards set by the scriptures. This would not only benefit this life but also the next life (though we may not be able to see what it is that we have done in this life, that will give us merit or help us avoid demerit in the next life). What about those who DO NOT believe in the scriptures? For them, it is living a life that conforms to the universal ethical standards. This also factors the way one would like to be treated by the others. That by itself becomes the ethical code too. For many, living a life by the ethical standards becomes the purpose in life.

artha – means security in the form of wealth, property, possessions, power, fame, name etc. These are the things that we would like to acquire, that gives us the feeling of security. For quite many of us, to keep gaining things that will make us feel secure, is what we keep working towards.

kAma – means pleasures. Keeping the purpose of life as enjoying the pleasures that satisfy our senses and also those that gives us physical comforts.

moksa (pronounced as moksha) – means liberation or freedom from limitations, freedom from the sense of inadequacy and incompleteness, freedom from desires, freedom from likes and dislikes. This seems a tough call!!

Will living a life with the purpose being to gain more dharmA, more artha, more kAma help us? or will they become our limitations to understand the nature of ourselves?

Will we be satisfied with gaining more objects of security or as we gain one, the need to gain another arises?

Will we be satisfied with the sensory pleasures and the physical comfort that we currently have or the more we gain, the more the need also increases?

Where does it stop?

On the other hand, when we become free from a particular desire, when we become free from a particular like / dislike, does that give us a sense of freedom? The more freedom we sense, does the desire to gain more freedom increase?

I am just visualizing – when there is a sense of freedom that I feel, there is a vision of me opening my arms wide to encompass the whole world. There is that vision of looking up to the space above and saying “I am here with open arms. Give me more.” This certainly gives me the space to explore more of myself, to know more about myself – for what purpose? For the purpose of knowing more about myself – Self knowledge.

As I break shackle after shackle of the chains that limit me, what I visualize is being free. This happens in real life too. There are those moments when we feel that sense of freedom. Lets learn to watch ourselves during those moments. What do we feel / think during those times? Personally, it is at these times of having a sense of being free. am I  more open to look at myself deeply, of what I did appropriately and what I did inappropriately. Every of the 18 values that have been elaborated so far are thought of at different times. Each one of these values in my view, leads to the purpose of life which is knowing the nature of ourselves. So all roads lead to moksA as being the purpose of life 🙂

The way the structure of ‘how to live a life of purpose – by knowing the nature of oneself’ has unfolded, from the part when the different classification headings have been given, looks as though a lotus bud is just blossoming to reveal all its petals.

I have always balked when I hear the term ‘scriptural study’, because it seems overwhelming, intensive, exhaustive and difficult. But if the unfolding is going to be done in the structured way it is done in the last few paras, I certainly would want to do scriptural study 🙂 Ah..