In order to begin to live in freedom, we must see how this allows
us to fulfill the Four Aims of Life throughout the Four Stages of Life.The Four Aims of Life (Purusartha)
Patanjali made it clear in his penultimate verse (sutra) that enlighten
ment and freedom come to one who has lived life fully. Fully and com
pletely-but not excessively or addictively. You cannot rise to the
pinnacle of Mount Nature if you are caught up in the excesses of the
world. But you can't turn your back on them either. When I was young,
as I mentioned at the beginning of the book, I was offered the chance
to become a renunciate, a sannyasin clothed in saffron. I refused and
chose the world. But I did not try to swallow the world, merely to live
in it and belong fully to it, passing through the various stages of growth
that it offers us all.
The four aims of life that Patanjali said must be accomplished are
dharma, artha, kama, and moksa. These can be translated as doing
one's duty by living in the right way (dharma is commonly understood
as religion or religious duty), the self-reliance of earning one's own
living (artha), the pleasures of love and human enjoyment (kama), and
freedom (moksa). These four fit together in a particular way. Other
wise our lives would be anarchic.
Imagine the situation like a river flowing between two banks that
control its course. One bank is dharma, the science of religion, or as I
consider it, the righteous duty that upholds, sustains, and supports our
humanity. By religious I mean the observance of universal or ethical
principles, not limited by culture, time, or place. The other bank of the
river is moksa, freedom. By moksa I do not mean some fanciful con
cept of future liberation, but acting with detachment in all the little
things of here and now-not taking the biggest slice of cake onto one's
own plate, not getting angry because one cannot control the actions
and words of those around us.
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