artha

Set against the standard four aims of life, the purusharthas, the Charvaka keeps the worldly ones, artha and kama , and is skeptical of moksha as a goal built on a fiction.

Hindu thought also files dharma as one of the four legitimate aims of human life, the purusharthas : dharma (righteousness), artha (wealth and means), kama (pleasure and desire), and moksha (liberation).

Purusha means a person, a human being; artha here means an object, a goal, a thing pursued.

Charaka binds the whole enterprise to the four aims of a human life, calling health the supreme root of dharma, artha, kama and moksha.

They are dharma , duty and the moral order; artha , wealth and worldly means; kama , pleasure and desire; and moksha , liberation.

It names four, the purusharthas : dharma , living rightly; artha , the pursuit of prosperity and security; kama , the enjoyment of pleasure and love; and moksha , the final liberation.

…blic-domain translation (1883-1896): "Whatever is here, on Dharma, on Artha, on Kama, and on Moksha, may be found elsewhere, O bull of the Bharata race; but what is not here is nowhere else." That is a poem des…

…mentator, glosses the sutra to make the point unmistakable: dharma is artha , a good or benefit, that has the distinguishing mark ( lakshana ) of being enjoined by a Vedic command.