In plain words
Dharma must come first in artha, kāma and Mokṣa
They said, ‘Rāmo vigrahavān dharmaḥ.’ Our life must enter the path of Dharma. Through Dharma itself we must gain artha. With Dharma and artha we must master kāma. By Dharma, artha and kāma we must enter Mokṣa. In artha, kāma and Mokṣa too, Dharma must come first. With Dharma running everywhere as an inner stream, they became the four puruṣārthas in those days. Today, in the Kali age, we must make them into two puruṣārthas. We must make Dharma and artha, the two, into one. We must make kāma and Mokṣa, the two, into one. We must earn artha for the sake of Dharma. Mokṣa alone is what we must desire. Mokṣa and kāma must both become one. We must bring Dharma to bear on artha. This is the Dharma of our śāstras. What is śāstra? Śāstra is to walk the right path by that which governs our body. Cāturvacana is śāstra. When you do not follow Dharma, your own heart keeps warning you. When you do wrong, you may look happy before the world. But for the wrong you have done, your inner being holds you back. The consciousness that fills everything is ‘Sat’. To understand it in the right way is ‘Cit’. The form of ‘Sat’ and ‘Cit’ is Ānanda, Prema. That is the form of God. To it we give many forms and names. Sat, Cit, form, name. In the language of Vedānta they called this ‘asti, bhāti, priyamu’. Forms and names keep changing. Sat, Cit and Ānanda cannot change. That is Immortality. We need not search for it somewhere. It is in our body itself. The Ātma came forth from the body itself; that is, He protects that very body. It is through the body alone that the Ātma can be recognised. So the body is like a tool. Vasiṣṭha spoke two phrases. ‘Bhikṣānnaṃ deharakṣārthaṃ’, ‘vastraṃ śītanivāraṇaṃ’. That is, food is for the protection of the body. Food alone is not what matters most for us. We need food for life, but life is not for food. Today our learning and our lives look like a struggle for food. So our learning, our strength and our abilities: it is not to someone or other that we offer them.