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4 pillars of human society

Fulfill four pillars for a successful human life: Dharma, Artha, Kāma, and Mokṣa. Dharma is duty and principle; protect your dharma and it protects you. Every entity has a dharma, like fire to give heat and eyes to see. Uphold familial duties reciprocally. Artha is material wealth for a civilized, comfortable life, not for isolation. Kāma is fulfilling rightful desires and procreation. Mokṣa is the ultimate aim of liberation. Ancient wisdom prescribed all four, but modern society often retains only Artha and Kāma, neglecting Dharma and Mokṣa, leading to suffering.

"Dharma Rakṣate Rakṣata—if you can protect your dharma, then your dharma will protect you."

"Western society has altered it: out of the four, they kept only two principles—Artha and Kāma, money and desires."

Filming location: Ljubljana, Slovenia

My children, fulfill four things in your life. Then your human life will be successful. Otherwise, your life passes just as the lives of other creatures pass. Father, what are these four things? Dharma, Artha, Kāma, and Mokṣa. These are the four pillars of human society. The entire human society is based on this foundation of four pillars. Dharma means obligation, duty, principles, religion, and spirituality. Dharma Rakṣate Rakṣata—if you can protect your dharma, then your dharma will protect you. If you cannot protect your dharma, dharma will not protect you. What is the dharma of fire? To give heat. The dharma of ice? To give coolness. The dharma of ears is to hear sound; the dharma of eyes is to see. If you cannot protect your eyes, the eyes cannot protect you. Consider the dharma of the father and mother, and the dharma of children towards their parents. The dharma of the husband towards his wife and the dharma of the wife towards her husband. If you do not help your husband, then your husband will not help you. If you shout at your husband, then he will shout at you—and the husband is stronger in shouting, outside, not in the house. The second is Artha: earth, wealth, money, a house. Because humans are civilized beings, when someone comes to your home, you should be able to offer them food, a bed, water, and so on. We should not starve; we should have a comfortable life. But nowadays, people write "private property, no entry," with a dog on guard. A second door inside bears another warning: "no entry, life or death," with a pistol on guard. The third is Kāma: fulfill your wishes and desires. Give birth to children and perform your right karma, your proper duty. And the fourth is Mokṣa. Ultimately, you should concentrate on the understanding that the aim of life is to attain Mokṣa. This is what the ancient and wise people told us. But now we have changed that. Western society has altered it: out of the four, they kept only two principles—Artha and Kāma, money and desires. Dharma and Mokṣa are forgotten. And that is why we are suffering.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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