Creating Balance Across the Four Great Goals of Life

According to Vedic philosophy, there are Four Great Goals of Life.

It’s also sometimes referred to as the four Dharmas or ways of life.

In Sanskrit, it’s called Purusharthas – ‘Purusha’ means ‘human being’ and Artha can also mean ‘purpose’, ‘object of desire’ or also ‘meaning’.

This is a really powerful concept from Vedic philosophy, which is not talked about enough in mainstream Yoga or Ayurveda!

The Vedic philosophy of Four Goals of Life is a great tool to help us find the right balance in our lives and enable us to put the right amount of energy into the right initiatives – those that will create the most impact on things that matters to us.

Sadly, for many of us in our modern society, especially working professionals often struggle with this. I have to admit that I struggled with this a lot in my 20s too!

The Four Goals of Life are:

These Four Goals of Life teach us that our life is a balance of all these four goals, and all of these need to be integrated strategically in your life in order to live a more sustainable and happier life.

For example, you will probably know a person who is overly obsessed with earning money at the expense of everything else.

And on the other side of the spectrum is a person who is so deep into their spiritual pursuits that they can’t even afford to pay their next month’s rent or support their family.

To share my own story, in my 20s I was constantly chasing higher paying jobs to prove the external world my self-worth even though the job I was doing did not bring me any joy or align with my core values.

I was also neglecting my health – both physical and mental health by living my life out of alignment with my true inner purpose and also against the natural and universal laws of life.

So I can’t stress enough how important these Four Goals of Life are, because if they are not well integrated across all aspects of your life, this can also have a negative impact on your mind and body.

This is why I’m passionate about this topic and as many people tend to miss this element as they get too hyper focused on how they are eating or losing weight, or rigorously practicing meditation in the hope of achieving lasting happiness and inner-peace.

Questions you can ask yourself to start creating balance across the Four Goals of Life

I invite my 1:1 coaching clients to ask the following questions as part of their unique pathway to self-discovery:

In which area of the Four Goals of Life do you feel balanced and out of balance?

If you feel out of balance write down why you feel this way and what do you think is causing this imbalance?

For each of the areas of the Four Goals of Life that are out of balance, how can you improve to achieve more balance?

I encourage you to take some time to journal your answers!

If this has got you thinking and want to start living a more balanced life, but you need some support and guidance, I invite you to check out my brand new 1:1 coaching program Pathway to Dharma. Or find out your unique pathway to self-discovery.