Part 3: Goals or What the heck is Financial Freedom in my case, exactly?

3.2 What it means to be Human and Free?

Unless you have inherited lots of wealth or sold your company for a fancy price you are unlikely to have both time and money in abundance. That’s because you have to work to earn money. But is that the only purpose of working? What drives us and how does it change over time?

I have struggled to find a simple answer to this fundamental question in a language that I understand. And that’s when I realized the limitation I have because I read English and not Sanskrit. Luckily, there are good books available that explain the wisdom of India in simple English. One such book is the Bhagwad Gita by Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Just the introduction in the first volume reveals the answer to this question. Here’s a synopsis:

What is fundamentally sought after by every human being is called purushartha in Sanskrit which is a combination Purush+artha i.e Human + purpose or meaning. And there are four ends that everyone seeks – artha, kama, dharma and moksha.

The two most commonly sought after are artha or security and kama or pleasure. That which gives you any kind of security, emotional, economic or social is artha. Artha maybe in the tangible form like any asset-cash, stocks, real estate, gold or intangible in the form of relationships, title, influence or power. Such accomplishments provide a boost or security to the ego.

Kama or pleasure takes many forms. The easiest to understand is Sensory pleasure that which we experience through our five senses. Kama also includes things that give us intellectual pleasure like studying something, solving puzzles and problems etc. And pleasure beyond the intellectual the we experience from experiencing beauty like a starry night, a flower, a child playing, nature etc.

Artha and Kama correlate well with the 4 levels of needs in Maslow’s framework of what...........Read More

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