Is there a metric for Goals?

A blogpost out of nowhere!?!..but for the one who lives in the continuum called life time doesn't matter(good justification :-) ). 

Adi and myself have been discussing with our students regarding setting the right goals and treading the right path. Infact we often talk of having a higher purpose to life. But the question that they often ask is "How do we know its the right path?" "How do we know we are pursuing the right goal?". As one may guess, there is no direct answer to such a question but perspectives from one's life provide a clue. 

Infact we have tried to address this in our recent publication related to Dharmic leadership and decision-making. The Indian scriptures provide numerous illustrations of such dilemmas and also lay a strong foundation where one may embark on a self-exploratory journey to find answers. Typical of being Indian, they do not provide ready-made answers.

The framework of the Purusharthas, which form the foundations of Indian thought and action come handy to handle such questions. The four Purusharthas are Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Each one of these words are non-translatable and carry different meanings. Dharma may include synonyms like ethics, duty, responsibility, law and sutainability(from the root word dhr meaning to sustain). Artha includes meaning, wealth, material possessions. Kama includes desires, wants and pleasures. Moksha means freedom, going beyond limited identifications and release from the cycle of birth and death. One can apply that meaning which may be relevant to a particular context.

So how do these Purusharthas guide our actions? The scriptures mention that any thought, word and action should be performed within the framework of the Purusharthas and one should always try to achieve a balance among them.

Lets take the case of a normal person who is working ambitiously in a job and making good money within a legal framework. So as per the Purusharthas, the person is pursuing his kama inorder to obtain artha(wealth) and within a dharmic framework(legal).  Most of us fall in this category but still we feel dissatisfied and sometimes bored.  The rishis of India ask us to go one step further and have Moksha(liberation) as our fundamental goal rather than just Dharma, Artha or Kama. What happens when one's actions are driven by Moksha? The person becomes free from limited identifications and pursues artha and kama not only for himself but for the larger good of everyone around him. This automatically makes him Dharmic and accountable not just to himself but the world around him. So if its a company, they will be more concerned not to harm the ecological environment if Moksha is the driving force behind their business, though it is much more multi-dimensional than it is stated here. 

Most of us tend to feel bored in our jobs mainly because we work within a certain limited boundary and most often our actions are focused on our own well-being. When we break this limited association and include more beings into our fold, we tend to derive more meaning from what we do. Infact it wouldnt even count as "doing"?.

So does this metric have a numerical index which will evaluate my goals as "right goal"? Obviously no. The framework of the Purusharthas is broad and at the same time deep that it includes all the phenomenon in the world. So experiment with this framework, see what meaning of Purusharthas apply to your life and pursue them with sincerity. 

Looking forward to exploring and discussing more along these lines.