Hindu religious ethics articulates a fourfold theory of human desire (kama/pleasure, artha/wealth, mana/honor or status, and power) as legitimate "worldly" goals, to be pursued within constraints of basic morality (non-harm), alignment with one's inherent nature/station (the theoretical basis of the varna/caste framework), and progression through defined life stages (student, householder, retiree, renunciant); this framework distinguishes finite, ultimately unsatisfying worldly aims from the ultimate aim of union with Brahman/Atman, characterized as infinite being, consciousness, and bliss beyond limitation. This belongs to comparative religion and Hindu theology/philosophy, situating the doctrine of purusharthas (aims of life) as a structuring framework within the broader discipline of world-religion study and its relation to conceptions of ultimate reality and liberation (moksha).
Hindu religious ethics articulates a fourfold theory of human desire (kama/pleasure, artha/wealth, mana/honor or status, and power) as legitimate "worldly" goals, to be pursued within constraints of …