“As for artha,” resumed the seer, “it helps nourish the body to sustain life. If kama is the heart of our body, artha forms the veins of our life. So, artha and kamain conjunction make an integrated life-support system.”
“Is man’s life, say, a twin-engine drone,’ said Gautam, “propelled by kama and artha?”
“True,” said the seer, “and maneuvered by mind.”
“What if one of the engines develops a snag,” said Gautam, “leading to a crash? Is there no way to avert that swamiji?”
“Why not, if only one trains his mind.”
“How that can be done?” asked Gautam.
“By studying art of being in the school of dharma,” said the seer, “to gain moksha, the bliss of being.”
“But then,” said a nonplussed Gautam, “moksha is getting rid of rebirths, isn’t it?”
“The concept of moksha as it has evolved is that the ultimate bliss lies not in being but in non-being,” said the swamiji. “As the state of paramatma is of pure bliss, it is reckoned that the merger of man’s atma with it is moksha. And so it is averred that it should be the goal of life.”
“Swamiji, but what’s the contradiction in that?”
“Why don't you see this concept deprecate the value of life itself?” said the swamiji, as a prelude to expostulate his theory of moksha. “Won't that amount to the celebration of the cessation of life? Why not we regard life as a benign happening and not a baneful existance? If only you value life then won't the classical theory of moksha be an anathema? Why fail to celebrate the beauty of life, of self-fulfillment and social enrichment? So moksha for me is all about leading a fulfilled life while hoping for the same in the births to come. It is the inability of man to appreciate the potentialities of life that makes him seek a refuge in the heaven.”
“Oh swamiji, wonder why man fails to appreciate this?” exclaimed Gautam.
“Why, simply put, it’s owing to man's lacking of common sense,” said the swamiji, impressed with Gautam's keenness. “If we allegorize life as a twin-engine drone as you said, the pulls of kama impede the right take-off and the pressures of artha hamper its safe landing. Thus, with an uninitiated mind, it could be a false take-off on the runway of lust or a crash landing on the roughs of greed. And with the vacillating mind, it might be a case of midair crash. Thus, it’s the ability to take precautions to avert these mishaps that makes one a competent operator. But, the hallmark of a veteran is the ability to cruise life on the course of moksha, the state of blissful living.”