The lower goals are kama (love) and artha (wealth). The higher goals are Dharma (Duty) and Moksha (Salvation).
Westerners typically indicate this being the religious pursuit. However this is not a religious goal but merely a philosophy of life just like you have the human resource theory of Maslow's hierarchical needs which start from the lowest physiological needs to the self actualization need.
1) Kama means love. The love here refers to the physical attraction and doesn't refer to the love or devotion one feels towards God.
The Kamasutra or the book of love making has achieved infamous popularity in the west. Many westerners think of this as being a religious book taught at the temple. The orientalist British would raise their eyebrows and use this as a reason to put Hinduism as a degenerate immoral society. Even Wendy Doniger in her book Hindus, an Alternative History states that this book being very popular among the Indians. She quoted that Brahmins would read the Vedas in the morning and would read the Kamasutra at night with their spouse.
Please note that neither of these are true. The Kamasutra was written not as a religious book but as a book for professionals. This book was primarily read by the concubines and the courtesans of the Kings and the rich noblemen who would practice the principles in the book.
For the ordinary folk especially Brahmins it was and still is taboo. The Brahmin community especially served as exemplars to the rest of the people. This is another example of western scholars categorizing everything written in India as being part of the Hindu religion and attempting to put Hinduism down. There are several books on science that were written outside of the religious canon, such as Ayurveda, etc.
2) Artha: Artha means wealth, but it can also refer to power, status and respect in society. There is a great book called ArthaShastra by Kautilya that documents the science of keeping power. This has been compared to the Art of War by Sun Tzu and the Prince by Machiavelli.
Although the above two are referred to as pursuits, typically they serve as distractions for people who are looking to serve the important goals namely dharma or to perform one's duty or one seeking Moksha. In fact there are many stories in the Puranas of ascetics meditating to obtain Moksha and how Indra would send the heavenly damsels to distract them. Both Artha and Kama are referred to as works of Maya, which means illusion. They are temporary and don't last. The ones who pursue them are not aware of the true nature of reality.
Only the pursuit of Dharma and Moksha are the true pursuits of life.
3) Dharma: Hinduism originally divided the people into 4 varnas or castes. Each Varna had a specific duty to the community and that was the Dharma of that particular Caste.
For the Brahmins, the learned and the priestly caste it was important to perform rituals for the well being of the entire community. Thus it was important that they study the Vedas, perform sacrifices and other rituals, teach the rest of the community, maintain the temples, etc.
They also served as examples for the entire community. They were forbidden from consuming meat and had to keep fasts and several other rituals. They also had to maintain purity both physical and ritual purity. This is because they were communicating with the Gods when performing rituals or as priests they were the ones who would touch the idols, bathe them, perform poojas etc.
For the Kshatriya or the warrior and Kings, it was important to maintain law and order and to protect the kingdom from its enemies. This was an important caste, it even states that without a King it would be the law of the fishes i.e. might is right.
The Vaishya or the business and the trading community, it was important to conduct the business, collect taxes, maintain land etc.
The Shudras or the working people were responsible for various jobs from working in the field to being barbers and shoe makers. There are a number of Jatis within this group and each Jati for one particular function e.g. there is a jati for tailors, potters etc. The advantage being that the trade secrets for the profession would only be known to the members of that community.
Westerners typically condemn the caste system as being too restrictive and oppressive. But in reality, although it is outdated in today's modern world, the caste system provided an amazing stability for the different professions. E.g. only a shoe maker's son could become a shoe maker. Thus he didn't have to worry about finding a job like we have to do in a democratic society.
For women the duty was to raise the family, take care of the house, the kitchen, the elders and so on.
Thus for each member of the community, they had a particular duty to serve and this was his/her dharma. By performing one's duty well, he/she is doing good karma and is expected to be rewarded in this or the next life.
4) Moksha: This is the highest pursuit of life and leads to liberation from samsara or the cycle of birth and death.
A distinct class of people called sadhus in India, started moving away from the cities and villages and dwelling in the forests, meditating and seeking answers to questions. The concept of moksha or liberation came from these people.
Buddha and Mahavira founded Buddhism and Jainism respectively by following the paths of these sadhus or rishis in the forests. Both these religions promoted the aspect of liberation by meditation and by giving up everything one owns. Desire became a key word. As I mentioned earlier Kama and Artha were considered as two desires that one should avoid and seek the pursuit of Moksha or Nirvana (the Buddhist and Jaina term for liberation).
As a result more and more people started leaving their houses in pursuit of Moksha. There was a need to preserve order and continuity in society.
Now I come to an important topic that is the argument of Dharma and Moksha.
There were philosophers or proponents of Dharma who came up with many arguments for the preservation of Dharma.
Here is a story that was told to highlight why one needs to follow Dharma.
The story goes that a man leaves to the forest leaving his family in the pursuit of Moksha. He comes across a place where he finds his ancestors hanging upside down and hanging just by a string with a bottomless dark pit below. His ancestors tell him that since the man left his dharma i.e. his duty towards his community and to raise a family, they cannot be reborn and hence will have to end up in a bottomless pit for eternity. The man goes back and starts a family to preserve his dharma. (It is generally believed that a person is reborn in his own family lineage sometimes also referred to as one's Gothram)
Here is a counter argument from the proponents of Moksha.
The story goes that a man performs his duty very well and is rewarded with life in heaven. He asks Indra if his good life in heaven would last forever. Indra replies that it would only last until the benefits of his Karma last. After that he would have to go back to earth and be reborn as a human being. The only thing that lasts forever is Moksha. Thus it was generally agreed that it was the highest pursuit to obtain Moksha which could be obtained only by meditating in the forest. However it was also necessary to preserve the continuity of the human race and the civilization.
Two alternative philosophies were proposed to address this
1) Varnashrama Dharma: This divides life into 4 stages. The first stage being that of a student and the objective is to obtain knowledge typically for the profession or caste that one will perform. This is the knowledge or the Vidya stage of life. The second stage is that of a householder. One has to marry, start a family, at the same time serve the community by performing the duties or the dharma for his/her caste. The third stage is that of retirement, when one's children have grown up he along with his wife would move to a smaller dwelling and live a humble life, performing prayers and offering devotion to their deities. This is the Bhakti phase of life. Finally one leaves everything and dwells in the forest for pure meditation to attain Moksha. Thus this philosophy allowed for individuals to obtain Moksha at the same time serve the community or the Dharma.
2) Then we have the Bhagavad Gita that prescribes a method to obtain Moksha while obtaining knowledge, performing one's dharma or by performing bhakti.
The philosophy is that one should obtain knowledge selflessly i.e. knowledge for the sake of obtaining knowledge.
It also calls for one to perform one's duties selflessly without attachment to the rewards (which are either in the form of Artha or Kama). It is called Karma Yoga or the path of duty. This is probably one of the most well known and most quoted philosophies of Hinduism.
Finally we have the path of Devotion or Bhakti Yoga, which is worship or any deity or idol with pure love and devotion and without attachments or seeking rewards. There is no particular deity that is specified, any form can be worshipped as long as it is done with devotion and purity. This gave rise to the concept of Ishta Devata, i.e. to worship the supreme God via a chosen image or deity. It also states that formless worship is acceptable but it is extremely hard to perform and to concentrate. This maybe seen as aimed towards the Ten Commandments of Judaism which specifically prohibits idol worship and was written around the same time maybe slightly before the Bhagavad Gita.
The path of meditation is not frowned upon, but the Bhagavad Gita states that it is a harder path and there are easier ways to obtain moksha than to surrender to the forest and perform meditation.
Also if you compare to the Varnashrama Dharma, the Gita states that one can obtain Moksha in the first 3 stages of life itself only if one performs these acts selflessly.
Hindus follow the Bhagavad Gita closely than any other book in the Hindu scriptures. Also a combination of the yogas are followed so one follows the Nyaana yoga and Bhakti yoga as a student and later on follows the Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga.
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