Artha

Wealth and worldly accomplishment — the pursuit of material resources, power, and status.

Overview

Artha literally means wealth, but Swami Sarvapriyananda glosses it more broadly as all kinds of worldly accomplishment — money, power, achievement, status. The second of the three worldly purushartha.

In the Vedantic scheme, artha is acquired in part through dharma: good actions generate good karma, and good karma produces more artha and kama. Like kama, artha is not condemned — it is a legitimate aim, but it cannot yield the permanent happiness that is moksha.

Related concepts

• One of the purushartha
• Related to dharma (good karma produces more artha)
• Sits alongside kama as a worldly aim
• Transcended by moksha

Lecture evidence

• Ep. 1 [04:56]: Artha is wealth and, more broadly, worldly accomplishment.