Artha, one of the four universal human ends (puruṣārthas), is defined in Sanskrit as that which provides you with any kind of security—whether emotional, economic, or social.

Here is a detailed explanation of the concept of artha as described in the sources:

Forms of Artha While each individual seeks security in their own peculiar way, the underlying pursuit of security is common to all human beings. Artha can take a wide variety of tangible and intangible forms, including:

• Cash, liquid assets, real estate, and stocks.
• A home, relationships, a good name, a title, recognition, influence, or power of any kind. These accomplishments serve to boost an individual’s ego, thereby providing a sense of “ego security”.

Artha vs. Kāma (Pleasure) Artha is distinct from kāma, which is the pursuit of pleasure. For example, traveling to Hawaii or listening to music are pursuits of kāma, not artha. When you travel for fun, you are not seeking security; in fact, you are actively losing a form of security (money) in order to gain pleasure.

What Artha Reveals About the Seeker A deep analysis of the pursuit of artha reveals a fundamental psychological truth: the fact that a person is attached to gaining specific forms of security indicates that they feel inherently insecure.

Furthermore, when a person seeks out securities like wealth or power, they are not actually seeking the objects themselves. What they truly desire is happiness and freedom from being an insecure, wanting person. However, the sources note that adding external securities to an insecure person does not actually make them secure. Because external additions cannot cure an internal sense of lack, the process of seeking security in money or power often becomes endless.

Artha and Dharma The desire for artha, such as wanting money, is a natural human want and is not considered a sin. However, things like money, name, influence, and power are individual or cultural values, not universal, absolute values. A person might, for example, choose to destroy their good name in order to gain money, or vice versa.

Because these values are relative, the pursuit of artha must always be guided by dharma (righteousness and universal values like compassion and truthfulness). As long as your pursuit of money or power conforms to universal values, you are living a life of dharma. If your pursuit of security conflicts with these universal values, it becomes adharma. Ultimately, power or money gathered without dharma is not considered true wealth or true power.