Prema as the Fifth Puruṣārtha

Teleological structure beyond mokṣa

Dr. B. Rūpānuga · Dr. J. Sanātana

Published 3 November 2024 · DOI 10.00000/igs.2024.0009

The Gauḍīya teleology displaces mokṣa as the highest end and replaces it with prema. This essay reconstructs the argument and considers what it means for a soteriology to have a positive rather than negative final term.

Mahāprabhu's enumeration is deliberate. To prema he gives the fifth position — not as supplement but as displacement.¹

The structure of the displacement

Mokṣa is a negation: the cessation of bondage. Prema is a positive determination: the eternal flowering of relation.

Footnotes

1.Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi 7.84.

References

Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja. Caitanya-caritāmṛta.