Purushartha: Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Revisited

This paper’s purpose is to link the Western concept of motivation and the Hindu principles of purushartha. We first examine how the Western model works and controversies surrounding it. We then propose a way to reconcile these controversies, using Hindu motivational constructs. We discuss Maslow’s need hierarchy and purusharta as adaptive systems and propose how spiritual connections and relatedness may help better understand motivation