Traditionally, people are used to hearing about four aims of human life: dharm, arth, Kām, moksh, these four things - char purusharth. Dharm means doing good actions. Arth means accumulating wealth. Kām means trying to satisfy sensual desires in the world. And moksh means liberation. So are none of these four the actual aim of human life? I'm saying prem is the aim of human life. Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji is saying prem is the aim, the ultimate aim of every soul. What about dharm, arth, Kām, moksh?
So dharm keeps you within maya because it only takes you as far as swarg (heaven). Beyond swarg is the Divine world. So if you get liberation, if you get liberated, you go to the Divine world. That's one form of Divine attainment. Beyond liberation is prem. You get to be with God personally in His Divine abode and serve Him. So prem is beyond just going to swarg.
But if you do dharm, you just follow the laws of good actions and perform all the good ritual actions described in the Vedas, that is dharm. So the top-most place dharm can take you is to swarg. So it's not wrong to do dharm. It's like a preliminary thing to make a person good. But eventually they're going to ask the question, when there's no perfect happiness in swarg, “Even if I go there, I'm not getting God's prem.” Then there must be something beyond just doing dharm.
And arth and kām, those keep you in this world. If you just accumulate wealth or you spend your life trying to satisfy your sensual desires, then you're guaranteed to be reborn in this world, not even to go to swarg. So either way, whether you go to swarg or whether you're reborn in this world, it keeps you in the cycle of birth and death. Because going to swarg is also only temporary. You come back here and you're reborn in the physical world again.
So dharm, arth, kām keep you within the bondage of maya. And moksh takes you beyond maya. Moksh means you've gone beyond arth, kām and dharm. You've gone beyond this world, gone beyond swarg. You're free from maya and you'll never be born again.
What does Chaitanya Mahaprabhu say about dharm, arth, kām, moksh? He says all four of them are kaitav. Kaitav means deceptions. They look good, they sound nice, but actually it's diverting you from your real goal, which is Krishna prem. Your real goal is to attain Krishna's Divine love.
