Every living creature, including humans, are endowed by nature with 4 basic urges : the urge

to eat, the urge to sleep, the urge to procreate and the urge for survival. Humans share
these basic urges, and try to satisfy these urges to the best of their ability during their
lifetime. Every living creature is also endowed with a body-mind-consciousness (shareer-
manas-chitta) complex, which are its equipment for gathering experiences, and which it uses
to satisfy these urges. Every creature, including humans, is also endowed with some basic
instinctive likes and dislikes. So, while engaged in the never-ending pursuit to satisfy their
basic urges, each creature follows its own instincts. But humans have also been endowed
with something unique - an intellect (buddhi) - which is not endowed to other creatures. So,
over and above the drive of instincts, humans have the ability to think and discriminate, and
make choices. Sometimes there are situations where what one likes is not the same as what
is right. In such situations, humans have to make choices, and so it is possible for humans to
override their basic instinctive urges, which is not the case with other living creatures. So,
the human buddhi has to make choices at every turn in life, and sometimes, due to pressure
of likes, dharma is compromised / violated.
Our shastras state that, to handle any situation in life, every living creature needs knowledge
(jnana) - this knowledge can be in the shape of an instinctive response to external stimulus
received by the mind, or, in the case of humans, it can be derived from the storehouse of
past experiences. And according to our shastras, ALL pursuits of EVERY living creature are
motivated by ONE underlying urge - the urge to experience HAPPINESS. And all human
pursuits can be categorized into pursuit of pleasure (kama), pursuit of security (artha),
pursuit of righteousness (dharma), and pursuit of moksha (freedom). With regard to the
LAST named pursuit, pursuit of moksha, which translates roughly into pursuit of freedom,
one may ask - freedom from WHAT and WHY? At some point in a human birth, a human
being comes to realize that all his pursuits are NOT giving him permanent happiness, what
he gets is only happiness which comes and goes. This is called 'apoorna sukh' because of
its transient / temporary nature. And the pursuit of moksha is basically pursuit of freedom
from dependence on 'apoorna sukh' ie the pursuit of ever-lasting happiness or 'poorna sukh'.
Our shastras state that, when a human tries to engage in this pursuit, all that he is endowed
with, the jnana that he is endowed with,in the shape of responses to external stimuli and
storehouse of past experiences, are not useful. For this pursuit (of 'poorna sukh'), one needs
a Sadhguru, as He is the only one who is an authoritative source of this kind of knowledge
(pramana). 'Guru' means dispeller of darkness. And so, after going through a lifetime of
fleeting pleasures which give temporary happiness, a human being finally comes to the point
where he seeks this type of knowledge, the knowledge of how to find 'poorna sukh', and at
such times, it is only a proper Sadhguru who can provide the necessary guidance.
From time immemorial, there have been many humans, all around the world, in
every era, who have engaged in this ultimate pursuit - the pursuit of moksha. And
that is because, regardless of which place or age one is born in, the basic motive of
all human pursuits remains the same - the pursuit of happiness. But the
happiness that one finds is only fleeting and never permanent - for every happiness
that one gets, one immediately gets stuck with some other issues which make him
unhappy. So, at some point, one starts realizing the futility of this endless chase for
happiness - he seems to be singing the SAME tune always 'I want' - and he sees
others around him also singing the same tune, from birth all the way till death. The
wants may change from time to time, but the basic tune 'I want' remains constant.
At the same time, one's own logic tells us at some point that if this me, or I, is a
wanting person all the time, with so many unfulfilled desires, and if happiness lies
in the fulfillment of all these desires, then I should never be happy, as there is no
such time in life when this I has no unfulfilled desires. However, there ARE times
when one feels supremely happy, regardless of the unfulfilled desires. For example,
one may come across a beautiful scenery, and is immediately struck by the scenic
grandeur and lost in sheer happiness. What happens at such times? The man's
thoughts, at such times, are no longer agitated or oscillating with so many desires,
etc., ie, his thoughts are calm and one-pointed. And at such times, he is connected
to a supreme happiness that is actually WITHIN HIS OWN SELF. But such periods
are very rare and infrequent, as his thoughts again resume their normal agitations.
So, in every age and land, there have been humans who have undertaken the
pursuit of moksha and succeeded in connecting to their own infinite source of
happiness, the 'poorna sukh', and have left records of such experiences. The Vedas
also are a series of such records left for us by the ancient rishis, who succeeded in
this quest, and left behind systematic techniques of how such pursuits can be
undertaken. But every human being is not the same in temperament - because of
the body-mind-intellect complex that we have been endowed with, depending on
which faculty is stronger, a human being is by natural temperament very strong on
the physical, emotional, or intellectual levels. So, in the Bhagavad Gita, when
Arjuna is suddenly disillusioned by the prospect of war with his own cousins, as he
feels that regardless whether he wins or loses, he will only be unhappy at the end,
the Lord (Krishna) has given the techniques of karma yoga, bhakti yoga, and jnana
yoga, which are basically different techniques to suit different temperaments, but
have the same end goal - connecting with one's own highest self that lies within. In
other lands too, various prophets and seers have undertaken the pursuit of
moksha successfully and left records / techniques of how such pursuits can be
undertaken, in their own vocabulary and method of expression. They have not said
that other pursuits such as pursuit of kama and pursuit of artha should be
abandoned while pursuing moksha. All they have said is that one's own ATTITUDE
should be focused on the pursuit of moksha. And that is ONLY because ALL the
HAPPINESS one can get via the pursuit of kama and artha from ANY objects in the
external world are only transient and never ultimately dependable, such happiness
will always desert one after some time.