"The modern, rascal civilization, they do not know actually what is the end of suffering." "They are thinking that here, this, a small span of life, say fifty years, sixty years, one hundred years utmost, if we get a nice wife, a nice apartment, a nice motor car, running with seventy miles speed, and a nice whiskey bottle, that is the purpose."(Srila Prabhupada, February 2, 1975, Hawaii)
This was my vision of life. Even after I started on the path of devotional service this vision was so ingrained in me that I continued to live it for awhile. Back in December of last year I started down the road. At fifty-one years old and my marriage on the rocks it seemed the right thing to do.
As I look back over the last nine months I can see something of the Varnasrama-dharma in my life. As my walk with the Lord has grown more intimate I have begun to wonder if Krishna has forced me into vanaprastha; the retired life. The earmarks are there. I am over fifty and I left my wife living with her oldest son.
There is an example of this lifestyle in
Srimad Bhagavatam 1.15.39; "Then he posted Vajra, the son of Aniruddha [grandson of Lord Kṛṣṇa], at Mathurā as the King of Śūrasena. Afterwards Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira performed a Prājāpatya sacrifice and placed in himself the fire for quitting household life." Srila Prabhupada states in his purport;
The scientific system of varṇāśrama-dharma divides the human life into four divisions of occupation and four orders of life. The four orders of life as brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsī are to be followed by all, irrespective of the occupational division.In
Srimad Bhagavatam 7.12.17-24 we have a discription of vanaprastha:
(17) O King, I shall now describe the qualifications for a vānaprastha, one who has retired from family life. By rigidly following the rules and regulations for the vānaprastha, one can easily be elevated to the upper planetary system known as Maharloka. (18) A person in vānaprastha life should not eat grains grown by tilling of the fields. He should also not eat grains that have grown without tilling of the field but are not fully ripe. Nor should a vānaprastha eat grains cooked in fire. Indeed, he should eat only fruit ripened by the sunshine. (19) A vānaprastha should prepare cakes to be offered in sacrifice from fruits and grains grown naturally in the forest. When he obtains some new grains, he should give up his old stock of grains. (20) A vānaprastha should prepare a thatched cottage or take shelter of a cave in a mountain only to keep the sacred fire, but he should personally practice enduring snowfall, wind, fire, rain and the shining of the sun. (21) The vānaprastha should wear matted locks of hair on his head and let his body hair, nails and moustache grow. He should not cleanse his body of dirt. He should keep a waterpot, deerskin and rod, wear the bark of a tree as a covering, and use garments colored like fire.(22)Being very thoughtful, a vānaprastha should remain in the forest for twelve years, eight years, four years, two years or at least one year. He should behave in such a way that he will not be disturbed or troubled by too much austerity. (23) When because of disease or old age one is unable to perform his prescribed duties for advancement in spiritual consciousness or study of the Vedas, he should practice fasting, not taking any food. (24) He should properly place the fire element in his own self and in this way give up bodily affinity, by which one thinks the body to be one's self or one's own. One should gradually merge the material body into the five elements [earth, water, fire, air and sky].
This may have been possible in days of old but I can't imagine it as a lifestyle for myself. I cannot live in the forest although I do a lot of my japa there or in parks. I also practice fasting as prescribed by ISKCON. On the other hand, I miss my family and sometimes wish I could go home, so I am not very renounced. I am just another American Bachelor, and there are no bachelors in Varnasrama-dharma.
(Artwork - The Renunciation Of King Yudhisthira by Puskar Dasa)
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