The Vānaprastha Adventure, Installment 15
From what I’ve gathered from Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions, a man might live in the vānaprastha āśrama in any of six ways. Śrīla Prabhupāda doesn’t specify these as being six prescribed systems. Rather, these are ways I’ve gleaned from what Śrīla Prabhupāda has said in various places. In fact what I’ve gathered starts with three ways: (1) one may retire to a holy place; (2) one may sometimes travel, especially to various holy places, then sometimes return home, and then travel out again; or (3) one may simply travel, without returning home. A man might follow any of these three ways either with or without his wife, and so the ways come to six.
As we find in the Manu-saṁhitā (6.3):
pūtreṣu bhāryaṁnikṣipya
vanaṁ gacchet sahaiva vā
“One should go to the forest, entrusting his wife to his sons or accompanied by her.”
Similarly in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.18.1) Lord Kṛṣṇa tells Uddhava:
vanaṁ vivikṣuḥ putreṣu
bhāryāṁ nyasya sahaiva vā
vana eva vasec chāntas
tṛtīyaṁ bhāgam āyuṣaḥ
“One who desires to adopt the third order of life, vānaprastha, should enter the forest with a peaceful mind, leaving his wife with his mature sons, or else taking her along with him.”
As Śrīla Prabhupāda explains, “One can keep his wife as an assistant in the vānaprastha stage. The idea is that the wife will assist the husband in spiritual advancement.”1
Writing about Pṛthu Mahārāja, Śrīla Prabhupāda says, “According to Vedic principles, when retiring from family life, one can take his wife with him, for the husband and wife are considered to be one unit. Thus they can both combinedly perform austerities for liberation. This is the path that Mahārāja Pṛthu, who was an exemplary character, followed, and this is also the way of Vedic civilization.”2
So a man may adopt any of the methods of the vānaprastha āśrama either on his own or with his wife. But all of these methods involve leaving home. As Śrīla Prabhupāda taught, to retire from family life to fully take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead one must leave home, “for it is very difficult to retire from family life and at the same time remain at home.”3
Retire to a holy place
As mentioned above, one method of adopting the vānaprastha āśrama is to live in a holy place. This is sometimes called kṣetra-sannyāsa. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains:
“When one takes kṣetra-sannyāsa, he leaves his household life and goes to a place of pilgrimage devoted to Lord Viṣṇu. Such places include Puruṣottama (Jagannātha Purī), Navadvīpa-dhāma and Mathurā-dhāma. The kṣetra-sannyāsī lives in these places alone or with his family. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura considers kṣetra-sannyāsa to be the preferable vānaprastha situation in this Age of Kali. Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya lived in this way [with his wife], and he has been called a kṣetra-sannyāsī—that is, a sannyāsī living in Jagannātha Purī.”4
Of course, vānaprasthas in days gone by would literally go live in the forest. But Śrīla Prabhupāda writes, “The best forest is Vṛndāvana, where one need not live with the animals but can associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who never leaves Vṛndāvana. Cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness in Vṛndāvana is the best means of being liberated from material bondage.”5
Śrīla Prabhupāda built the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Guest House particularly with retired people in mind. “[W]e have opened this temple to give facility to the elderly section of the human being to come and live with us. We invite all elderly persons, especially retired person[s]. . . At least after the age of fifty they should come here in Vṛndāvana. They should live peacefully and take shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma and be happy in this life and get salvation in next life.”6
Accordingly, Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote to a man of his acquaintance (the retired principal of a college), “I have got a very nice Guest House there [in Vṛndāvana], and I would suggest humbly that since you are already retired from service and your sons are well situated, . . . you may retire from your family life and live in Vrindaban in the vānaprastha order.”7
In fact, Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote in a purport to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (7.5.5): “Prahlāda recommended to his father that accepting vānaprastha life would be better than going deeper and deeper into gṛham andha-kūpam, the blind well of life as a gṛhastha. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we therefore invite all the elderly persons of the world to come to Vṛndāvana and stay there in retired life, making advancement in spiritual consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”
One might similarly retire to Śrīdhāma Māyāpur. As Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote: “Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement now has centers in Vṛndāvana and Navadvīpa so that those who want to live a retired life, whether they be devotees or not, can go there and with determination give up the bodily concept of life. One is welcome to live in those holy places for the rest of his life in order to achieve the highest success by the very simple method of chanting the holy name of the Lord and taking prasāda. Thus one may return home, back to Godhead. . . . The Caitanya Candrodaya temple offers one a good opportunity to associate with devotees. Let us all take advantage of this opportunity.”8 I know of several householder couples who have retired to Śrīdhāma Mayapur with this purpose in mind.9
Finally, any Kṛṣṇa conscious temple may be regarded as a holy place. As Śrīla Prabhupāda has explained, living in the forest is in goodness, living in the city in passion, and in a brothel or drinking house ignorance, but living in a temple is transcendental, like Vaikuṇṭha. “Consequently,” Śrīla Prabhupāda writes, “a Kṛṣṇa conscious person does not need to go to the forest and artificially try to imitate Mahārāja Pṛthu or the great sages and munis who used to live in the forest.” But anyone “can follow in the footsteps of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura by living in a temple, which is transcendental to residence in a forest, and vowing to accept kṛṣṇa-prasāda and nothing else, follow the regulative principles and chant sixteen rounds daily of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. In this way, one’s spiritual life will never be disturbed.”10
As Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote, “The holy places all over the world are meant for the residential purposes of retired persons getting ready for a better next life”11 So vānaprasthas who wish to live in a holy place may live in a sanctified place like Vṛndāvana or Māyāpur, or in a temple of the Lord anywhere in the world.
Come and go
Another system for vānaprastha life is that the husband and wife may come and go, sometimes traveling to holy places, sometimes checking in with matters at home, and then going out again. As Śrīla Prabhupāda explains, if possible a man can remain a brahmacārī and avoid married life altogether. Otherwise, “he can marry and then after some time enter vānaprastha, retired life. At that time one thinks, ‘Now that I have enjoyed this attachment so much, let me leave home.’ Then the man travels all over to various places of pilgrimage to become detached, and the wife goes with him as an assistant. After two or three months he again comes home to see that his children are doing nicely and then again goes away. This is the beginning of detachment. When the detachment is complete, the man tells his wife, ‘Now go live with your children, and I shall take sannyāsa, the renounced order of life.’ This is final detachment.”12
Although Śrīla Prabhupāda here describes the husband and wife going together to holy places and sometimes returning home, another approach is that the man alone might travel away from home, then come back for a while, and then again go out. It appears from the timeline of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s life that this is what Śrīla Prabhupāda himself did as a vānaprastha.13 He sometimes went here and there to preach, sometimes spent time back at home, and sometimes stayed in Vṛndāvana. Though I don’t have a reference, I seem to recall hearing Śrīla Prabhupāda describe this method of vānaprastha life: The husband goes out, then comes back for a while to see to things at home, then goes out, then comes back, then goes out again. And then, one day—he just never comes back.
Just travel
Sometimes Śrīla Prabhupāda speaks of husband and wife traveling to holy places in vānaprastha life but doesn’t mention coming and going. That is, the travel is continuous. Without returning to a home base, husband and wife may travel together to holy places, just for the sake of detachment from family affection, and then, when the man is a little more advanced, he asks his wife to return home to be cared for by her grown sons, and he takes sannyāsa. “So he becomes alone and preaches the knowledge which he has acquired. This is Vedic civilization. Not that a man should remain in family life from birth to death.”14
Traveling on and on to various holy places was the system of vānaprastha life followed by Vidura (without his wife).15 Vidura especially visited holy places for purification. There he had the opportunity to see the many transcendental forms of the Lord, and eventually he met Uddhava and the great sage Maitreya.16
Often associated with long-established temples in Indian holy places are dharmaśālās providing rooms where pilgrims can stay a few days or more at little or no cost. Wealthy men donate to establish and maintain such dharmaśālās to accommodate pilgrims. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira asked Vidura how he maintained himself while traveling, and Śrīla Prabhupāda mentions in his purport that in holy places even now there are still free kitchens to provide meals for people who desire to spiritually advance.17
In that same purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda mentions that in holy places there are many great devotees of the Lord. As he often writes, one should visit places of pilgrimage not only to visit temples or to bathe in the Ganges or Yamunā. Still more important, one should seek the association of pure devotees who have no desire in life but to serve the Personality of Godhead.18
The overall theme: detachment, a change of consciousness
Vānaprastha life is a path for becoming increasingly free from material attachments and increasingly strong in practical spiritual realization. Over the course of up to twenty-five years, the vānaprastha āśrama offers the opportunity for gradual progress. One gradually develops and moves forward.
Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciple Janānanda dasa Goswami, who himself progressed from householder life to the vānaprastha āśrama before taking sannyāsa, has written, “The acceptance of vānaprastha should be natural and without duplicity. It is not a formality but an internal state of detachment coupled with the external behavior.”19
One who takes the path of detachment seriously will take guidance from the spiritual master and advanced devotees, and this will help at every step.
In the vānaprastha āśrama the main theme is a change of consciousness. This isn’t to say that nothing external changes. A lot does. But that change of consciousness is both the goal and the underlying force. That’s what actually makes one a vānaprastha and actually propels one along in the vānaprastha āśrama. We want to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and so we want to cultivate detachment from this material world and gain attachment for Kṛṣṇa.20
In the gṛhastha āśrama attachments naturally develop—in the relationship between husband and wife, then with children, with what one owns, with so many things related to one’s household affairs. So in the vānaprastha āśrama we seek to reduce those attachments.
As we start off in the gṛhastha āśrama we’re building up. In youth we grow—grow in strength, grow in capability and skill and experience. We marry, we build up our career and our personal networks, advance in our profession, build a nest. Husband and wife get a home and find things to make it comfortable, and children come. . . . And so we’re building up.
In the vānaprastha āśrama, just the opposite: We’re winding down. We reduce our needs, loosen our attachments, pull back and free ourselves from the burdens and complexities of material affairs. On this path we may eventually leave family life altogether. Finally—and inevitably—we give up our material body. And at last we can hope to take leave of the entire material world and go back to Godhead.
Notes:
1 Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 24.259, purport. The assistance rendered does not include sex. “At the vānaprastha stage of retired life, or the stage midway between householder life and renounced life, one may keep his wife as an assistant without sex relations.” Bhāgavatam 3.24.40, purport.
2 Bhāgavatam 4.23.1‒3, purport.
3 Bhāgavatam 4.23.1‒3, purport.
4 Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 16.130, purport. That the Bhaṭṭācārya lived in Purī with his wife is evident from Cc. Madhya 15.200‒201. These and the verses that follow them describe Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepting prasadam at the Bhaṭṭācārya’s home in Purī.
5 Bhāgavatam 9.19.19, purport. Śrīla Prabhupāda cautions, however, in the same purport, that one should not go to Vṛndāvana and commit offenses by having sex: “Men who have gone to Vṛndāvana but who still hanker for sex should immediately leave Vṛndāvana and stop their grievous offenses at the lotus feet of the Lord.”
6 Lecture on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, August 30, 1975, Vṛndāvana. Śrīla Prabhupāda was displeased to see the guest house used for other purposes and filled with women and children: “Vrindaban is meant for retirement[;] elderly persons in Krishna Consciousness can devote all their time to devotional service. Such men are wanted to live in Vrindaban, not women and children.” Letter to Gopal Krishna, June 9, 1976. See also Hari Śauri’s diary entry for September 9, 1976, recording Śrīla Prabhupāda as saying that Vṛndāvana is not meant for householders: “It is meant for retirement from material activity; it is not an ordinary place.” (Transcendental Diary, Volume 4, chapter 5.)
7 Letter to Dr. Y. G. Naik, Retired Principal, Gujarat College, August 7, 1975. As Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote to Giriraja (July 24, 1976), “I am trying to induce responsible men to fully retire from family life and take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” Not everyone, of course, was eager. “I have constructed this temple [in Vrindavan] and all my other temples so that at least some educated retired men shall live here without any material desires, but at the present moment people are so educated that even up to the point of death they cannot give up the enjoyable items, namely money and women. . . . Unfortunately people are reluctant to give up material association: that is the difficulty.” Letter to Dixit, September 18, 1976.
8 Bhāgavatam 6.2.39, purport. Early on, Śrīla Prabhupāda also wrote, “[W]e can build at Mayapur a place for retired American ladies to live there peacefully in Krishna Consciousness.” Letter to Brahmāṇanda, April 17, 1970.
9 Of course, since Śrīla Prabhupāda’s days the cost of flats in Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur has soared. Devotees who wish to retire there will have to sort out their options, in Vṛndāvana, Māyāpur, or elsewhere. Men living separate from their wives are likely to find the issue less difficult.
10 Bhāgavatam 4.23.5, purport. In Śrīla Prabhupāda’s view, we should note, “living in the temple” for vānaprasthas did not mean that husband and wife would live together as elderly householders. For Hare Krishna Land in Mumbai, Śrīla Prabhupāda gave Giriraj, the temple president, these directions: “Regarding the retired persons staying, retired means vānaprastha. They cannot live with family. Husband and wife must sleep in different rooms. One room should be for two or three retired men, and they will live together. So there will be no accommodation together with the wife. And, husband and wife must follow all the rules and regulations.” (Letter, August 4, 1975)
11 Bhāgavatam 2.1.16, purport.
12 Teachings of Queen Kunti, Chapter 24. The quoted text derives originally from a lecture on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.41, given in Los Angeles on May 3, 1973. In another lecture on the same verse (October 21, 1974, Māyāpur), Śrīla Prabhupāda speaks of staying at home for one or two months and then going out again. In a lecture on August 19, 1966, it’s perhaps six months traveling, a month at home, and then again out.
13 https://vanipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Śrīla_Prabhupāda%27s_Life
14 Press Interview, December 30, 1968, Los Angeles. Śrīla Prabhupāda makes the same points in a lecture in London on September 16, 1969. See also his conversation with the Mayor of Evanston, Illinois, on July 4, 1975. There he mentions, too, that the wife may serve the husband as an assistant, with no sex.
15 Bhāgavatam 1.13.9, purport. Bhāgavatam 3.1.17‒24.
16 Bhāgavatam, Canto 3, chapters 4 and 5.
17 See Bhāgavatam 1.13.9 and purport.
18 See Bhāgavatam, 1.13.10, purport. See also Bhāgavatam 10.84.13.
19 Vānaprastha Ashram, p. 4. Janānanda Mahārāja wrote this book sometime around his fiftieth year, while in transition to the vānaprastha āśrama, for which he was an early ISKCON advocate.
20 Vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta. Bhāgavatam 7.5.5.
This is part of a draft
This is an excerpt from a new book I have in the works—The Vānaprastha Adventure, a guide to retirement in spiritual life. While I’m working on it, I’ll be posting my draft here, in installments. I invite your comments, questions, and suggestions.
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