The Vānaprastha Adventure, Installment 39
As mentioned in the main text of The Vānaprastha Adventure, Śrīla Prabhupāda often made the point that by fifty years of age one should accept the vānaprastha āśrama. I said I would gather statements from him about this in an appendix. Here, then, is a sampling.
One is therefore required to give up the attachment to family or social or political life just at the age of fifty years, if not earlier, and the training in the vānaprastha and sannyāsa āśramas is given for preparation of the next life. [Bhāgavatam 2.1.15, purport]
In order to be saved from the danger of spoiling the human form of life and being attached to unreal things, one must take warning of death at the age of fifty, if not earlier. The principle is that one should take it for granted that the death warning is already there, even prior to the attainment of fifty years of age, and thus at any stage of life one should prepare himself for a better next life. [Bhāgavatam 2.1.16, purport]
Pañcāśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet: one must leave his family life and enter the forest after the age of fifty. This is an authoritative statement of the Vedas, based on the division of social life into four departments of activity — brahmacārya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. [Bhāgavatam 3.24.35, purport]
Family attraction is so strong that even if one is neglected by family members in his old age, he cannot give up family affection, and he remains at home just like a dog. In the Vedic way of life one has to give up family life while he is still strong. It is advised that before getting too weak and being baffled in material activities, and before becoming diseased, one should give up family life and engage oneself completely in the service of the Lord for the remaining days of his life. It is enjoined, therefore, in the Vedic scriptures, that as soon as one passes fifty years of age he must give up family life and live alone in the forest. After preparing himself fully, he should become a sannyāsī to distribute the knowledge of spiritual life to each and every home. [Bhāgavatam 3.30.14, purport]
One may beget children up to the age of fifty, but after fifty, one must stop begetting children and should accept the vānaprastha order. [Bhāgavatam 4.27.7, purport]
Family life is considered a blind well (andha-kūpam) into which a person falls and dies without help. Prahlāda Mahārāja recommends that while one’s senses are there and one is strong enough, he should abandon the gṛhastha-āśrama and take shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord, going to the forest of Vṛndāvana. According to Vedic civilization, one has to give up family life at a certain age (the age of fifty), take vānaprastha and eventually remain alone as a sannyāsī. That is the prescribed method of Vedic civilization known as varṇāśrama-dharma. [Bhāgavatam 4.29.54, purport]
When one is bound by affection for one’s wife, one is attached to sexual desires that are very difficult to overcome. Therefore, according to Vedic civilization, one must voluntarily leave his so-called home and go to the forest. Pañcāśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. Human life is meant for such tapasya, or austerity. By the austerity of voluntarily stopping sex life at home and going to the forest to engage in spiritual activities in the association of devotees, one achieves the actual purpose of human life. [Bhāgavatam 9.19.11, purport]
It is said that a man should give up the order of householder life at the age of fifty. But in this era of ignorance even an old man wants to rejuvenate his bodily functions, put on artificial teeth, and make a pretense of youthful life, even on the verge of death. [Light of the Bhāgavata, verse 19]
One must retire from all sorts of family life, big or small, at the age of fifty, and thus prepare for the next life. That is the process of human culture. [Light of the Bhāgavata, verse 34]
Therefore, according to Vedic civilization, there is compulsory get-out from household life. Compulsory get-out means pañcāśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. Pañcāś means fifty years. As soon as one passes over fifty years of age, he should get out. That is the injunction of the scriptures. No more in household affairs. [Lecture, June 23, 1968, Montreal]
Just like there is a warning bell. . . . You are doing something, you have not finished, but the warning bell is there. . . . The hour is finished, and there is warning bell: cling, cling, cling, cling. Calling. . . . So, similarly by force: “Now you have passed your fiftieth year. Please come out. Please come out.” Now, say one man is sleeping. The warning bell is there: cling, cling. No more sleeping. . . . So the śāstric injunction is like that. . . . Pañcāśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet: “Now you have enjoyed this family life for fifty years. No more, sir. Please stop. Come out.” [Lecture, Calcutta, no date]
Householder life, according to Vedic civilization, is a sort of license for sense gratification. But not for all the time. The injunction is pañcaśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. Just after your fiftieth year you must give up, retire from householder. That is called vānaprastha. [Lecture, September 16, 1969, London]
My Guru Mahārāja used to say that this householder life means it is a concession for sense gratification. That’s all. But our position is that we should not continue sense gratification for all the life. The sense gratification process is going on by the hogs and dogs throughout the whole life, but we should not be like hogs and dogs. We should cease at a certain time. Pañcāśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. So far; no more. That should be our motive. Not that continue. That. . . is Vedic way of life. [Lecture, February 23, 1972, Calcutta]
According to Vedic system, therefore, there is forced renunciation. Nobody wants to retire from family life, but the Vedic injunction is that after one has passed fifty years he must leave his family life. Pañcāśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. [Lecture, December 7, 1972, Ahmedabad]
Up to fifty years, you can remain attached. But pañcāṣordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet: After your fiftieth year, you must give up your family life. Vanaṁ vrajet. Go to the forest for tapasya. That was the system. Here at the present moment, everywhere, all over the world, when he is going to die, still he is attached to his political life, social life, family life. That is not knowledge. That is ignorance. You must be detached. Vairāgyam. [Lecture, October 5, 1973, Bombay]
At the present moment, people retire by force or by some way or. . . But they do not know what is the ultimate goal of life. There are many retired men’s house in your country, but they do not know what is the ultimate goal of life. Ultimate goal of life is to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because in your busy life you have got very little time, therefore after gṛhastha life—fifty years up to, not more than that—pañcāśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet, then you must retire. It doesn’t matter whether you have finished your duty or not. [Lecture, December 17, 1973, Los Angeles]
We have got very much attachment for this material world. . . . Therefore according to Vedic system there is compulsory renunciation. “Get out, please, immediately.” Pañcāśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. “You are now past fifty years. That’s all right. You have falsely fought in this material world, ahaṁ mameti. Now stop this business. Come out.” This is Vedic civilization. As soon as you are fifty years. . . Just like children, they play on the beach, making sand house and so on. Now, the father, when the time is up: “Now, my dear children, stop this business. Come out. Come here, home.” So we have to do that. [Lecture, November 10, 1974, Bombay]
We are thinking we are very happily living with nice wife and children and working very hard, getting money. But śāstra says, “You are fallen in the dark well.” Gṛham andha-kūpam. And “All right, let me remain here.” “No.” Ātma-pātam: If you remain in this way, then you will kill your soul. Ātma-pātam. Therefore in the Vedic civilization there is compulsory: “Get out.” Pañcaśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. “Now you are fifty years old past. Immediately get out.” “No, I have got so many duties. I have got this.” “No, no.” Vrajet: “compulsory.” This [form of] verb is used, vidhi-liṅ, where there is no argument: you must. Just like when nature calls you, you must do it. . . . This is Vedic civilization. Not that unless you are killed or being shot down by somebody else, you are not leaving the gṛham andha-kūpam. This is not Vedic civilization. [Lecture, December 8, 1975, Vṛndāvana]
So therefore real Vedic civilization is that gradually we have to give up this gṛha-vrata position. At one time you must voluntarily give up. Although I do not like to give up, still, by the order of the śāstra, one has to give up. Pañcasordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. Vrajet means compulsory. Just like we accept so many things compulsory, similarly, to give up family attachment after fiftieth year, that is compulsory. . . . Of course, nobody can go to the forest. That is not possible. They are not trained up as brahmacārī. So this Hare Kṛṣṇa Land—“Come on.” All the vānaprasthas—they can live in this land or Vṛndāvana, Hyderabad, simply for bhagavad-bhajana and no other purpose. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ, making all other purposes zero. [Morning walk, January 8, 1977, Bombay]
Svarūpa Dāmodara Dāsa: He said his aim is to make as many bridges as possible. . . . He thinks that’s some sort of philanthropic work.
Śrīla Prabhupāda: This is māyā. This is māyā. What he can do? He will die. This is called māyā. Therefore our system is because you are rascal, do all rascaldom up to fiftieth year. Then give it up. All kinds of rascaldom you can continue. Pañcāśordhvaṁ vanaṁ vrajet. Then you retire from all this rascal work.[Conversation, January 31, 1977, Bhubaneswar]
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. The book should be published in early 2026. Meanwhile I’ll be posting my draft here, in installments.
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