The Vānaprastha Adventure, Installment 21
The steps described earlier—to simplify eating, to trim our hair, to live without sex, and so on— entail no serious risk. But there are steps we can take that do involve some risk. Let’s take a look.
Retire early from your job
“Retirement” especially means retiring from our job, our work—and whatever security may come with it. Our job is what we depend on for money, and money is what we depend on to live. So retiring early from our job may entail some risk to our financial security. Without that money coming in every month, how will I live? (Or else: “If I hang on longer, I can get more.”)
Americans may look toward Social Security (the Federal insurance program that provides payouts in old age). Other countries may offer similar benefits. And wherever we live we may have pensions to look toward to.
But all of these have strings attached. You can’t apply for Social Security benefits till you’re at least sixty-two. To get the most from Social Security, you need to work until “full retirement age”—between sixty-six and sixty-seven. And you get the absolute most if you don’t ask for benefits until you’re seventy.1 Other countries have their own rules, and the same goes for pension plans.
So the śāstras may say “Retire when you’re fifty.” But the system is geared to keep you working into your sixties.
Under the circumstances, what can you do? You can work and hang on—but with every year that goes by you’re spiritually missing out, and there’s of course no guarantee you’ll even live long enough to collect your benefits.
So you can retire early, regardless of pensions and Social Security. But that may expose you to greater financial risk. Gṛhasthas who manage their finances well can minimize the risk. Those who have courage and faith in Kṛṣṇa can accept the risk.
Sometimes the risks are imaginary. Our assets are more than ample, but we imagine we don’t have enough. Perhaps we’re still attached to thinking of ourselves as “providers” for our family and just don’t want to let go.
Materially speaking, in terms of practical risk-assessment we should be prudent and realistic. Ultimately, though, there’s no risk. Kṛṣṇa will maintain us, and Kṛṣṇa will protect us. In that sense, all risks are imaginary.
Again, to act with this vision takes faith and conviction and courage. But it’s a fact: For one who always thinks of Kṛṣṇa and fully engages in his service, Kṛṣṇa provides everything needed.2
The more we give up material security and throw ourselves at Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, the greater our material risk—and the greater the mercy from Kṛṣṇa we receive.
Sending our children to college
But wait, you say, I have to send my children to college.
Do I really?
Thanks to the Education Industry and our modern materialistic way of life, it practically goes without saying that if we love our kids we have to send them to college (if in America then easily at well over $100,000 per head).
The notion of no future without college, however, is worth interrogating.
First of all, it’s not the śāstric view. According to the śāstras, our essential duty to our children is not to send them to college but to send them back to Godhead, in this way saving them from the clutches of repeated birth and death. For this, what’s needed is adhyātmā-vidyā, spiritual, Kṛṣṇa conscious education—what the Gītā calls rājā-vidyā, “the king of education.” And this is not what mundane colleges and universities offer.
The college track is especially bad for daughters. For a daughter the father’s duty is to see that she’s timely married to a suitable boy, not to make sure she has a college education. (According to traditional standards, any girl who attends college will most likely be rendered morally unfit for marriage. We all know what goes on; we just choose to ignore it.3 Śrīla Prabhupāda writes that there is no harm in coeducation provided the students are married4—which, at least as undergraduates, they almost never are.)
By the time our sons and daughters have done four years of college, on a campus of young people raised to live like cats and dogs, what will be left of their culture? And moral and cultural issues aside, modern education mainly qualifies one to serve as an employee—a highly trained śūdra.5
Śrīla Prabhupāda therefore spoke of colleges and universities as slaughterhouses.6 Is this really where we want to send our children?
But let’s say it’s unavoidable. In today’s world, a college education is simply a must. But retirement is also a must. And if we really think our children need to go to college, for us to go on working in our old age to make sure it happens is not the only alternative.
In some countries the cost of a college education isn’t an issue. In some two dozen countries—Sweden, Germany, and Brazil, for example—higher education is tuition-free.7 Some European Union countries also offer free higher education to students from other countries in the European Union.8 And in some countries—again, as of this writing, Germany is an example—even students from outside Europe can attend college without having to pay tuition.9
But what about America?
First of all: Young Americans keen on going to college can work for it. Today we seem to think that dad has to work to make sure his kids get the education they’re entitled to. But generations of young people grew up knowing they weren’t entitled to anything and if they wanted to go to college they’d have to work to put themselves through school. They can still do that today. Those who are quick and bright can study single-mindedly and apply for scholarships. Others can work and earn money to pay for their own education. They can also apply for financial aid. (The less the parents earn, the more the children are eligible for financial aid.) And many big companies help pay college tuition for their employees.10
Whoever is paying, Aruddhā Devī Dāsī, in her excellent book Homeschooling Krishna’s Children, tells of a strategy by which to knock the cost of a college education way down: In most parts of the United States, a student can study two years at a community college (at a fraction of the cost, or in several states for free), then transfer and, after two years more, graduate with a degree from a respected four-year institution. (At ISKCON in Alachua, many young devotees have done exactly that: studied two years at Santa Fe Community College, then finished their degree at the University of Florida.)
And both for undergraduate and for postgraduate studies there’s still another option: Join the military. Sign up and serve and let the Army, Navy, or Air Force pay. I know of two devotees who went through dental school that way and another who took the military route and earned an MBA.11
In any case, fathers: If you die tomorrow, still your children will live. And if they want college to be part of their life, they can figure out how to make it happen. And the same is true if you retire: Somehow they’ll get on with their life—and you’ll get on with yours.
So forget the “entitlement culture.” Tell the kids: This is how much you can expect from me. The rest is up to you.
One may argue that a father must see to getting his children married and educated. These are his duties, one may say, and until he fulfills these duties he must continue working and must not retire.
Śrīla Prabhupāda taught, however, that even if these duties are unfulfilled, at a certain age one must retire from family life. “As soon as one is fifty years old, he must retire. He must retire. Not that he will say, ‘I have got this duty, that duty, that duty.’ No. Within this age, whatever duty you can perform, that’s all right. Next, to retire. That is Vedic civilization.”12
Travel and preach
Another step with some risk attached to it is to travel and preach. If you’ve retired from work, then traveling and preaching doesn’t inherently entail much extra risk at all. How much risk there might be depends only on how much risk you want to take. If you want to travel in dangerous areas, you’ll expose yourself to danger. How daring you want to be is up to you.
Notes:
1 “Plan for Retirement,” US Social Security Administration, https://www.ssa.gov/prepare/plan-retirement.
2 ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate
teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham. Gītā 9.22
3 Śrīla Prabhupāda writes, “The basic flaw in modern civilization is that boys and girls are given freedom during school and college to enjoy sex life.” Bhāgavatam 4.31.1, purport.
4 Bhāgavatam 1.17.38, purport.
5 See Bhāgavatam 2.3.19, purport.
6 For example, on a morning walk in London on July 9, 1973.
7 https://www.accreditedschoolsonline.org/resources/which-countries-offer-free-college/
8 “Countries with Free Education For International Students (2024).” https://erudera.com/resources/countries-with-free-education-for-international-students/.
9 “Countries with Free Education For International Students (2024).” https://erudera.com/resources/countries-with-free-education-for-international-students/
10 “How to go to college for free.” Forbes Advisor. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/student-loans/go-to-college-for-free/.
11 The military route is not for everyone. In America, at least, the military doesn’t cater to vegetarians, so getting vegetarian food may be a struggle. The association may be less than desirable. And you’ll need to live with working for a fighting force whose goals may be less than honorable. On the other hand, you’ll learn accountability, leadership, and a sense of calm and control amidst repeated exposure to challenges. And you’ll complete your degree without running into debt. For these assessments my thanks to Manu Bhattacharjee, a devotee who earned his MBA while serving in the US Navy. He adds that he would not recommend the military for Vaiṣṇavīs. The military is rife with sexual exploitation of female personnel.
12 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam lecture, Los Angeles, October 15, 1973. Similarly: “It doesn’t matter whether you have finished your duty or not. It doesn’t matter. You must retire” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam lecture, December 17, 1973). See also Śrīla Prabhupāda’s morning walk of January 8, 1977, where an Indian man objects, “Having acquired a family, I am willing to renounce, but would I not be running away from the responsibility. . . for. . . bringing up and educating the children?” Śrīla Prabhupāda responds, in essence, that one cannot secure anyone’s future and that at this point in life one has a higher responsibility—to put all other duties aside and surrender to Kṛṣṇa.
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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