​How can we know when we are ready for taking vanaprastha?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Thank you. Prabhupada also talked about Vanaprastha Ashram so when can we know when we are ready to take to Vanaprastha so actually among the four ashrams Brahmachari, Grihastha, Vanaprastha, Sannyasa Vanaprastha is the least present it is almost like, what do you want to say Vanaprastha is an endangered ashram it’s an endangered ashram so now we have to see that actually Prabhupada was very practical in terms of how he implemented the ashrams many times according to some traditional understanding of Brahmachari ashram Brahmachari should be in a place where there are no women at all but Prabhupada did not expect that Prabhupada did not Prabhupada did not implement that in any way there is definitely a separation of the genders similarly if you look at Sannyasis Sannyasis also often use many of the modern facilities and gadgets so that they can share Krishna’s message so we may not be able to adopt the traditional roles traditional ways of implementing those social roles always so for example in today’s life today’s world, if somebody says I am retired people say why didn’t you retire to be retired is considered to be quite deglamorous kind of thing so what even if and if you had a very big position and you retire then people think something must be really wrong with you why did you give such a big position so people just don’t appreciate renunciation so much so you know once Devamrith Maharaj was giving a class and he was some reporter had come for an interview in Mumbai so he said so many young people are here it was a youth meeting so many young people are here he said I said that so many young people get frustrated that they take to spiritual life their idea, the idea was that why would somebody take to spiritual life it’s only because they are frustrated so Devamrith Maharaj told that I told that reporter no they are intelligent enough to avoid frustration laughter laughter laughter so the thing is that actually we have to see how best we can serve Krishna sometimes if we take vanaprastha in the literal sense of completely retiring from job and living in the temple it may be that we may not be able to do as much service as we might be able to do if we have some nominal position now somebody says okay what do you do I am a consultant, you don’t do anything but you say I am a consultant and then they have some position in society and then they can reach out, they can preach, they can have influence in society so it is not necessary that everybody as soon as they get to 50 they have to just give up their jobs certainly one should try to decrease one’s material entanglements but exactly whether one should relocate from the home to the temple or completely give up a job or completely give up social position that I think that has to be seen according to time and place circumstances so how can we best serve some people can serve by having a position in society and trying to decrease the obligations associated with that position and it is possible often when one goes to a senior position then one can delegate much more work so one has more responsible work but one is not necessarily more time consuming work so that is something which can be done also where certainly as we come to life’s second half we should try to decrease our material engagements as much as possible practically how to do it that will vary so we don’t have to stick to a particular form alone that’s the first point second point is that earlier in ISKCON’s history even the Granthas were living in temples and temples were supporting them but that did not work out very well so ideally speaking now if Granthas wanted it they should be financially independent and their family responsibilities should be well taken care of there is enough savings so that they can live reasonably well throughout the rest of their life and it’s possible it’s not very difficult to come to that level of financial stability should be there and sometimes we seek renunciation more because of frustration with the material than because of attraction to the spiritual we seek renunciation more because of frustration with the material so much stress, so much competition so much envy, so much trouble I just want to get out of this so now frustration can be a good starting point for practicing bhakti but it cannot be a sustaining force so we have to see that whether I have sufficient attraction for Krishna and attraction for Krishna for us practically means engagement in Krishna’s service so if we have before we take to the retired order or take to vanaprastha before we said cut ourselves off from the material life we should have a burning desire to connect ourselves with Krishna more and that should be evident in the way we grab every opportunity for connecting with Krishna even when we are working so when the focus is not just frustration with the material it is attraction to the spiritual then when we get more opportunity we will grab it otherwise quite often the retired order can become a cover up for lethargy so there is sattva guna, there is rajoguna there is tamoguna so when we are working most of the time to some extent we are in rajoguna and actually rajoguna is better than tamoguna in many ways so what happens is if we don’t have responsibilities if we don’t have obligations then and if we don’t have sufficient spiritual inspiration then instead of coming to vanaprastha means we come to sattva and go towards transcendence instead of going towards that we may go down towards tamoguna so we have to be very careful that lethargy is not going to come in so that’s why we have to have not just a feeling that I am attracted to Krishna but also some tangible way in which we will act on that attraction if I retire what am I going to do and I should really be eager to do it and in general you know we can’t sustain our motivation for long if there is not something tangible to do that means study shastra ok study shastra is good but we feel I should do something with shastra I have to teach shastra and most devotees actually their shastric study becomes really serious when they are forced to teach because when you have to teach then you have to understand concept you have to answer questions what happens otherwise if you are not teaching then when we come for classes I have heard this this also I have heard this also I have heard but then if I am told to speak I just don’t know what to speak so what has happened when I am hearing I feel I know but when I start speaking I come to know that I don’t know so that’s why when we start speaking then we are forced to learn so like that we need to have some solid responsibility spiritually so that when we give the material responsibility we don’t sink into lethargy and apathy so broadly speaking three things I said don’t stick to a particular form of the retired order whatever is practical and secondly we should be financially independent third is we should have a strong attraction to Krishna which translates into some tangible responsibility for Krishna which we take up and then the shift to the retired order will actually be very conducive for our spiritual life and the vanaprastha ashram can be a tremendous boon for society we have the brahmacharis we have the sanyasis sanyasis we don’t have many sanyasis are very busy and brahmacharis can also do preaching but those who become brahmacharis they actually just come from youth maybe they have gone to college, worked for some time they become brahmacharis so they may preach but they may not have the worldly experience to actually give practical guidance to people they can if they mature and they get realized but what happens is people’s age also determines how seriously you take somebody’s advice if somebody is 25-30 then people don’t take them so seriously but if somebody is a little elderly and there is a culture where age is respected then some elderly person is there they are also spiritual then they become like a father or grandfather for people and then so they can actually benefit people a lot so vanaprastha can be a very powerful way in which we can do enormous service for Krishna’s mission does that answer your question? any other question? yes when we work without any where does the concept of power, motivation play in spirituality where is the motivation we want to adopt how do we influence people that is literally like we give up motivation we don’t attach ourselves to this how do we progress how do we develop what we need to do to maintain this power