4: The Four Ashrams
The ashrams are four stages of life. They are:
- Brahmacarya: celibate student life
- Grhastha: household life
- Vanaprastha: retired
- Sannyasa: renounced order of life
Brahmacarya: The celibate student
- "The vow of brahmacarya is meant to help one completely abstain from sex indulgence in work, words and mind in all times, circumstances, and places." (Bhagavad-gita 6.13–14 purport)
- The eight aspects (Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.13 purport): The brahmacari must avoid the following:
- Thinking of women (or the opposite sex)
- Speaking about sex life
- Dallying with women
- Looking lustfully at women
- Talking intimately with women
- Deciding to engage in sexual intercourse
- Endeavoring for sex life
- Engaging in sex life.
- Duties and training
- His primary duty is service to the spiritual master.
- Live in the home of the spiritual master like a servant
- Begs alms from door to door and brings them to the spiritual master
- Takes food only under the master's order
- Studies the Vedas
- Learns self-control, cleanliness, truthfulness, and other saintly qualities.
- Learns cooking, puja, preaching, kirtan…
- Learns submission to the spiritual master
- Perform sacrifices
- Takes specific training for a livelihood.
- Has firm friendship for the spiritual master.
- Gives the spiritual master sincere respect and obeisances
- Engages in spiritual activities
- Should be satisfied with eating what is absolutely necessary.
- Avoids associating with women as far as possible.
- When he goes out to beg alms, the association should be very short, and he should talk only about spiritual matters.
- Should not indulge in applying powder or ointment to the eyes, massaging the head with oil, massaging the body with the hands, decorating the body with flower garlands, smearing scented ointment on the body, or decorating the body with ornaments.
- After completing his education, he should give daksina to his guru and accept the grhastha-asrama, or he may continue in the brahmacarya-asrama.
- Practicing celibacy (brahmacarya) is essential for advancement in spiritual life. (Bhagavad-gita 8.11 purport)
Grhastha: The householder
- Duties
- Protection of living beings and sacrifice
- To perform sacrifices for further enlightenment
- Give charity according to time, place and circumstance; should spend fifty percent of their income to propagate Krishna consciousness all over the world
- Should worship the Deity
- Allowed after proper training as brahmacari (Bhagavad-gita 8.28 purport)
- Having a sexual relationship only with his wife under regulation is also called brahmacarya (Bhagavad-gita 6.13–14 purport)
- Some license for sense gratification, perform such acts with restraint (Bhagavad-gita 3.34 purport, 4.26 purport)
- Restricted, unattached sex life is also a kind of yajna; general tendency toward sense gratification sacrificed for transcendental life. (Bhagavad-gita 4.26 purport)
- Sex and attachment to the opposite sex should be reduced to nil
- Sex not contrary to religious principles is Krishna (Bhagavad-gita 7.11 purport)
Vanaprastha: Retired life
- Stage midway between householder life and renounced life
- One may keep his wife as an assistant without sex relations (Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.24.40 purport)
- The main duty for a vanaprastha is austerities; tapasya, or austerity, is strongly recommended (Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.23.4 purport)
- The wife is expected to give up all luxurious habits. She should not even dress nicely or comb her hair. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.28.44 purport)
- At this stage the householder begins to retire from family life, preparing for complete detachment before death. The vanaprastha may go on pilgrimages and undergo extra austerities together with his wife. Their relationship becomes more detached.
- Must practice austerities of the body, mind and tongue.
- Undergoes severe penances—living in forests, dressing with tree bark, not shaving.
Sannyasa
- Definition: The giving up of activities that are based on material desire is what great, learned men call the renounced order of life [sannyasa]. (Bhagavad-gita 18.2)
- The head or the spiritual master of all the social statuses and orders (incl. Brahmanas) (Bhagavad-gita 16.1–3 purport)
- The main duties for a sannyasi are self-control and nonviolence.
- Four stages of sannyasa:
- Kuticaka: stays outside his village in a cottage, and his necessities, especially his food, are supplied from home
- Bahudaka / Madhukari: no longer accepts anything from home; collects necessities, especially his food, from many places. Madhukari literally means "the profession of the bumblebees."
- Parivrajakacarya: travels all over the world to preach the glories of the Lord.
- Paramahamsa: when he finishes his preaching work and sits down in one place, strictly for the sake of advancing in spiritual life. Completely controls his senses and engages in Devotional Service. Topmost position in renounced life.
- Must be situated in fearlessness, purity and knowledge.
- First qualification is fearlessness
- Has to be alone without any guarantee of support
- Has simply to depend on the mercy of the Lord
- Must be fully convinced that: "I shall never be alone. Even in the darkest regions of a forest, I shall be accompanied by Krishna, and He will give me all protection."
- To purify his existence (especially in relation to women) (Bhagavad-gita 16.1–3 purport)
- Strictly forbidden to have any intimate relationship with a woman
- Forbidden to talk with a woman in a secluded place.
- Lord Caitanya: female devotees had to offer their respects to him at a distance and wouldn't even look at a wooden doll of a woman
- Example of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati: He would never talk with a female alone. Once a young married woman insisted on speaking with him in private, but he absolutely refused.
- Possession of wealth for sense gratification is strictly forbidden.
- Story of Chota Haridasa (See Sri Caitanya Caritamrta)
- Knowledgeable
- Begs from door to door to awaken the householders to Krishna consciousness.
- Should preach Krishna consciousness with logic and deep understanding.