The Four Stages of Life
Hinduism recognizes four main
stages of life which are called Ashramas. Each stage
has a Dharma, a set of rules or expectations that you should live by when you
are in that stage. The first three basically believe that ‘life is good’ and
that it should be lived and enjoyed well by following a series of rules. The
fourth and final stage believes that ‘life is bad’ and that a good Hindu should
end their life by trying to distance themselves from the temptations of the
world. Hindus are helped to move on from one stage to another by a ritual
called a Samskara. The four stages are:
Brahmachari Ashrama: the Student
In this stage a boy is
traditionally expected to live and study with a teacher for several years. A
boy enters into student-hood at adolescence (ages 8-12), and spends most of the
years from twelve to twenty-four studying. Different castes would study
subjects appropriate to their caste level but everyone learns how to maintain
their own household and worship.
Grihasta Ashrama :
the Householder
After student-hood, the next stage
of life is that of householder, usually entered into through an elaborate,
many-day marriage ceremony. It is during this stage that a man has children
(with his wife), forms a family, establishes himself in a career or job, and
strives to be an active member of his community. He will establish his own
household, with its own worship. Indeed, with his
wife, the householder is now responsible for ensuring that the rituals of
domestic life are carried out at their proper times and in the proper manner.
This stage is important because it carries the responsibilities of looking
after and supporting people at all other stages, both
male and female.
Vanaprasta Ashrama: Retirement
The third stage of life is that of
retirement. When a man reaches old age and his son has a family and is ready to
take over the leadership of the household, he and his wife will retire. Because
their household duties have been taken over by other people, they become free
to contemplate the things they have done in their life and the meaning of their
coming death and rebirth. They may choose to worship more frequently or withdraw
from society and become a hermit. In a way this is another stage of education,
only now the Hindu at this stage is not learning how to maintain a household but
to go on to the next stage of his development.
Sannyasi Ashrama: Rejecting Life
The fourth stage of life involves
a sharp break from the other three. In this stage the Hindu is expected to
reject life and all that it means in exchange for a search to attain a release
from the cycle of reincarnation and become at one with God and the Universe. A
person may enter into this stage of life at any time. The sannyasins
become wandering hermits, living life without any shelter or possessions. They
eat when they can acquire food, but never enter into any work to acquire it; it
must be given or found. They become holy men, seeking spiritual enlightenment
and power, striving to achieve the true wisdom of the cosmos. This time,
instead of preparing for life as they do in the first stage, Hindus are now
preparing for death.