The 4 Ashramas (stages) of Vedic Indian Life

The four Ashramas of Vedic Indian Life

The life span in vedic India was divided in 4 parts, each of 25 years. These were called Ashrams.

For Hindus the whole life is a Yagya(penance) and that is what this denotes.

These ashrams were named following:

Brahmcharya Ashram - Celibacy, Education

Grihasth Ashram - Matrimony

Vanprastha Ashrama - Social

Sanyas Ashrama - Meditation

1)Brahmcharya Ashram (Upnanyan Sanskaar-25 years)

After Upnayan Sanskar (Thread Ceremony) the person will go to Gurukul(School).
Under the guidance of revered guru (Teacher), he or she will study Vedas. The vedas have different parts or Angas. Vedas have knowlege of Adhyatm (Brahm), material and life...They will study and practise those till the age of 25. During this time they will live away from parents. During this they could not marry they had to maintain celibacy. The name Brahmcharya means the practice(of Yoga) on Brahm or actions carrying towards Brahm. Since in this Ashram celibacy was required so Brahmcharya also refers to celibacy. Not only Brahm Gyan was the focus, pupils also learnt various skills (Aayurveda, Shastra Vidya..) during this period.

read more on the importance of Celibacy at - http://www.yoga-age.com/modern/brahma.html

2)Grihastha Ashram (25 years - 50 Years)

After the age of 25 years people will get married and do work according to their skill set. They will have children and they will make sure that their children get Vidya (education). There is a shloka which means "that mother is an enemy and the father is an ill-wisher who do not send their child for education".

3)Vaanprastha Ashram (50 years - 75 Years)

In this Ashram people will still live in society and with family (spouse and children and grandchildren) but they will maintain celebacy and live with Niyama.

4)Sanyaas Ashram (75 years - 100 Years)

At this age person will leave general society and live with Rishis(Hermits) in some forests and fully meditate upon Brahm(GOD).

The beauty of this kind of division of the human life according to the Vedas was in its simplicity.

these stages or Ashrama's were also meant for all castes (denominations) in Hinduism

Now I need to gear up to write more on the denominations in ancient Vedic Hindu culture. keep watching this blog.

With due acknowledgements to Sarvesh Dipal - http://www.geocities.com/dipalsarvesh/

One more lovely post worth reading is available at - http://mysticsaint.blogspot.com/2006/03/hinduism-in-holy-nutshell.html


regards,
Ganesh

Faith

Dharma or Religion is to me a very personal & sacred feeling.
I have seen people of two kinds around me so far, majority being the Being born in a religion and the later minority being the converted.

Conversion is a big issue....a political winning horse for most Indian socio-economic policies and ruling politics.

I wish i can abstain from speaking about it but it would be acting blindfold to things which i can see.
I think the rise of Indian politics will need a seperate thread altogether. so let me continue with my thoughts about Faith.

Faith has different meanings in different religions.

absolute submission to religious beliefs
deliverance or salvation from mortal sins
expectation of the goodness of eden

each religion ultimately preaches the beautiful & noble thought of being dissolved into the supreme power

Sanatam dharma...thats what Hinduism was called earlier..preaches moksha.

Moksha is deliverance or salvation.

The Sacred Bhagwad Geeta is infact a tutorial on the evolution of all living beings ultimately ending in salvation.

No Being honest I have not read the Geeta till now. but i have tried to understand and summarise from various citations & excerpts.

Lord Krsna conveys this message to the bewildered warrior prince Arjuna.

The situation of Arjuna being in a dilema when he confronts his own brethren in a battlefield makes him feel guilty of fighting them.

But Krsna through Geetopdesh summarises to Arjuna that He should do his Karma* (duty)
and his karma at that moment was to win back his country from the illegal occupants - the Kauravas. The Kauravas being his brethren was secondary to his duty.

Coming back to what is the interesting part is the karma factor.
Doing one's duty and not expecting the returns, sounds un digestable in todays world right. well thats what Hindusim preaches. there are many devot hindus much more deeper into knowing the meaning of the Geeta and the various religious rites and their significance who, unfortunately miss this gist.

But thats all fair and Hinduism doesnt object.

Krsna also explained the cycle of birth-death-reincarnation and the ultimate exit of the soul aka moksha.

Various Hindu devots and gurus have interpreted this cycle and have put in their own checks and inferences.

if you do not pray to the God
if you do not practise charity to the preists
if you do not respect your elders
and a lot of other factors...your next birth is that of an animal where you might be either expected to do laborious tasks or be slaughtered for food or even be despied for what you are.

Well, this is in hinduism as preached to me by my peers. maybe i am wrong.

I find similar parlance in other religions which have given to vocabulary like - taboo, sacrilige, etc.

confess your sins & God will forgive you
fear God and ask him for atonement

all sounds similar.

In 1990's when the Ayodhya fever had gripped the Indian sub-continet, some fiery forms of Lord Rama came into being. One of the most famous being Lord Rama crossing the river saryu with his weapons ready for war. people began to associate this image of Rama and the promised mandir (temple) to be the symbols of the Ayodhya cause.

What was interesting was that the painter had add a label(in hindi) to this painting - Bhai Binu Hovey na preet.

which translates to - There is no love without fear.

strange fact but i drew a parallel to what it means to all the promises of religion mean to the rest of the world. which translated by means - You will get God's grace if you fear(respect & have faith in) him.

This is what faith means to me whichever religion it might be, whichever way it preaches its followers to practise it.

If you have faith in your God, then you will love the variety he has created around you and in the end love the man besides you.

May God be with you all the way to your journey towards moksha

Dharma* - Sanskrit defintion for Dharma is contextual and has more than a dozen meanings to it, most commonly referred meaning is Duty.

He who has faith has everything,
and he who lacks it lacks everything.
It is faith in the name of the Lord
that works wonders; faith is life
and doubt is death."

- Sri Ramakrishna

Ps- In my next few post i will try to post some facts on Hinduism, some very interesting links dedicated to Sanatan Dharama.

Keep reading and enjoy.