Page 71 - Hinduism
P. 71

Pañca-yajñas are thus based on the idea of life as an opportunity for service and self-sacrifice and not for sense-enjoyment. It is giving back to the universe what a man has taken from it for self- maintenance.
The next is the vānaprasthāśrama. When a man reaches old age and is subject to dotage and is blessed with a grandson, he should leave the gṛhasthāśrama and retire to the forest either with or without his wife, after transferring the management of the family to his son and spend his life in contemplation. Retirement to the forest is only for inner spiritual quiet. His food consists of roots, fruits and similar forest products. He practises ascetic self-control by fasts and enduring sufferings. He should also perform the five mahāyajñas. This āśrama is only a training period for the next or sannyāsāśrama or the life of renunciation and contemplation.
The Sannyāsin gives up all sense attractions and attachments and even the celestial pleasures of Svarga. Though he lives in solitude he may enter the city and seek alms for the sustenance of his body. He has no attachments or aversions.
He returns love for hatred and lives for others. He is one with God and sees all things in God and God in all things. He is a veritable God on earth. This āśrama is the fruition of the other āśrama and the
71






























































































   69   70   71   72   73