The Vanaprastha Ashram - What Is It All About?
Madhusudan Hari Das: During the last days of Kartik we had the opportunity to welcome HG Devaki Mataji at the Jagannath Temple in Sesadripuram/Bangalore to launch the course entitled “The Vanaprastha Ashram”. It was well attended by around seventy devotees, who participated over several days in the 15-hour course. Each participant received well composed course materials with powerful quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s purports to selected verses of the Srimad Bhagavatam. Devaki Mataji very skillfully extracted the universal principles of the Vanaprastha Ashram and presented them with realization and conviction, clearly illustrating how we can apply these principles in our modern days. Her presentations were to the point and thought provoking, shaking us up to the facts of reality that this last phase of life is not meant to be lived in comfort, leisure and opulence, surrounded by sweet grand-children charming our hearts with broken language. Rather are we meant to increase austerities, and by simplifying our surroundings, our eating and our externals we can gradually give up more and more the bodily concept of life and deepen our focus on sravanam kirtanam to ultimately prepare for death - our final challenge. In SB 1.15.44. Prabhupada declares that no respectable gentleman would remain in family life until death, because that was considered suicidal and against the interest of the perfection of human life. Such quotes shook up the audience – it was indeed a wake-up call for many of us. It reset the trajectory of life to the most important goal of remembering Krishna at the time of death and going back to Godhead. Our entire lifestyle should be molded around chanting Hare Krishna – something we easily tend to forget when having been lulled into a sense of complacency, with life’s priorities revolving around wife and kids, and earning one’s livelihood. Then Krishna easily moves into the background rather than being in the very center of our lives. Krishna and Srila Prabhupada’s mission are pushed to the back burner while more ‘urgent’ business grabs our mind’s attention. This course urged us to introspect and re-set our priorities with a never experienced intensity. It is a “must” for all age groups - it could just make the difference between making it back to Goloka Vrindavan or having to do another round in this material world. For recordings please see www.therootsofspiritualculture.net