Mahatma Gandhi And Sannyasa

[suchandra]

"But this culture is lost. Now unless one is shot dead, he would not leave family life. Even Mahatma Gandhi, he got independence and everything; still he would not leave. So he was shot dead. This is our position. All politicians, all big big men, they are not going to retire, stuck up. This is not civilization. When one is young, he can remain with family, wife, children, twenty-five to fifty years. That’s all. No more. Give up. Then take vanaprastha. Train up yourself for becoming sannyasi. Then take sannyasa simply for understanding God. That is sannyasa. You can take sannyasa from the very beginning, but if it is not possible, at least at the fag end of your life everyone should take sannyasa and completely devote in understanding the science of God. That is called sannyasa.

 

This is Vedic system, varnasrama-dharma. Now it is foolishly going as Hindu dharma. What is the Hindu dharma? Hindu is not found even in the scriptures. This is a name given by the Mohammedans. Sindu. There is a river, Sindu. From Sindu it has come, “Hindu.”

Actually the Vedic culture is varnasrama-dharma, four varnas and four asramas. That is real Vedic culture, how to create brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra, brahmacari, grhastha, vanaprastha, sannyasa—eight. This is called varnasrama-dharma.

 

varnasramacaravata

purusena parah puman

visnur aradhyate pantha

nanyat tat-tosa-karanam

 

Actually human civilization begins when this institution of varnasrama is accepted. Otherwise it is animal civilization—eating, sleeping, mating, and dancing, that’s all. All right. Thank you very much." (end)

 

ACBSP - Melbourne, April 23, 1976

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Such important items like proper timing when to retire family live and what turns a materialistic society from animal level to human platform - are somehow still unknown in modern people's mind. Rather it is expected by the establishment that qualified varnaprasthas are instead starting to watch out for expensive medical treatment to compensate the fear of death till Yamaraja knocks at the door:

 

 

 

The medicalisation of old age

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2459/is_n4_v27/ai_21102352

 

Bureau of Vital Statistic

http://www.rootsweb.com/~txfalls/picDeathCert_GOOD_JeffersonDavis_07281936_05132005.jpg

 

 

[Murali_Mohan_das]

What a great quote.

 

There was an article this week on older people still having sex. There was a picture of two very wrinkled people embracing (were they almost naked?), which was a little unsettling to see.

 

I didn't read the article, but somebody told me they mention Viagra--big surprise!!

 

Talk about chewing the chewed!!

[theist]

It's natural to want to be forever young, Such is the nature of our true selves. But superimposing that desire onto the physical body that is doomed to grow old and die is truly foolish.

 

I was sitting at the local Whole Foods market a couple weeks ago reading a book about the different phases of karma and eating dates when an older(than me even) man with long stylized gray hair( Think Phil Specter) walked up to me and abruptly asked me if I thought he should get married and have a child. Total stranger out of the blue. I told him ,"no, at your age you should be getting ready to die.":deal: Really blew his mind. Turns out he was 65. I quickly told him I was at the age when that had to be the one serious consideration for myself also. I asked him to sit down and we talked a bit about the soul leaving the body and the continuity of life and the utter hopelessness of trying to hang to a youth that had been snatched from us already.

 

He insisted he was still capable of having a child and I asked him if he could reasonably assure that child that he would still be here to raise him in ten more years. He could not answer.

 

I don't know what made him think that I was the one to stroke his ego and confirm his delusion. But his is the dominant way of looking at things in this society of near total spiritual ignorance.