VANAPRASTHA DHRISHTI (DIMENSION)

In the Vedic Ashram System (Stages of Life) of our age old Dharma
as has been defined very clearly as: Brahmacharya, Grhastha,
Vanaprastha and Sanyas, VANAPRASTHA Ashram, too just like
the other three stages had a unique place. Spiritually this stage is also
a path leading to Moksha. Elders used to dedicate themselves in Karma
Yoga - selfless social work, after handing over all family responsibilities
to the new generation. In the last stage of life, what could be a better
way to exemplify oneself?
The Vanaprasthi – the person; had peace of mind and sense of content
that his duty towards his family being accomplished, his responsibility
of social obligation, through social work, is also thus fulfilled.
The revival of this Vanaprastha spirit, the dire need of the hour, could
be the greatest and most sacred contribution to society, awakening
social conscience which will bring to reality the dreams of the yester
years.
Though some elderly people are already active in this direction
through their own initiative and self inspiration, but too many of our
elders are suffering of the feeling as “We are a spent force, what can
we do?” Such an attitude towards life ends life itself on an empty note.
They are not only being a burden to themselves but also to their family
and society itself.
If only senior citizens can free themselves from the family
responsibilities and the shell of this negative assumptious life, with a
revitalised feeling as “I am retired but not tired”, they will find that
they can do a lot for the society and make their life, even in its third,
penultimate stage, more meaningful and worthy. However poor or
illiterate one could have been, but we must recognise that he had the
ability and capability to manage his family, which itself is an institution
by itself. What more testimonials we need? If only they can be
motivated to come out of this routine life and guided to restructure
their living system and if this mindset can be nurtured with the holistic
approach, they will realise that a whole world of social work awaits
them. The feeling of life being a vacuum can be filled with divinity and
serenity.
Ours is an age old ancient civilisation. We have a great store of abiding
values of ethical life. These have to be passed on to the next
generation in particular and the nation and world at large. With the
passage of time, many external malpractices, especially western non
value based culture, has lingered with us and ruined our customs and
traditions and thereby weakened our family value systems, which has
in turn paved way for loss in our social conscience. Thus society is at
the losing end. Imbibing of our Dharmic values into each individual is
the needed therapy to curb all this turmoil.

Man, a social being, takes birth in a family, grows with society and
becomes part of the bigger unit of the Family of Man. This is where
these life system of Ashram or social groupings as spelt out in our
Dharma, the vital supplement, have to sustain, coexist and supplement
one another. The smaller unit has to sub serve the needs of the larger
unit and vice versa.
The current prevailing situation of the society is in thirst for the
services of the Vanaprasthi. Such people could play a vital role in social
rebuilding. Their life long experience, expertise and talent can be
channelled into use for the social change. Such well organised efforts
on an extensive scale are badly needed today and such a movement
will inspire hope and confidence in the people in general and in the
youth in particular, and help in elevating the society from the
downtrodden unhealthy atmosphere.
The tragic state of today is that man in his selfishness, neglects his
higher responsibilities, which has become the root cause of the social
malady. Sage Thiruvalluvar in his Thirukural has stated; Kural 948:
“Solve a problem, by diagonising its root and ensure
everlasting cure”, we have to now dig into the root of all problems
and find appropriate remedies and apply the same.

Appeal to Senior Citizens.

Swami Vivekananda proclaims that; only with the great
sacrifices of innumerable great Seers, Sages, Saints and
devout Hindus, our Dharma had retained its originality of
universalism. These sacred Seers had nurtured our Dharma with their
penance and faith, and they had selflessly lived and perished for that
cause. The self sacrificing Seers envisioned a society of Dharmic living,
blended with Culture, Tradition and Character.
Current situation envisages the prevalence of the antithesis of our
great Seers. Social values are losing its grounds and slowly eroding
and the society is deteriorating from the mainstream. The masses are
steeped more in superstition and ignorance. Western commercialism,
cynicism and consumerism have invaded all aspects of life, where
values have lost their identity.
Hindus have a glorious heritage of thousands of years which they must
cherish and preserve. History has witnessed that Hindus have fought
repeated onslaughts, and preserved Hinduism over the centuries
whereas all other native religions and civilisations of Greece, Rome,
Egypt, America, Europe and Australia, have been wiped off from the
earth by expansionist religions. Some of theses civilisations are only to
be seen in museums and only to be read in history books.
Though Arnold Toynbee’s version is that; “Civilisations die from
suicide, not murder”, George Orwell (1903-1950) says, “The
most effective way to destroy a class of people is to deny and
obliterate their own understanding of their history.” Likewise in
the world scenario, we can see a unilateral oppression being waged by
anti-Hindu forces against Hindu Dharma to wipe out Hindu Dharma
from earth, the way other native cultures and religions have been
destroyed from the world.
Now the question is “WHO is to light the lamp of hope in this ‘darkness
visible’ “? Who else but ourselves will answer this moot question?
Otherwise the future generation would never forgive us.
The youth of the society can certainly play a vital role in the present
situation, but the youth has not been given the necessary direction.
Tall talks and long speeches alone will not do any good to nurture the
youth. What we need is example not precept.

As portrayed in the Mahabharata; “Dharmo Rakshathi

Rakshathaha” - Dharma protects those who protect Dharma, it’s
high time that every Hindu devote time and pool up all resources to
protect our Dharma. For this noble task of regeneration and
revitalisation, we need the services of many a person of all walks of
life. This is where the Vanaprasthi, with all his experience will find it an
opportunity to plunge into action to play his role. Thus he can
surrender and take up the noble task of service to society, which is
actually Divine Work itself as the following statement: “Service to
Mankind is Service to God”. As such he should pursue his social
obligation, with the zeal of confidence of The Divinity’s presence,
guiding and also fostering him as, pronounced by Sage
Thirunavukarasu; “His duty is to Cherish me, mine is only to
Surrender and Serve”

Some suggested Projects.

1) Organise talks in small groups of men and women to foster
the need for a healthy, happy family and strengthen the
institution family as a basic unit of society.
2) Establish Family Consultancy Centres for all round
development of Happy Motherhood, Healthy Childhood and
Responsible Parenthood (where parents should be inspired to
spend enough qualitative time in happy informality with their
children).
3) The new generation is the Hope of the Future. Therefore,
intensive efforts have to be made to instil in the new born a
strong social feeling.
4) Establish and run model Care Centres for the children of
modern working women. These centres would also be the
centres of training to the new mothers in child development
and Hindu parenting techniques.
5) Simplicity, cleanliness, orderly living, civic conscience and
sense of belonging should not be the monopoly of only some
individuals or families alone, but should become the common
heritage of mankind at large.
6) Organise programmes where individuals and families from
different strata of society come together and spend a couple
of hours to foster the feeling of oneness and complementary
towards each other by inculcating the following concepts :
- source of humanity, morality and spirituality lies in the
God given feeling of compassion, therefore special
efforts will be made to foster this milk of human
kindness.
- sense of duty in all and convince that individual rights
will be preserved if everybody does his / her duty.
- all differences and disputes within the family or society,
should be settled amicably by mutual understanding
rather than through the legal process.
- personality cult and individual heroism with everyone
promoting himself and attacking all others, will only
further divide the people in particular and society at
large and rather men of ability and integrity in whom all
people can repose trust and confidence is needed.
7) Educate the masses to come out of superstitious living,
remove outdated customs and unhealthy practices, all going
on the name of religion.
8) Carry out campaigns to keep all places of worship, neat,
clean, healthy, happy and beautiful and convert them to be
active centres of religious harmony, goodwill, social welfare,
promoting academics and matrimonial guidance for people of
all walks of life immaterial of class and creed.
9) Take up the mission that no one should remain poor and
neglected in any part of the nation, whether it is the rural,
 urban, suburban, town or cities and ensure that all people
should come together and see that nobody is deprived of food
( Poet Bharathiyar has sung “ If at all, any one individual does
not get food, let’s destroy the whole universe”), clothing,
education and health care.
10) Propagate that in order to secure the active and sustained
participation of the younger generation in all these social
building activities, we ourselves will have to set an example in
model social service.
By: Ramaji,hss,sea.