Āśrama Dharma

Āśrama Dharma, “the dharma of the stages of life”

Daṇḍa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Daṇḍa.

The āśramas are the four stages of life in the Vedic tradition, through which a life in Sanātana Dharma is lived: brahmacarya (the student’s life), gṛhastha (the householder’s life), vānaprastha (the life of the forest-dweller, who retires to the forest) and sannyāsa (the life of the renunciant).

Āśrama dharma is the right way of living in each stage.

In the Agni Purāṇa, Pushkara teaches Paraśurāma that the dharmas of the āśramas give both bhukti (enjoyment in the world) and mukti (moksha), and defines āśrama-dharma as the dharma laid down for a man according to whether he is a brahmacārī, a gṛhastha, a vānaprastha or a sannyāsin.

In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa the four āśramas came forth with the Vedas from the faces of Brahmā at creation, each with its own vṛttis (ways of life), and in the Virāṭ form of Śrī Kṛshṇa brahmacarya comes from his heart, the householder’s life from his waist, vānaprastha from his chest and sannyāsa from his head. Śrī Kṛshṇa gives Uddhava the full dharma of each āśrama: the brahmacārī’s service of his ācārya, the gṛhastha’s five daily yajñas and his life in the house like a guest, the vānaprastha’s tapas through the seasons, and the sannyāsī’s wandering, begging and steadiness in the ātmā; and he names the dharma of every āśrama: purity, japa, seeing him in all beings, and upāsana of him. Nārada tells Yudhishṭhira that the āśrama-dharma laid down by a man’s own nature gives peace to all.

Per Mahābhārata

The Mokshadharma Parva of the Mahābhārata‘s Śānti Parva explains the four āśramas several times. It always looks at the inner life of each stage, rather than its duties to society and its rituals, as a path to moksha (liberation). The main teachings come from the Śukānupraśna (Chapters 243–245), the Hārīta Gītā (Chapter 278) and the Gokapilīya (Chapters 268–270). Each of them holds that all four āśramas can reach brahma-prāpti (the attainment of Brahman) through the inner yoga suited to each one.

The Four Āśramas as Four Divine Paths

In the Gokapilīya, Kapila Maharshi teaches that the four āśramas are four deva-yānas, four divine paths. All lead to the same paramapada (highest state), though each has its own fruit along the way:

• Sannyāsa leads to moksha (direct liberation)
• Vānaprastha leads to Brahmaloka
• Brahmacarya leads to the world of the ṛshis
• Gṛhastha leads to svarga

The deeper point is that each āśrama, when its inner yoga is fully grown, can reach the paramapada itself. The different fruits along the way apply to those who follow only the outer forms of an āśrama without the inner realisation that should go with them.

Brahmacarya: The Student

In the Mokshadharma Parva, the brahmacarya āśrama centres on svādhyāya, the study of the Vedas, as its main discipline. The student’s tapas (discipline) is the control of the senses, the steady keeping of the brahmacarya vow, and the complete giving of oneself to the guru and to knowledge. The Śukānupraśna describes brahmacarya as the time when one gains both Vedic knowledge and the basic character (brahmacarya, satya or truthfulness, and ahiṃsā or non-harm) that will support the whole of one’s later spiritual life.

Gṛhastha: The Householder

The Mokshadharma Parva stresses that moksha can be reached from within the householder’s life when the inner conditions are met. Kapila Maharshi names these conditions:

• Living on nyāya-āgata-dhana, wealth earned honestly
• Devotion to tattvajñāna, knowledge of the truth
• Honouring atithis (guests) and performing śrāddha (rites for the ancestors)
• Speaking only the truth
• Using wealth only for dharma, not for piling it up

The Hārīta Gītā and the dialogue of Medhāvī and his father both support this. Even within the householder’s life, the inner yoga of prāṇāyāma (breath control), dhāraṇā (concentration), pratyāhāra (drawing in the senses) and dhyāna (meditation) is open to all. The householder who keeps ahiṃsā, samatā (evenness of mind) and satya in body, speech and mind has performed the essential yajña, whether or not the outer yajñas with animal offerings are done.

Vānaprastha: Retiring to the Forest

The vānaprastha āśrama is the step back from the household fires into life in the forest. In the Śukānupraśna, Vyāsa describes its discipline: eating only roots and fruits, wearing clothes of bark and deer-skin, sleeping on the ground, bearing heat and cold as tapas, and keeping the sacred fires with offerings from the forest. The inner discipline is vairāgya (detachment), the slow letting go of the householder’s attachments, together with continued meditation and svādhyāya.

Sannyāsa: Renunciation

The Hārīta Gītā (Chapter 278) gives the Mokshadharma Parva’s fullest account of the dharma of sannyāsa. Its main points are:

Leaving home: The sannyāsī should leave only after giving abhaya (freedom from fear) to all beings. He goes out from a place of completeness, not of despair.

The six urges (vegas): The wandering renunciate (parivrājaka) must withstand six urges: of speech (vāk), of the mind (manas), of anger (krodha), of violence (hiṃsā), of the belly (udara) and of sex (upastha). These six are the main obstacles to the renunciate’s inner steadiness.

The discipline of alms (bhikshā): He should ask for food only after the household has fully settled: the cooking fires put out, the pestles put away and everyone fed. He takes only what keeps him alive (prāṇa-yātrika-mātra) and meets too little and plenty with the same calm.

Staying unknown: The parivrājaka sleeps in a different place each night so that he stays unknown. He remains calm before praise and blame.

The inner heart: True sannyāsa is made of praṇava-japa (repeating Oṃ), mauna (silence) and vairāgya, not the outer forms of renunciation.

The Teaching of Medhāvī and His Father

The dialogue of Medhāvī and his father (Chapter 277) adds an important point. For those whose lives are short, or whose situation does not allow them to pass through the āśramas one by one, the urgency of moksha comes before the rule of going through the stages in order. As the text says:

“Śvaḥkāryam adya kurvīta”: what is to be done tomorrow, do today.

The tradition’s system of āśramas is a framework, not a strict condition. What is truly needed is inner realisation, and this can be sought from any āśrama.

Per Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa

Chapters 130 and 131 of the second part (Dvitīya Khaṇḍa) of the Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa give the full rules for the third and fourth stages, vānaprastha and sannyāsa.

Chapter 130, the Vānaprasthāśrama Kathana, describes the life of the forest-dweller: when to begin it, the rules of diet, the duties of the sacred fire, the growing practice of tapas (spiritual discipline), and the promise of Brahmaloka (the world of Brahmā) for one who completes it. Chapter 131, the Caturthāśrama or Sannyāsa Varṇana, teaches the rules of complete renunciation: passing through the four āśramas in order, paying off the three debts, the tenfold dharma of the sannyāsī, and the brahmasthāna (the state of Brahman) as the final goal.

Vānaprasthāśrama (Chapter 130)

When to Go to the Forest

A gṛhastha who has done his household duties and mastered his senses, who sees grey hair on his head and wrinkles on his body, and who sees the children of his children, knows that it is time to enter vānaprastha. He should give up the pleasures of varied food, and leave behind his bed, his vessels and all household things. He hands his wife over to the care of their sons, or takes her with him if she chooses. He carries his gṛhyāgni (the sacred household fire) with him and leaves the village.

Diet

The forest-dweller lives on what the forest gives: roots, tubers, fruits, leaves and grain that falls by itself. He cooks only with fire from his sacred fire (agni-pakva), or eats fruits that have ripened naturally (kāla-pakva). He may use his teeth alone as his mortar (dantolūkhalika, grinding with the teeth). He eats only once a day (by night or by day), or once in every fourth meal-time (caturtha-kālikam), or once in every eighth (ashṭama-kālikam). Through the bright and dark fortnights of the moon he follows the timetable of the cāndrāyaṇa vrata (a vow in which food is increased and reduced with the moon).

He avoids wine, meat, honey, sexual activity by choice, and food grown by the plough (grāma food, food of the village). Also forbidden are food thrown away by others, food from trees near where people live, and gifts he did not ask for. He uses whatever is naturally available: akupeṭa food, gathered by himself and washed at once. He may store a month’s supply or six months’ supply, depending on his strength and stage.

Dress and Appearance

He wears worn cloth (paṭa garments), animal hide, or nāra cloth (made of bark or reed fibre). He lets his hair, beard, moustache and nails grow without cutting them. He bathes three times a day: morning, midday and evening.

Sacred Duties

The vānaprastha keeps up the pañca-mahāyajñas (the five great daily offerings: deva-yajña, ṛshi-yajña, brahma-yajña, pitṛ-yajña and manushya-yajña), using materials gathered in the forest. He does the vaitānika homa (fire offering linked with the yajña) every day. He offers bali (food offerings to beings) with whatever is at hand. He welcomes tapasvīs and wanderers and gives them tubers and fruits.

He also takes on hardships through the seasons:

• Nidāgha (summer): pañcāgni tapas, sitting in the middle of five fires
• Varshā (the rainy season): staying out in the rain
• Hemanta (winter): wearing wet clothes all the time

This steady increase of tapas is a deliberate śarīra-śoshaṇa, a “drying up” of the body’s attachment to comfort.

Higher Stages

At some point the vānaprastha may take all his sacred fires within himself. From an āhitāgni (one who keeps the sacred fires) he becomes an anagni or anāhitāgni (one without outer fires), carrying the fire, as it were, in the āhavana (the place of offering) within himself. He may keep complete silence (mauna), live under a tree and practise yoga. He reads the many Upanishads on brahma-vidyā (knowledge of Brahman). He is served by learned brāhmaṇas and gṛhasthas and serves them in turn.

The highest vānaprastha faces the north-east (īśānya) and lets the body waste away, living on air and breath alone (vāyu-bhakshaṇa), with the one aim of reaching Brahmaloka. For one who has rightly done all this, the Purāṇa promises that he gives up the body together with all fear and reaches Brahmaloka.

Sannyāsāśrama (Chapter 131)

The Order of the Stages

The proper order is brahmacarya, then gṛhastha, then vānaprastha, then sannyāsa. Each stage should be completed in its own time, which is about one quarter of the āyuḥ (life span). The move from vānaprastha to sannyāsa comes when a person has grown weary of doing all the yajñas, balis and bhikshā (alms), the whole life of ritual, and wishes to turn wholly toward moksha (liberation).

The Three Debts

Before taking sannyāsa, three ṛṇas (debts) must be paid:

1. Deva-ṛṇa (the debt to the devas): paid through yajña and pūjā
2. Pitṛ-ṛṇa (the debt to the ancestors): paid by having children and performing śrāddha (rites for the ancestors)
3. Ṛshi-ṛṇa (the debt to the ṛshis): paid through proper study of the Vedas

One who seeks moksha without first paying these three debts will fall (skhalita). A person who has not studied the Vedas, has not had children and has not performed yajñas, but still desires moksha, will surely fall downward. This rule applies to everyone.

The Rite of Sannyāsa

The sannyāsī gives up all his belongings. He sets aside the sacred thread (yajñopavīta) and all outer signs of an āśrama, and takes up the ekadaṇḍa or tridaṇḍa (a single staff or a triple staff). He becomes an anāgārika, one with no fixed home. He does not light a fire. He receives bhikshā from tāpasa brāhmaṇas (brāhmaṇas devoted to tapas) or from a devout gṛhastha family, no more than eight mouthfuls.

He is maunavat, as if silent even when he speaks, saying only what is true. He is ekamūrti, always the same, making no difference between rich and poor. He shelters under trees. He lives without any sense of “mine”, wholly free from owning anything.

The Tenfold Dharma of the Sannyāsī

1. Titikshā: endurance
2. Kshamā: patience
3. Ahiṃsā: not harming any being
4. Śauca: purity, inner and outer
5. Brahmacarya: complete celibacy
6. Praśānti: a calm, even mind
7. Dayā: compassion
8. Ārjava: straightforwardness
9. Ṛtam: truth in action
10. Satya: truth in speech

The Brahmasthāna

The final home of the sannyāsī is the brahmasthāna, the state of Brahman. He practises the yoga of yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi. The text calls it the yoga of nine stages, and it is described in the yamamārga chapter as the prāṇavṛtti of eight limbs. The sannyāsī who has practised well and reaches the brahmasthāna is not born again.

The Purāṇa puts it this way. Just as the vānaprastha reaches Brahmaloka through drying up the body by tapas, so the sannyāsī reaches moksha by wholly dissolving the ahaṃkāra (ego) in brahmavidyā. The two paths complete each other: vānaprastha burns the body; sannyāsa burns the ego.

Per Agni Purāṇa

In the Agni Purāṇa, Agni Deva tells Vasishṭha Maharshi how Pushkara taught Paraśurāma the dharmas by which Manu and the others gained bhukti and mukti. Pushkara first gives the dharmas common to all varṇas and all āśramas, which give delight to Vāsudeva and the others: ahiṃsā, satya, compassion for all beings, a mind disposed to help others, going to tīrthas, dāna, brahmacarya, freedom from envy, honouring the devatās and brāhmaṇas, service of the guru, hearing all the dharmas, honouring the pitṛs, loyalty to the king, learning only with the help of the best śāstras, freedom from cruelty, kshamā (forbearance) and faith in the Veda and the higher world (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 151).

Then he turns to the āśramas themselves: “Now I shall tell the dharmas of those who belong to the āśramas. This gives bhukti and mukti.” He begins with the brahmacarya āśrama (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 153).

In his account of the śrauta and smārta dharmas, Pushkara names the kinds of dharma. Varṇa-dharma is taught on the ground of the varṇa alone, as the upanayana is necessary for the three upper varṇas. Āśrama-dharma is laid down according to the āśrama, as the rule of “bhinna-piṇḍa” and the like. Dharma laid down on the ground of both is called naimittika (occasioned), as the rule of prāyaścitta. The dharma laid down for a man according to whether he is a brahmacārī, a gṛhastha, a vānaprastha or a sannyāsin is āśrama-dharma (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 166).

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa

How the āśramas came forth

Maitreya tells Vidura that when Brahmā, the Creator, was thinking how to create the worlds, well ordered as before, the four Vedas came forth from his four faces, and with them the karmas of the four ṛtvijas, the yajñas, the four upavedas, the science of conduct, the four pādas (feet) of dharma, and the four āśramas, brahmacarya, gārhasthya, vānaprastha and sannyāsa, with their dharmas. In the same order of his faces Brahmā created dharma with its four pādas, vidyā, dāna, tapas and satya, and the āśramas with their vṛttis, their ways of life:

Long after, Uddhava asked Śrī Kṛshṇa for the dharma that he had once taught Brahmā in his Haṃsa form, a dharma that had almost vanished from the world of men. Śrī Kṛshṇa, pleased, taught him the eternal dharmas for the good of all, as Śuka tells Parīkshit. In the Kṛta Yuga at the beginning of the kalpa, he said, there was one varṇa, called Haṃsa, and people were fulfilled from birth, so the yuga is called Kṛta. From the mouth, arms, thighs and feet of the Virāṭ Purusha came the brāhmaṇas, kshatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras; and from his heart came brahmacarya, from his waist gārhasthya, from his chest vānaprastha and from his head sannyāsa. The natures of the men of each varṇa and āśrama matched the place from which it was born.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 12; Skandha 11, Chapter 17

The brahmacārī

Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches that the brahmacārī should not clean his teeth or wash his clothes for adornment, and his seat should not be red. While bathing, eating, doing homa, doing japa and voiding he keeps silence. He does not cut his nails or hair. Brahmacarya is a vrata: he never knowingly lets his seed fall, and if it falls he bathes, does prāṇāyāma and does japa of the Gāyatrī. He serves the ācārya as one lower: when the ācārya walks he walks behind, not far off; when the ācārya lies down he lies down not far off; when the ācārya sits or stands, he stands near with joined hands. Holding the vow of unbroken brahmacarya and giving up enjoyments, he lives in the gurukula with this conduct until his learning is complete. One who is not a gṛhastha, the brahmacārī, the vānaprastha and the sannyāsī, should not look at young women, touch them or talk idly with them.

Brahmacarya is also one of the five yamas (restraints), with ahiṃsā, satya, asteya and aparigraha, which the Bhāgavata names again and again: Kapila teaches them to his mother Devahūti, Sanatkumāra to King Pṛthu, and Śrī Kṛshṇa to Uddhava, who is to practise them with reverence, always, and the niyamas only so far as they do not stand in the way of ātma-jñāna. King Malayadhvaja kept them in his tapas on the Malaya mountain, in Nārada‘s account, and Śuka tells Parīkshit that those who have viveka, knowledge of dharma and śraddhā burn away even great pāpa, as fire burns a thicket of bamboo, by tapas, brahmacarya, control of mind and senses, tyāga, satya, purity and the yamas and niyamas. Kapila adds that for a gṛhastha brahmacarya means the vrata of one wife, and Śrī Kṛshṇa says the same: for the householder who lives with his wife, brahmacarya is to look at no woman but her.

When Kardama Maharshi was about to leave brahmacarya and enter the gṛhāśrama, Svāyambhuva Manu offered him his daughter Devahūti. And when Prince Pṛshadhra, under the śāpa of his kula-guru Vasishṭha, became a śūdra, he accepted it, became ūrdhvaretas (one whose seed rises upward) and kept firmly the vrata of brahmacarya dear to the munis, with bhakti for Bhagavān Vāsudeva.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapters 22, 27–29; Skandha 4, Chapters 22, 28; Skandha 6, Chapter 1; Skandha 9, Chapter 2; Skandha 11, Chapters 10, 17–18

Dharmas for every āśrama

The dharmas fit for those of every āśrama, Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches, are outer and inner purity, ācamana, bathing, the sandhyā-upāsana, a straightforward nature, visiting tīrthas, japa, not touching what should not be touched, not eating what should not be eaten, not speaking with the wicked, seeing Śrī Kṛshṇa as Īśvara in all beings, and control of mind, speech and body. One may go from a lower āśrama to a higher; Śrī Kṛshṇa’s one-pointed devotee should not be without an āśrama, and should not go from a higher āśrama to a lower one. Upāsana of Śrī Kṛshṇa as Īśvara is the dharma of all the āśramas.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapters 17–18

The gṛhastha

The brahmacārī who wishes to become a gṛhastha should marry a girl fit for him, without faults, of the same varṇa and younger in age. All who have had the upanayana may perform yajña, study the Veda and give dāna; only the brāhmaṇa may receive dāna, teach the Veda and conduct yajña for others. The brāhmaṇa who lives contented on grains fallen in the fields and the market follows a great and spotless dharma; offering his citta to Śrī Kṛshṇa, he gains moksha while living at home. Whoever lifts up a knower of the Veda who is suffering in poverty and has one-pointed bhakti for Śrī Kṛshṇa, him Śrī Kṛshṇa lifts out of danger as a boat lifts one out of the sea.

The king protects his people as the leader of a herd protects his elephants, carrying them across dangers like a father. In distress the kshatriya may live by the vaiśya’s livelihood, by hunting or by teaching, but never by serving the base; the vaiśya may live by the śūdra’s work and the śūdra by the work of artisans; once the distress has passed, one must not keep a blameworthy livelihood.

The gṛhastha performs the five daily yajñas: the brahma-yajña, study of the Veda; the deva-yajña, honouring the devatās with homa; the pitṛ-yajña, honouring the pitṛs with piṇḍa-dāna; the bhūta-yajña, giving food to beings; and the manushya-yajña, the gift of food to men. The devatās, pitṛs, beings and men are all forms of Śrī Kṛshṇa, so he worships them every day according to his means.

The meeting of the jīva with children, wife, friends and relatives is like the meeting of travellers in a rest-house, or the ties of a dream: all of it ends with the body. Reflecting so, the gṛhastha should live in his house like a guest, without “I” and “mine”; such a one is a jīvanmukta, free while living. Having had children and worshipping Śrī Kṛshṇa with bhakti through the karmas of his āśrama, he may remain a gṛhastha, or become a vānaprastha or a sannyāsī. But the gṛhastha whose heart is scattered by the vāsanās of saṃsāra, never satisfied with enjoyments, dies and is born as a beast or bird. The dharmas even of the gṛhastha who lives with his wife are brahmacarya, tapas, śauca, contentment and friendliness to all beings.

Nārada tells Yudhishṭhira that the gṛhastha-āśrama is the root of dharma, artha and kāma.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 15; Skandha 11, Chapters 17–18

The vānaprastha

The vānaprastha, Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches, does not tend the hair of his head and body, his moustache or beard, and does not seek beauty of the teeth. He bathes three times a day and sleeps on the ground. In summer he performs tapas between five fires, four around him and the Sun above; in the rainy season he bears the streams of rain; in the cold season he stands in water up to his neck. The knowers of the Veda give him, as to the gṛhastha, the agnihotra, the darśa-pūrṇamāsa and the cāturmāsya. Wasted by tapas till his veins show, he reaches Maharloka, and from there reaches Śrī Kṛshṇa. This great tapas, hard to achieve, is a means to moksha; who could be a greater fool than one who spends it on the tiny enjoyments of saṃsāra?

So King Pṛthu, Maitreya tells Vidura, gave the earth to his sons and went with his wife to the forest. There he performed the severe tapas dear to vānaprasthas: he lived on tubers, roots and fruits, then on dry leaves, then for some fortnights on water alone, and then on air; in summer he bore the five fires, in the rains the streams of rain, and in winter he stood in water up to his neck, sleeping on the bare ground, keeping brahmacarya and prāṇāyāma, wishing only to worship Śrī Kṛshṇa. By the adhyātma-yoga Sanatkumāra had taught him his bhakti grew, and with jñāna and vairāgya he cut the bonds of saṃsāra.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 23; Skandha 11, Chapter 18

The sannyāsī

Free of desire, the one who takes sannyāsa worships Śrī Kṛshṇa, gives all he has to the ṛtvij, places the fires within his own prāṇa with the prājāpatya-ishṭi, and takes sannyāsa. When a knower of the Veda takes sannyāsa, the devatās, thinking “he will pass beyond us to the supreme abode”, raise obstacles before him in the form of wife, son and the like.

If he wears a cloth, it is only the cloth at the waist; except in distress he keeps nothing of what he renounced but the daṇḍa (staff) and the kamaṇḍalu (water-pot). He goes for bhikshā to seven houses of the four varṇas, not chosen beforehand, leaving aside the blameworthy, and is content with what he gets. At a water-place outside the village he does ācamana, sprinkles the food, eats in silence, gives to any who ask, and eats what remains.

He wanders the earth alone, attached to no one, master of his senses, his joy in the ātmā, seeing Īśvara everywhere; with bhakti for Śrī Kṛshṇa he controls the senses and the mind and wanders in the great bliss of his own ātma-svarūpa. For bhikshā he enters cities, villages, cowherd hamlets and the camps of pilgrims, and wanders the earth with its puṇya-kshetras, holy rivers, mountains, forests and āśramas; food from grain gleaned in the fields purifies the heart, so he begs again and again at the āśramas of the vānaprasthas. One established in the ātmā, the dispassionate, and Śrī Kṛshṇa’s devotee free of desire are beyond injunction and prohibition, and may wander leaving aside the āśramas and their marks. Though discerning, the sannyāsī plays like a child; though skilful, he moves like a dull man; though learned, he speaks like one mad; though a knower of the Veda, his conduct is free as a bull’s. He does not delight in the Vedic words that praise rites done for desires, does not act against the Veda, does not give himself to bare logic, and takes no side in pointless disputes. He is not dejected when no bhikshā comes nor glad when it comes, for both are in the hands of daiva; yet he keeps his life, so that with its strength he may enquire into the ātmā, gain ātma-jñāna and be freed.

The wise man who has gained vairāgya but does not yet know the way to Śrī Kṛshṇa should go to a guru who is a śrotriya, and until the direct realisation of the Parabrahman he should serve Śrī Kṛshṇa in the form of the guru with śraddhā and reverence, never looking for faults in him.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 18

The fruit, and those who fall

Whoever, without desire, always performs his own dharma and serves Śrī Kṛshṇa comes to see Śrī Kṛshṇa alone in all beings and soon gains firm bhakti for him. “In this way,” Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava, “I have answered your question: how a bhakta joined to his svadharma reaches me, the Parabrahman.”

Nārada tells Yudhishṭhira that a practice men invent as they please, against the dharmas of the four āśramas, is only ābhāsa, a semblance of dharma; but the āśrama-dharma laid down according to a man’s own nature, for whom is it not able to give peace? It gives supreme peace to all. The bhikshu who gives up the gṛhastha-āśrama, takes sannyāsa and then shamelessly enjoys dharma, artha and kāma again, eats his own vomit. The brahmacārī who has given up his vow, the gṛhastha who has given up his daily karmas, the vānaprastha who has given up tapas and enjoys the senses, and the sannyāsī who falls under the pull of the senses are the lowest in their āśramas, only imitators of those who truly keep them, fallen into the māyā of Īśvara; they are to be pitied, and their company left.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 15; Skandha 11, Chapter 18

Per Bhavishya Purāṇa

Brahmā teaches Dindi that for brahmacārīs, gṛhasthas, vānaprasthas and women, no other deity is to be worshipped equal to Bhagavān Sūrya. Among those who have conquered themselves, among the great, among the foremost yatis, only those who serve Bhagavān Sūrya reach him, who is the form of the door of moksha. So for those of all āśramas and all varṇas Bhagavān Sūrya alone is the one to take refuge in, the supreme goal. In the āśrama-forest of Śaṅkha Muni, yatis, vānaprasthas and tapasvins adorned its various parts.

(Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapters 64, 66)

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 243–245 (Śukānupraśna)
• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 268–270 (Gokapilīya)
• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 277 (Medhāvī and his father)
• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 278 (Hārīta Gītā)
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Uttarārdha (Dvitīya Khaṇḍa), Chapters 130 and 131
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Volume 5
• Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 151, 153, 166
• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapters 12, 22, 27–29; Skandha 4, Chapters 22–23, 28; Skandha 6, Chapter 1; Skandha 7, Chapter 15; Skandha 9, Chapter 2; Skandha 11, Chapters 10, 17–18
• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapters 64, 66