27 - Duties in Vānaprastha (Hermit's) Stage

This is normally the third stage in life and the rules etc. pertaining to it are given in the Dharma Sūtras of Apastamba (II. 9. 21. 18), Baudhayana (III. 3), Vishnu (95) and Smrutis like Manu VI. 1-32, Yajnavalkya III. 45-55, in Mahabharata Shanti 245-1-14, Anushasana 142 and Puranas like AP. ch. 160., Bh. P. VII. 12. 17-31, NP, I. 27. 85-106. Many verses are common to Smrutis and Puranas inter se but that is inevitable in such works dealing with the same topic.

Vyāsa said: 

1. After staying in the householder's stage of life thus in the second part of life, one should pass on to the stage of the forest hermit, accompanied by his wife or (alone but) maintaining the sacrificial fires.

2-3. Or he should go to the forest after entrusting his wife to the care of the sons.1 After seeing his grandchild, the old man with his body weak and shattered should go to the forest in the course of Uttarayana (Northern transit of the sun) on any auspicious morning in the bright half of the month. After going to the forest, he should observe all regulations and perform penance with great concentration.

1. Cf. Manu VI.3, Yajnavalkya III. 45.

4. He should take to a fruit diet after collecting holy fruits and roots. He should worship the Pitrus and the deities with what constitutes his controlled diet. 

5. He should always worship the guests; after taking bath he should worship the gods. With great composure, he should cat only eight mouthfuls out of what he brings from the house. 

6. He should always wear the matted hair. He should not cast off (i.e., pare off) nails and hairs. He should always maintain (continue) the study of the Vedas; on other occasions he should observe restraint on his speech. 

7. It is with food proper for sages, with various vegetables, fruits and roots grown in the forest that he should perform his daily fire-worship and also the five (great) sacrifices (pancha-maha-yajnas). 

8. He should always wear bark-garments. He should be pure, taking bath three times a day. He should be kind and considerate towards all living beings. He should avoid taking Pratigrahas (monetary gifts).2

2. Cf. Manu VI. 5 and 7, Yāj. III. 46.

9-10a. The Brahmana should perform regularly the sacrifices (specifically meant for) on Darsha and Purņima (New Moon and Full Moon) days, on the proper Nakshatra, as also the Agrayana ishti Chaturmasya sacrifices. He should observe (the holy rites) in the period of summer and winter solstices. 

10b-12a. He should prepare separately Purodāshas (sacrificial offerings of ground rice offered in earthen dishes Kapalas) and Charu (oblation of boiled rice and barley) with pure (offerable as oblations in sacrifice) wild grains (rice grown naturally in spring and Autumn) and gathered by himself. Having offered those highly sacred Havis (oblations) of the products of the forest to the deities, he should partake of the remainder for himself with the salt prepared by himself.1

1. Manu VI, 14.

12b-13. He should avoid wine and meat and the mush rooms growing on the Earth; 'earth-grass' i.e., Andropogon Schoenanthus; the fruit of the trees Shishuka (Shigruka and Sleshma taka (Cordia Latifolia); he shall never eat anything cultivated (after ploughing the earth) with the ploughshare. Nor shall he eat anything abandoned by anyone. 

14. Even when distressed, he should not make use of the flowers and fruits produced in the villages.2 He should maintain and venerate the holy fire as per injunctions in the Vaikhanasa Sutra.

2. VV. 13-14; cf. Manu VI. 16.

15. He should not cause injury to any living being. He should be free from Dvandvas (mutually clashing opposites like pleasure and pain) and be free from fear as well. He should not take food during the night and be engaged in meditation during the night. 

16. He should be one who has conquered the sense-organs and restrained anger. He should ponder over the perfect knowledge of Reality. He should always be celibate and not approach carnally even his wife. 

17. The Brahmana, who, after going to the forest indulges in sexual intercourse with his wife passionately, violates his holy vow and has to perform expiation. 

18. The child born thereby cannot be touchable by Brahmanas. He is not authorised in the study of the Vedas. All the persons born in his family shall also be so. 

19. He should invariably sleep on the ground below. He should be devoted to the Japa of the Savitri Mantra. He should afford shelter unto all living beings and share things with others. 

20. He should avoid slandering and falsely accusing others; he should avoid (too much of) sleep and lethargy; he should maintain one single fire. He should have no fixed abode; he shall resort to a ground purified by sprinkling water.

21. One should freely roam about along with the deer or take rest along with them. With very great concentration, he should lie down on a slab of stone or on the gravels. 

22. He should be one who washes off immediately (i.e., one who does not hoard anything) or he can hoard things necessary for a month; or he can have all the requisite things for six months or he may be one who hoards things necessary for a year. 

23. In the month of Āshvayuja (September October) one should throw away all one's hoarded things.1* He should also discard the old worn clothes, vegetables, roots and fruits.

1. VV. 22-23, Manu VI. 15, Yaj. III. 47 

*v.l. Pūrva-sanchitam is better and hence accepted. Venkt. Press reading pūrva-chintitam 'as thought of before' does not give the proper sense.

24. He should be a Dantolūkhalika (one who uses the teeth as mortar for chewing the grains and eating them). He should follow the practice of a pigeon. He should be an Ashmakutta breaking or pounding corns etc. on stones) or he should be one who eats only what is ripened in the course of time. 

25. He should eat food at night what he gathered during the day, in accordance with his capacity. He should be a Chaturthakalika (i.e., one who eats after missing three meal-times) or he shall be an Ashtamakālika (one who eats after missing seven meal-times.) 

26. He should perform expiatory rites in accordance with the Chandrayana rites during the bright and dark halves of the month. He should take once in a fortnight boiled rice (or barley) gruel).2**

2. Manu VI. 20-21 and 31.

**Venkt. text: dvijāgrån kathitan 'reporting to foremost Brahmanas' is irrelevant. Hence the v.l. Yavaguh kvathitah is accepted.

27. Established in the doctrine of Vaikhanasas one should always subsist on merely flowers, roots or fruits which have naturally fallen and withered. 

28. One should roll on the ground or stand on the fore part of the foot (i.e., tip-toe) throughout the day. One should be continuously engaged in standing or sitting but should not lose courage on any account. 

29. Gradually increasing his intensity in austere penance, he should get himself scorched in five fires; in the rainy season he should expose himself to showering clouds (for his shelter). He should put on wet clothes during the winter.1

1. Manu VI. 23-24, Yāj. III. 52.

30. He should take ablutions thrice a day and propitiate the Pitrus and Devas or he should stand on a single foot and imbibe the rays then. 

31. He should get himself surrounded by five fires. He should be an imbiber of smoke, heat or Soma juice. He should drink milk (or water) in the bright half and Panchagavya (cow-dung, urine etc. of cows) during the dark half of the month. 

32. Or he should eat fallen and withered dry leaves or observe penance called Krucchra. He should always practise Yoga and recite Rudra (Sukta). 

33. He should study Atharvashiras and be interested in practising the principles of Vedanta;2 he should resort restraints (Yamas) continuously; and he should alertly practise Niyamas (observances and rites).

2. Manu VI. 29-30.

34-35. He should wear the skin of a black-antelope, the upper garment and the white sacred thread. He should then impose sacred fires on his Atman; and be devoted to meditation. He should be devoid of fire (i.e., give up fire-worship'etc.) and a fixed abode; he should be a silent sage engaged in endeavour for salvation. He should take alms necessary for his journey from saintly Brahmanas. 

36. He should receive the same from other Brahmana householders residing in the forest. Himself residing in the forest, he should eat eight mouthfuls of what he brings from the village. 

37-38a. In a cup of leaves or holding the palms like a cup or on a potsherd (Shakala) (he should receive those things). For the realisation of the Atman, he should perform Japa of the different Upanishads, different Mantras, the Savitri Mantra or Rudra Adhyaya. 

38b-39. He should resort to the great Departure (mahaprasthāna) or observe fast unto death. He should abide by the procedure of dedication unto the Brahman, and may enter fire.1 Those who resort to this stage of life duly, this state of life that destroys unholy things, attain the region of Ishvara; they go to that region after their death.

1. Manu VI 31. Yaj III. 55. But the writers on Dharmashastra do not favour such suicides. Also, Mbh. Adi 779. 20.