[Advaita-l] vanaprastha

[Michael Shepherd]

These days, I'm well into my vanaprastha, and it's been the most fruitful
and rewarding period of my life.

So I reckon that I understand its spiritual significance in today's terms.

Obviously it has changed over the ages, in the past; but now that the
population is ageing and living longer, it's going to become more of a
subject of attention.

I know the standard quotations -- 'when your grandson's first hair appears'
etc. But I'd be glad to hear of any further relevant quotations and hints
from the scriptures.

 There seems to be -- as somebody said here -- less said about it than any
other of the ashrama.  For instance, is it possible that the
'forest-dwellers' grew food, or at least cultivated those trees etc which
yielded sustenance ?  Did some return in the evenings to their homes ?

I dimly recall that Satyajit Ray's film painted a rather sober picture of
vanaprastha..

Michael