The four Hindu life stages: Where are you?

From Spiritual Seniors on 09/07/25

The Four Ashramas: Life in Stages

In classical Hindu thought, life is a journey divided into four ashramas, or stages. The first is brahmacharya, the period of the student, when the young learn discipline, faith, and knowledge. The second is grihastha, the householder, devoted to marriage, family, work, and social responsibility. The third, vanaprastha, arrives when one has fulfilled those duties and begins to step back from worldly obligations. The fourth, sannyasa, is the life of renunciation, when a person seeks union with the eternal.

What distinguishes vanaprastha is its transitional nature. The forest dweller is not yet a renunciate. They may still live with their family, continue to advise children, and still play a role in society. But the center of gravity shifts. The inward call of wisdom balances the outward call of responsibility. A person is no longer defined by striving, but by seeking. No longer measured by conquest, but by clarity.

I am a Psychiatric Social Worker and have been practicing for 56 years and continue to practice individual, couple, and family therapy in my private office three days per week at age 79. 

The major life transitions of the second half of adulthood are the empty nest and retirement. Many of my client seeking help with depression, anxiety and somatic preoccupation are not managing these life transitions well. They are confused, lost, see no path forward and our culture and its institutions don't help them much.

The Hindu teaching of the life stages is a very helpful map that provides some guidance to what eldering might look like and the developmental challenges that people face as they grow older. Schacter-Shalomi and Miller call this process "Age-ing to Sage-ing" in their book by the same title. Becoming a sage is not just growing older but growing up which means actualizing one's potential.

One of the purposes of this blog, Nurturing One's Interior Spiritual Life, is to facilitate the development of a map for growing up. Further articles on this topic of ageing to sageing will be forthcoming.