Asrama or ashrama literally means a hermitage, a shelter, hut or a dwelling place for the ascetics.

It also
means a refuge or a resting ground. In the Vedic tradition asrama means a stage in the life of a human
being. Hindu tradition recognizes four stages or asramas in human life, namely brahmacarya, grihasta,
vanaprastha and sanysa. Of these people had the option to enter into all the four or the first three. Not
all people entered into the fourth stage. And among those who entered into it, a few resorted to it
directly from the stage of brahmacarya without the intervening two stages.

The Asrama dharma was not applicable to certain castes and women. According to the
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, when Yajnavalkya decided to renounce worldly life, he entrusted the
family matters to his two wives and went to the forests alone. Women undertook some
responsibilities in the households and assisted their husbands in performing their duties, but they
were not expected to enter into all the four stages as the men did.

 Brahmacarya

 The period falls approximately from the initiation ceremony (Upanayana) until the end of
the studentship.

 In olden days, it usually began with the departure of the student to the house of his
teacher following the upanayanam ceremony, which marked his birth as dwija or twice
born.

 During this period young children were expected to enter a gurukula, live there under the
care of a guru or learned master and become educated in the Vedas and other scriptures.

 The students had a responsibility not to abandon their education under any circumstances.
Only death should separate them from their masters.

 They were not to stay anywhere else other than in the house of their teachers whom they
had to obey all the time except in certain cases like actions (of the teachers) that led to the
loss of their caste.

 They were also expected to observe austerities like not taking bath with hot water, not
using perfumes or ornaments, in addition to practicing complete celibacy or brahmacarya.

 This was also the time during which a student became conversant with the academic
aspects of dharma, the first aim (purushartha) of human life according to Hinduism.

 Some of these rules prescribed for the students in the gurukulas varied depending upon to
which caste they belonged.

 If the teacher was a Ksatriya, the Brahmana students under him had some liberties.
 They were not expected to serve their master directly as the other students, such as
fetching him drinking water or arranging for his bath, or perform menial services in his
household.

 Grihasta Ashrama

 Once a student returned to his home from the gurukula after completing his education,
having developed his body and mind fully and became adept in the Vedic knowledge, he
was entitled to get married and lead the life of a householder.

 The Hindu law books prescribed that as a householder a person should take the wife an
equal caste who was not married before, who did not belong to the same gotra and who
was younger than him.

 He should work in order to increase the wealth of his family and pay the religious debts
he owed to his father, ancestors, rishis and other beings.

 He should take care of his parents and grand parents, children and wife by performing
necessary duties of a householder towards his family in addition to performing his social
duties such as preservation of dharma and varna, honoring the guests who came to the
house and helping the poor and the needy.

 He should perform religious ceremonies and make sacrificial offerings as prescribed by

the scriptures.

 He should also recite the Vedas, avoid the food of outcastes, approach his wife in proper
season, wear the sacrificial thread, observe austerities as prescribed and feed the animals
and the hungry.

 A householder pursued artha (second purushartha) and kama (third purushartha) in the
prescribed manner during this period based on the knowledge of dharma (first
purushartha) he gained during his studentship and prepared himself ready for the moksha
the fourth aim of human life.

 Vanaprastha Ashrama

 This period began when one's skin began wrinkling and one became a grand father.
During this period a person was expected to move away from worldly matters and get
himself ready for his spiritual journey to attain moksha (the fourth purushartha).

 He was to do this by delegating his duties to his children, leaving his family and
possession behind and moving into a secluded place such as a hermitage or the forest .
  There he should live like an ascetic and spend his time practicing austerities, offering
oblations, reciting the Vedas and the metaphysical treatises, and in the acquisition of the
knowledge of the self.

 He should wear a garment made of cloth, skin or bark to cover his nakedness, wear his
hair in braids, remain chaste, restrain his speech, actions and senses, subsist on wild
growing roots, fruit and vegetables, honor the guests who visited his hermitage, give gifts
but not receive any, bathe three times a day, promise safety to all beings and animals,
sleep on the ground and so on.

 These observations were aimed at controlling ones mind, overcoming passions and
developing detachment from the sense objects and preparing oneself for a more rigorous
life as an ascetic (sanyasi).

 During this period a person might take his wife along with him only if the latter agreed to
accompany him.

 Sanyasa Ashrama

 This is the final phase of human life during which a person should devote his life and
activities in the pursuit of moksha (the fourth purushartha) or final liberation.

 Let him wear a single garment, Or cover his body with a skin or with grass that has been
nibbled at by a cow.

 Let him sleep on the bare ground.

 Let him frequently change his residence, (Dwelling) at the extremity of the village, in a
temple, or in an empty house, or at the root of a tree.

 Let him (constantly) seek in his heart the knowledge (of the universal soul).

Hindu society has been categorized into four classes, called varnas. They are:

 Brahmins: Vedic teachers and priests;

 Kshatriyas: warriors, nobles, and kings;
 Vaishyas: farmers, merchants, and businessmen; and
 Shudras: servants and labourers
Bhagavad Gita, the sacred text of Hindus, links the varna to an individual’s duty (svadharma),
inborn nature (svabhāva), and natural tendencies (guṇa).

Ashram System

Traditionally the life of a Hindu is divided into four Ashramas (phases or stages).

 The first part of one’s life, Brahmacharya, the stage as a student, is spent in celibate,
controlled, sober and pure contemplation under the guidance of a Guru, building up the
mind for spiritual knowledge.
 Grihastha is the householder’s stage, in which one marries and satisfies kāma and artha
in one’s married and professional life respectively.
 Vānaprastha, the retirement stage, is gradual detachment from the material world. This
may involve giving over duties to one’s children, spending more time in religious
practices and embarking on holy pilgrimages.
 Finally, in Sannyāsa, the stage of asceticism, one renounces all worldly attachments to
secludedly find the Divine through detachment from worldly life and peacefully shed the
body for Moksha.
 According to Hindu texts, Varnashrama-dharma is not a man-made system but refers to
natural classifications that appear to various degrees in all human societies.
 Individuals have different innate tendencies for work and exhibit a variety of personal
qualities. There are also natural phases in life, when it is easier and more rewarding to
perform certain activities.
 Hinduism teaches that individuals best realise their potential by taking into account such
natural arrangements, and that society should be structured and organised accordingly.
 Each varna and ashram has its own specified dharma.
 What may be desirable for one section of society may be degrading for another. For
example, absolute non-violence, which includes refraining from animal sacrifice, is
essential for the priestly class but considered wholly unworthy of a kshatriya (warrior).
 Generating wealth and producing children are essential for householders, but intimate
contact with money and women is spiritually suicidal for the renunciate.
 Underlying all these apparent differences is the common goal of advancing in spiritual
life based on sanatana-dharma.
 Without the spiritual equality and sense of service inherent in sanatanadharma,
varnashrama-dharma tends to degrade into the rigid and exploitative caste system.

Key Points

 Varnashrama-dharma – duties performed according to the system of four varnas (social

divisions) and four ashrams (stages in life).
 Focus is on responsibilities (which naturally fulfil the rights of others).
 Four varnas – brahmanas (priests, teachers, and intellectuals), kshatriyas (police, army,
and administration), vaishyas (farmers, merchants, and business people), shudras
(artisans and workers).
 Four ashrams – student life, household life, retirement, and renunciation.
 Society is compared to a body with the brahmanas as the head, kshatriyas as the arms,
vaishyas as the belly (or thighs) and the shudras as the legs
 Social functions are determined according to this analogy. For example, the brahmanas
are the eyes and mouth of society. They provide a spiritual vision for society and teach
people accordingly. Just as the arms are raised to defend the body, the kshatriya’s main
duty is to protect society. The vaishya’s main duty is material nourishment, and the
shudra supports all other sections of society.
 The  are sometimes related to the same metaphor, with the successive stages of student
life, household life, retirement and renunciation represented by the legs, belly, arms and
head respectively.