Devanagari
गृहं वनं वोपविशेत् प्रव्रजेद् वा द्विजोत्तम: ।
आश्रमादाश्रमं गच्छेन्नान्यथामत्परश्चरेत् ॥ ३८ ॥
Verse text
gṛhaṁ vanaṁ vopaviśet
pravrajed vā dvijottamaḥ
āśramād āśramaṁ gacchen
nānyathāmat-paraś caret
Synonyms
gṛham
—
the family home
;
vanam
—
the forest
;
vā
—
either
;
upaviśet
—
one should enter
;
pravrajet
—
one should renounce
;
vā
—
or
;
dvija
—
uttamaḥ — a brāhmaṇa
;
āśramāt
—
from one authorized status of life
;
āśramam
—
to another authorized status
;
gacchet
—
one should go
;
na
—
not
;
anyathā
—
otherwise
;
amat
—
paraḥ — one who is not surrendered to Me
;
caret
—
should act .
Translation
A brahmacārī desiring to fulfill his material desires should live at home with his family, and a householder who is eager to purify his consciousness should enter the forest, whereas a purified brāhmaṇa should accept the renounced order of life. One who is not surrendered to Me should move progressively from one āśrama to another, never acting otherwise.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
A second born person (brahmacārī) becomes a householder, vānaprastha or sannyāsī in the case of a brāhmaṇa. He should progressively move through the āśramas. There is no other way for a person who has not surrendered to me.
One enters an āśrama according to one’s qualification. If he has desires, he becomes a householder. If he has no desire by having purified his heart, he becomes a vānaprastha. If he is a brāhmaṇa, and is without desire, he becomes a sannyāsī. If some desire to do so, they may go through all āśramas: after brahmacārī life one becomes a householder, then vānaprastha and finally a sannyāsī. One should not enter the āśramas in a reverse order, and one should not be without āśrama, unless one is my devotee. If one is a devotee, then one does not have to follow the rules of āśrama. This will be explained later. If the devotee enters āśramas in a different order, or has no āśrama, there is no fault.
Purport
Those who are not surrendered devotees of the Lord must rigidly observe the regulations governing one’s authorized social status. There are four social divisions of life, namely
brahmacarya, gṛhastha,
vānaprastha
and
sannyāsa.
One who wants to fulfill material desires should become an ordinary householder (
gṛhastha
), establish a comfortable residence and maintain his family. One desiring to accelerate the process of purification may give up his home and business and live in a sacred place with his wife, as indicated here by the word
vanam,
or “forest.” There are many sacred forests in India meant for this purpose, such as Vṛndāvana and Māyāpur. The word
dvijottama
indicates the
brāhmaṇas.
Brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas
and
vaiśyas
are all
dvija,
or initiated in the Gāyatrī
mantra,
but the
brāhmaṇa
is
dvijottama,
or the highest among those who have received second birth by spiritual initiation. It is recommended that a purified
brāhmaṇa
take to the renounced order of life (
sannyāsa
), giving up further contact with his so-called wife. The
brāhmaṇa
is specifically mentioned here, since
kṣatriyas
and
vaiśyas
are not to take the renounced order of life. Even so, there are many stories in the
Bhāgavatam
wherein great kings retire with their aristocratic wives to the forest to practice the austerities of
vānaprastha
and thus accelerate the process of purification. The
brāhmaṇas,
however, may directly accept the renounced order of life.
The words
āśramād āśramaṁ gacchet
indicate that one may progressively move from
brahmacārī
life to
gṛhastha
life to
vānaprastha
life and then to
sannyāsa.
The words
āśramād āśramam
emphasize that one should never remain without an authorized social status, nor should one go backward, falling down from a higher position. Those who are not surrendered devotees of the Lord must rigidly observe such injunctions, for otherwise they will quickly become degraded, and their sins will place them outside the bounds of authorized human civilization.
Lord Kṛṣṇa emphasizes here that a nondevotee must rigidly observe the rituals and regulations of Vedic social divisions, whereas the Lord’s pure devotee, engaged twenty-four hours a day in Lord Kṛṣṇa’s mission, is transcendental to such divisions. If, however, one performs illicit activities on the strength of being transcendental to Vedic social divisions, one is revealed to be a materialistic neophyte and not an advanced devotee of the Lord. An advanced devotee, who remains aloof from material sense gratification, is not bound by the Vedic social divisions; thus even a householder may live very austerely, traveling and preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness away from home, and even a
sannyāsī
may sometimes engage women in the devotional service of Lord Kṛṣṇa. The most advanced devotees cannot be restricted by the rituals and regulations of the
varṇāśrama
system, and they move freely around the world distributing love of Godhead.
Mat-para
indicates a pure devotee of the Lord who always keeps the Lord fixed in his heart and consciousness. One who falls down to become a victim of sense gratification is not fully established on the platform of
mat-para
and should rigidly observe the social divisions and regulations to remain steady on the platform of pious human life.