Devanagari
श्रीभगवानुवाच
वनं विविक्षु: पुत्रेषु भार्यां न्यस्य सहैव वा ।
वन एव वसेच्छान्तस्तृतीयं भागमायुष: ॥ १ ॥
Verse text
śrī-bhagavān uvāca
vanaṁ vivikṣuḥ putreṣu
bhāryāṁ nyasya sahaiva vā
vana eva vasec chāntas
tṛtīyaṁ bhāgam āyuṣaḥ
Synonyms
śrī
—
bhagavān uvāca — the Supreme Personality of Godhead said
;
vanam
—
the forest
;
vivikṣuḥ
—
desiring to enter
;
putreṣu
—
among the sons
;
bhāryām
—
wife
;
nyasya
—
entrusting
;
saha
—
together with
;
eva
—
indeed
;
vā
—
or
;
vane
—
in the forest
;
eva
—
certainly
;
vaset
—
one should dwell
;
śāntaḥ
—
with a peaceful mind
;
tṛtīyam
—
the third
;
bhāgam
—
division
;
āyuṣaḥ
—
of life .
Translation
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: One who desires to adopt the third order of life, vānaprastha, should enter the forest with a peaceful mind, leaving his wife with his mature sons, or else taking her along with him.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The Supreme Lord said: One who desires to be a vānaprastha should enter the forest with a peaceful mind, leaving his wife with his mature sons, or else taking her along with him, and spend a third of his life there.
The Eighteenth Chapter describes life of the vānaprastha and sannyāsī and as well the general description of a devotee without āśrama. In sequence, first the vānaprastha is described. He should remain a vānaprastha till the age of seventy-five years. Then he is qualified for sannyāsa.
Purport
In Kali-yuga a human being generally cannot live more than one hundred years, and even this is becoming most unusual. A man who has a reasonable expectation of living for one hundred years may adopt the
vānaprastha
order at the age of fifty, and then at the age of seventy-five he may take
sannyāsa
for complete renunciation. Since in Kali-yuga very few people live for one hundred years, one should adjust the schedule accordingly.
Vānaprastha
is intended as a gradual transition from materialistic family life to the stage of complete renunciation.