56. Four Stages of Life



Krishna says that the mind, which follows roving senses, carries away one’s intellect as the wind carries away the boat on the water (2.67). The wind is a metaphor for our desires which drives our mind as well as senses, thus making the intellect (boat) unstable.

In the context of desires, life is divided into four stages namely Brahmacharya (bachelor), Grihasth (householder), Vanaprastha (facing forest) and Sannyas (renunciation) where divisions aren’t just based on age but also on the intensity of living.

The first stage includes growing up, gathering theoretical knowledge, acquiring some basic skills and developing physical strength. In the second stage, it’s family, work, refining skills, gathering possessions and memories. This also includes exposure to various facets of life and gaining life experiences through pursuing passions and desires either with success or failure. Through this process, one attains a cocktail of knowledge, skill and life experiences which is the breeding ground for awareness.

Transition to the third stage isn’t automatic. In the epic Mahabharata, King Yayati took a thousand years for this transition as he couldn’t give up his luxuries. Interestingly, these extra years came at the cost of his son’s life. In these circumstances, this verse (2.67) helps us to reflect upon and consciously move to the third stage.

In the third stage, awareness lets us drop desires slowly as one realises that the desires of the past look silly or irrelevant now; how our assumptions were erroneous; how both fulfilled and unfulfilled desires can have disastrous consequences. With this realisation, one is ready for the final stage to become a sannyasi, which is dropping of ahankaar/kartapan (sense of doership) to be a sakshi (witness).

It’s the transition from first stage of ‘knowing’ (through senses) to the final stage of ‘being’ (independent of senses) which is the state of a yogi. Krishna says, “Wisdom is established when all senses are restrained from sense-objects” (2.68).


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