Vanaprastha Ashram

Retirement philosophy by ancient Indians

India or ‘Bharat’, being the oldest civilization known to humans on earth, boasts of rich cultural heritage that dates back to more than 5000 years. Though, classified as a developing nation today, courtesy colonial British rule in 19th and 20th century, India was the largest economy of the world until 17th century AD.

There were so many things ancient Indians did right but one of the things that fascinates me with respect to retirement planning is the framework of four Ashrams that probably existed thousands of years back.

In a nutshell, it divides a human life span into four parts called Ashrams:

As they say, often the answers to our current problems lay hidden in history. Ancient Indian’s, who considered themselves blessed to be born as humans, seemed to be aware of the importance of balanced life. Student life and family life were undoubtedly considered important and so were the ‘vanaprastha — retired life’ and ‘sannyasa — spiritual life’.

Also retired life didn’t mean ‘not working’. It encouraged people to shift their focus from ‘working to generate wealth’ to ‘working towards making the society better’ and ‘finding one’s purpose in life’.

So, any thoughts on what should be an ideal age for you to plan your retirement and what should your retirement life look like?