CHAPTER TWELVE

The Perfect Society: Four Spiritual Classes

This chapter particularly describes the brahmacari and the person in the
vanaprastha stage, and it also gives a general description of the four
asramas—brahmacarya, grhastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa. In the
previous chapter, the great saint Narada Muni has described the varna
institution of society, and now, in this chapter, he will describe the stages
of spiritual advancement in the four dsramas, which are known as
brahmacarya, grhastha, vanaprastha and sannydsa.

The brahmacari should live under the care of the true spiritual
master, giving him sincere respect and obeisances, acting as his menial
servant, and always carrying out his order. The brahmacari should
engage himself in spiritual activities and study the Vedic literature under
the direction of the spiritual master. According to the brahmacarya
system, he should dress with a belt, deerskin, and matted hair and should
bear a danda, waterpot and sacred thread. He should collect alms daily in
the morning, and in the evening whatever alms he has collected he
should offer to the spiritual master. A brahmacari should accept prasada
upon the order of the spiritual master, and if the spiritual master some-
times forgets to order the disciple to eat, the disciple should not take
prasdda on his own initiative; rather, he should fast. The brahmacari
should be trained to be satisfied with eating what is absolutely necessary,
he should be very expert in executing responsibilities, he should be
faithful, and he should control his senses and try to avoid the association
of women as far as possible. A brahmacari should very strictly abstain
from living with women and should not meet with grhasthas and those
too addicted to women. Nor should a brahmacari speak in a lonely place
with a woman.

After completing one’s education as a brahmacari in this way, one
should give daksind, an offering of gratitude, to one’s guru, and then one
may leave for home and accept the next @srama—the grhastha-
Gsrama—or else one may continue in the brahmacarya-dsrama without
adulteration. The duties for the grhastha-dsrama and brahmacarya-

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