letting go. It is called vanaprasthasrama, which means the beginnings
of nonattachment whilst continuing to live within the bosom of one's
family. To a businessman it might imply turning over the reins of his
business to his sons and daughters so that they can fully enter into the
householder stage. It is a letting go of control, not of oneself, far from
it, but from the minute control of one's immediate environment, of
all that one believes one has built up in the world. If the ego is over
dominant, it is letting go of the confusion of who one is with what one
has created, a business empire, a civil service department, the smartest,
bravest regiment in the army. Your successors will certainly do things
differently from you, and it is more than probable that you will not like
it; you will feel aggrieved, a sense of loss, even loss of self and self
worth. The third stage of life is gradually coming to terms with that.
After all, the clock is ticking, and old age will not be delayed for long,
and death will one day come knocking at your door. Best to prepare
oneself in time.
Yet unlike retirement in the We st, which is just an end to produc
tive work, this is a spiritual stage filled with growth and learning. It is
a stage when this detachment allows us to live ever more loosely in re
lationship to our ego. During this stage, we can more easily let go of
the identity that we have clung to and that has hindered us on our In
ward Journey. Now we can move further within as we let go of what
has tethered us to that which is without. I help in the medical classes
at my Institute, but otherwise, over the years, my children and certain
students have taken over. I remain there in the background to help with
difficult cases and to offer my experience. Others can teach the regular
classes, but the medical classes are where my years of exploring every
inch of the skin, fiber, and organs of the body are most needed.
Since the death of my wife, Ramamani, thirty years ago, God
chose me to be a sannyasin, a state I had rejected as a young man. This
is the fourth and fi nal stage of life, one of ultimate detachment,
freedom, purity, and rt·adincss for death. Traditionally, t• vt·n man and
I. I V I N l; I N 11 ll F 1'. Ill l M