Sanatana Dharma: The Grihastha or the Householder in Sanatana Dharma

By Sri Swami Sivananda

Life is very systematically and orderly arranged in Sanatana Dharma. There is opportunity for the development of the different sides of human activity. Due occupations and training are assigned to each period of life. Life is a great school in which the powers, capacities and faculties of man are to be evolved gradually.

There are four stages:

• The Brahmacharin or the Celibate Student
• Grihastha or the Householder
• The Vanaprastha or the Recluse
• The Sannyasin or the Renunciate

The Grihastha or the Householder

The second stage is that of the Grihastha or householder. The household stage is entered at marriage, when the student has completed his studentship and is ready to take up the duties and responsibilities of householder life. Of all the Asramas, this is the most important, because it supports all the others. As all creatures live supported by the air, so the other Orders exist supported by the householder. As all streams and rivers flow to rest in the ocean, so all the Asramas flow to rest in the householder. The Grihastha is the very heart of Aryan life. Everything depends on him.

Marriage is a sacrament for a Hindu. The wife is his partner in life. She is his Ardhangini. He cannot do any religious ritual without her. She stands by his left side when he performs any religious performance. Husband and wife keep Rama and Sita as their ideal.

A householder should earn money by honest means and distribute it in the proper manner. He should spend one-tenth of his income in charity. He should enjoy sensual pleasures within the limits of the moral law. A householder is permitted to enjoy conjugal happiness on one night in a month.

The householder should perform the Pancha Maha Yajnas. The five Yajnas are:

DEVA-YAJNA - offering oblations unto Devas, with recitation of Vedic Mantras.

RISHI-YAJNA - study of Vedas and teaching of Vedas to students, and offering of oblations to Rishis.

PITRI-YAJNA - Tarpana or ablutions to departed souls and Sraaddha or annual religious rites performed for departed souls.

BHUTA-YAJNA - distribution of food to cows, crows and animals in general.

ATITHI-YAJNA - giving food to guests and honouring them.

Hospitality is one of the householders chief duties. He must ever feed first his guests, Brahmanas and his relatives, and then he and his wife should eat.

When the householder sees that his sons are able to bear the burden of his duties, when his grandsons are around him, he should know that the time has come for him and his wife to retire from the world and spend their time in study and meditation.

From publishers note:

All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda is intended to meet the needs of those who want to be introduced to the various facets of the crystal that is Hinduism. The book, which was first published in 1947, has now been rearranged in a more convenient form, with useful additions here and there, and is now released in its fifth edition.

 We do hope that all serious students of Hindu Religion and Hinduism Philosophy will find the book useful and interesting.

All chapters can be found here: All About Hinduism