आश्रमकालनिरूपणम्The time for each stage
Verse 16
विद्यामुपार्जयेत् बाल्ये धनं दारांश्च यौवने । प्रौढे धर्म्याणि कर्माणि चतुर्थे प्रव्रजेत् सुधीः ॥ १६ ॥
vidyāmupārjayēt bālyē dhanaṁ dārāṁśca yauvanē | prauḍhē dharmyāṇi karmāṇi caturthē pravrajēt sudhīḥ || 16 ||
Translation
In childhood one should acquire learning, in youth wealth and a wife; in maturity, works of dharma; in the fourth age the wise should go forth.
Word by word
- vidyām
- (vidyām) learning
- upārjayēt
- one should acquire
- bālyē
- in childhood
- dhanaṁ
- wealth
- dārāṁś
- (dārān) a wife
- ca
- and
- yauvanē
- in youth
- prauḍhē
- in maturity
- dharmyāṇi
- of dharma
- karmāṇi
- works
- caturthē
- in the fourth
- pravrajēt
- should go forth
- sudhīḥ
- the wise
Meaning
A life in four parts, mapped onto two stages. Childhood is for vidyā, learning, which takes the place of the old student stage; youth is for earning and marrying; maturity, the third part of life, for "works of dharma", which the commentary glosses as works that do not depart from right order; and the fourth part for going forth (pravrajyā), taking renunciation. The old four āśramas survive as four seasons of one life, while only two of them are formal stages.
Commentary
Hariharānanda Bhāratī’s Sanskrit commentary, translated
In which stage of life should the householder's āśrama be taken, and in which saṃnyāsa? To that he says "vidyām…". In childhood one should acquire learning; in youth, wealth and wives; in maturity, the third age of life, one should do righteous works, works not departing from dharma; the wise one should go forth, take saṃnyāsa, in the fourth age. (This explanation covers verses 16 and 17.)