[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975) › c4.1400 # Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.1400 Purāṇic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Purāṇic Literature c4.1400 - **Language:** English ### [c4.1400](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c4.1400) 3. Vānaprastha. After having finished all his duties in this way, to his satisfaction, the Gṛhastha, with the commencement of old age, should go to the forest, either after entrusting his wife to his sons or taking her also with him. There, he should use leaves, roots and fruits for his food, grow hair and beard, sleep on the bare ground, lead the life of a tāpasa and receive and honour all classes of guests. His clothes, sheets and blankets should be of deer-skin and darbha grass. The rule is that he should bathe three times a day. Worship of gods, performing homas, hospitality to all guests, mendicancy—all these are the laudable features of Vānaprastha. Any oil that is available in the forest is to be used for his oil bath. Enduring heat and cold, performing tapas, are also his duties. The Muni who observes this rule in Vānaprastha with due austerity, burns up all his evils as with fire and attains the eternal worlds. - [Previous: c4.1399](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c4.1399) - [Next: c4.1401](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c4.1401) - [Up: c4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c4) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c4.1400](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.mani-1975.c4.1400) · Pramāṇa