Category:Becoming Old
Theme Analysis
This category confronts the universal yet unwelcome phenomenon of aging. Śrīla Prabhupāda frequently argues that the very fact that "no one wants to become old" is proof of the soul's eternal nature. Aging is described as a force of material nature that cannot be checked by science or medicine. The quotes depict the stark reality of old age: invalidity, loss of beauty, and neglect by family members who view the old person as a burden. In contrast, spiritual life offers the solution. Kṛṣṇa never becomes old, and devotees like Dhruva Mahārāja, though advanced in years, maintained youthful senses due to their engagement in devotional service.
- The Force of Nature: Aging is one of the four real problems of life (along with birth, death, and disease). Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasizes that although scientists make many claims, they have no solution to stop a person from becoming old. It is a compulsory "tax" of the material body.
- Social and Physical Misery: The quotes describe the social decline that accompanies aging. An old man who can no longer earn is often neglected by his wife and children, like an old bull that has ceased to work. Physically, the senses become invalid, yet the desire for enjoyment often remains, causing great suffering.
- The Spiritual Contrast: The soul does not age. Kṛṣṇa is always fresh and youthful (nava-yauvana), and those who revive their spiritual identity attain a body that never becomes old. The example of Uddhava is given: though physically old, his service attitude and spirit remained eternally mature and fresh.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Why No One Wants to Become Old.
Pages in category "Becoming Old"
The following 79 pages are in this category, out of 79 total.
A
- A farmer does not like an old bull who has ceased to work. Similarly, when an attached person in family life becomes old and is unable to earn, he is no longer liked by his wife, sons, daughters and other kinsmen, and he is consequently neglected
- A human being, he should learn about the Bhagavata-dharma from the beginning of his kaumara age, not that keep it aside, "When I shall become old man, then I shall read the scriptures." No. Kaumara, from the boyhood. Kaumara acaret prajnah
- A young man accepts a young wife who is very beautiful in the beginning, but in due course of time, after giving birth to many children and becoming older and older, she demands many things from the husband to maintain the entire family
- According to our human society, the youthful life begins at sixteen years. So Krsna is like that. He'll look always sixteen to twenty years old, not more than that. We have never seen Krsna has become old
- After your (Dhruva) father goes to the forest and awards you the rule of his kingdom, you will rule continuously the entire world for thirty-six thousand years, and all your senses will continue to be as strong as they are now. You will never become old
- All these scientists, they discover so many things. Why they did not discover something that he would not die? He would not become old? Where is that discovery? They will say: "Yes, in future"
- As far as disease and old age are concerned, everyone gets practical experience. No one wants to be diseased, and no one wants to become old, but there is no avoiding these. BG 1972 purports
- As old garments, old shirts and coats, we change, similarly, when this body becomes old enough not to be used, we change to another body. Tatha dehantara-praptih (BG 2.13). This is real knowledge
- As soon as you take birth, your body also becomes older, and you must suffer from disease. This is called imperfection. But they have become so dull that they cannot understand. They cannot imagine that one can be perfect against this imperfection
- As the spirit soul is leaving the body, do you become older?
- At home they (Gosvamis) had more time to sleep, but when they went to Vrndavana they were sleeping only one half-hour to two hours only. At the present moment, when a man becomes old, he requires more rest but according to Vedic civilization, no more rest
- At such a time (after giving birth to many children and becoming older and older) the wife becomes detestable to the very man who accepted her in her younger days
- At the last stage, when the gross body becomes old and invalid, the living entity is reluctant to give it up, despite the fact that it is no longer usable
E
- Even if I do not want to become old man, I will be forced to become old man. Suppose nature is offering me a dog's body. If I say, "No, no, I will not accept this," no, you will be forced to accept it. That is nature's law
- Everybody takes birth, then remains for some time, grows and then from the body some other bodies are also come out. In this way one becomes old; that means dwindling. And one day will come he'll be finished. These are called six kinds of transformation
- Everyone knows that he is going to die. He has taken birth; he has become old; he has suffered diseases. Then where is the solution?
- Everyone should become diseased. Everyone should become old. Everyone must die. This is the problem
- Everyone will die. So nobody can check death. However great scientist he may, he cannot stop death. By laws of nature one is becoming old. By your scientific advancement you can stop first of all
I
- I have become old, and you are also old, although not so old as I am. We may pass away, but my disciples will carry on this festival yearly, and so it will be remembered forever our eternal relationship with Jagannathaji and Radha-Govindaji
- I have now become too old and disturbed by invalidity. While I write, my hands tremble. I cannot remember anything, nor can I see or hear properly. Still I write, and this is a great wonder
- I will wait until I become old man, then I will become spiritually advanced. No, it is better if one starts immediately
- In childhood I used to take my ratha with my little friends, about 60 years ago. Again I am reviving the same attempt with my young disciples. I have become old, and you are also old. We may pass away, but my disciples will carry on this festival yearly
- In due course of time, when the body becomes old and practically invalid, it is subject to jara, the sufferings of old age
- In Padma Purana it is stated that when prasada is brought or received, it must be eaten immediately, even if it has become very dry or old, or even if it is brought from a distant place, or even if one has not completed executing his daily duties
- In this way, Krsna and Balarama, acting like small boys and talking in half-broken language, gave transcendental pleasure to all the inhabitants of Vraja. In due course of time, They became old enough to take care of the calves - SB 10.11.37
- It (body) will grow, it will produce some byproducts, then it will become old and dwindle and then vanish, and then I shall have to accept another body
- It is not that they become old and there is no more enjoyment or they are separated or somebody, Krsna goes somewhere and the Radharani goes to somewhere. No. Everything is eternal. They are enjoying
N
- Nobody likes death, but death is there. Nobody likes to become old, but the old age is there. Why they set aside these big problems and he's proud of scientific advancement of knowledge? What kind of education this is?
- Nobody likes to die, but nature will force you to become dead. Nobody wants to become old man, but nature will force you to become old man. Nobody wants to suffer from diseases, but nature will force you to suffer from diseases. These are the problems
- Nobody wants to become old man. Why he's enforced to become old man? But they have no brain to understand what is independence, what is happiness. They have taken distress as happiness. So that is due to lack of knowledge
- Nobody wants to become old, everyone wants to remain young and fresh, but old age overcomes. Similarly, disease. There are scientific advancement of knowledge, you have got very effective medicines, but there is no science to stop disease or to stop death
- Nobody wants to die; he wants to continue. Why he becomes old? Old means warning and, of the... Just like the, what is that, yellow street light. "Now please prepare for the red light." So this is coming... You stop this
- Nobody wants to take birth, but he is forced to take birth. Nobody wants to become old man, but he becomes old man. And nobody wants to become diseased, but he is forced to take some disease. This is our condition
- Now we are at the Dallas school and it is very nice place and just suitable for educating your son here when he becomes old enough, at least four or five years old
O
S
- Since born one is taken care, he thinks "Now, I have got so comfortable life." And again becomes old, disgusted, so he cannot live disgusting, therefore Krsna is so kind: "All right, change body again"
- Since he (Dhruva) ruled over the world for thirty-six thousand years, naturally one may conclude that he became very, very old, but factually his senses were very young - and yet he was not interested in sense gratification
- Since the creation of the material world, everyone has been trying to attain a permanent life, but the laws of nature are so cruel that no one has been able to avoid the hand of death. No one wants to die, nor does anyone want to become old or diseased
- So our present condition is diseased. Why you are dying? Because you are diseased. Why you are becoming old? Because you are diseased. That is due to this body. But actually I am spirit soul. I am neither old nor diseased
- Sometimes they paint the picture of God as very old man. Because He is the original person, so by this time He must have become very old. This is imagination. This is not actually the form of the Lord. The form of the Lord is there in the Brahma-samhita
- Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has sung: vrddha kala aola saba sukha bhagala. When one becomes old, it becomes impossible to enjoy material happiness
- Sukracarya first cursed Yayati to become old so that he could no longer indulge in sex, but when Sukracarya saw that Yayati's emasculation would make his own daughter a victim of punishment, he used his mystic power to restore Yayati's masculinity
T
- Temporary means it has a beginning, it stays for some time, then it transforms, then it becomes old, and it vanquishes. The spiritual nature, however, is different from this nature. The spiritual nature has no beginning, neither it has end
- That is real knowledge, that "I don't want to die, but I am forced to die. I don't want to become old man, but I am forced to become old man. I don't want any disease, but disease is forced upon me." So these are the real problems
- That is sastra. Not that "So many years have passed and it has become old. Now let us reform it and put it into new way." No. You can put the same thing in a new way, but you cannot change the principle
- The average person is illusioned in childhood, playing frivolous games. Up to twenty years, easily, you can go on like that. Then when you become old, for another twenty years you cannot do anything
- The body, for example, takes birth at a certain date, and then it grows and stays for some time. From the body come so many byproducts in the form of sons and daughters, and then the body becomes old and weak, and finally when it is very old it dies
- The invalidity of old age known as jara is figuratively explained here as the daughter of Time. No one likes her, but she is very much anxious to accept anyone as her husband. No one likes to become old and invalid, but this is inevitable for everyone
- The living being grows little by little within the womb, is born, then continues growing, becomes a child, boy, youth, adult, old man, then finally dwindles and meets death, despite all the good wishes and hopeful pipe dreams of fiction writers
- The Lord said, "Now that you have become old, you may reduce the number of rounds you chant daily. You are already liberated, and therefore you need not follow the regulative principles very strictly"
- This is our real disease, to take birth, to die, to become old and to become victims of disease. But nobody knows how to cure this
- This is our real miserable condition of life. We have to die, we have to take birth again, and again we have to become old, and there will be disease. Between birth and death
- This is science. "I do not want to be old. Why I become old?" Nityah sasvato 'yam. Because the living entity is eternal, so why he should become old? Krsna never becomes old. Krsna's picture you have never seen old. Similarly, you also cannot become old
- Time deteriorates even the body itself, which is the medium for all sensual satisfaction, but even when a man becomes old and invalid, his desires are strong enough to dictate that he go here and there to satisfy the desires of his senses
- To take birth and again to die, and so long we live we must suffer from some disease and we must become old. Plain truth
W
- We are imperfect. Whatever I may be, you may be, but if I am subjected to birth, death, old age and disease, then I am imperfect. Therefore the perfectional..., perfection of life is when you haven't got to take birth or die or become diseased and old
- We can drive this machine called the body for so many years; then it becomes old, and we have to change it for another machine. This is the process of birth and death
- We do not understand even that there is possibility of amrtatvam. But everything is possible. Amrtatvam. Nobody wants to die. That's a fact. Nobody wants to become old man, nobody wants to become diseased. This is our natural inclination
- When a man becomes old, his senses cannot function. You have seen many old men; they have nothing to do but rest
- When a person becomes very old, he should be very intelligent
- When he became old, he was very anxious to hand over the worship to the charge of someone reliable, and in a dream he got permission from Jagannatha Prabhu to hand it over to a person whom he would meet the next morning
- When I say that "You are young man. You'll become old man," either you are Christian or Hindu, Muslim, this is a fact. So don't bring in "The Christian believe this" or "Hindu believe this." Fact is fact
- When I shall become old means
- When the body becomes old, a perfect yogi can find a young, able body. Giving up his old body, the yogi can enter into the young body and act as he pleases. Being a plenary expansion of Lord Vasudeva, Lord Rsabhadeva possessed all these mystic yoga powers
- When this material body becomes old and worn out, or when it is rendered useless by some accident, we put it aside as we might put aside a soiled or ruined suit and take up another material body
- Who wants to die? And who is forcing me to die? How we can deny the superior power? I do not want to become old man, and superior power forces me, "You must become old man." So, so long there is force behind you, you have to act according to that
- Why I am put into this body which will be destroyed, which will become old, useless? And where is my freedom?" These things do not bother them, and they are reader of Bhagavad-gita... Is it the sin of some of the...?
- Why you are suffering? Why we are dying? Why you are taking birth? Why you are becoming old? On account of this material body. This is knowledge
Y
- Yayati begged his father-in-law (Sukracarya) to withdraw his curse, but the sage asked Yayati to ask youthfulness from his sons and let them become old as the condition of his becoming potent
- You are becoming old and you do not want to become old; therefore to save yourself, not to become old, you have to surrender
- You know that you'll become an old man. So this body will not exist. Another body you will get, old age body. Therefore you will exist; the body will change