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vanaprastha

vanaprastha noun: the third of four ashrama (stages) in a human life, characterised by a gradual transition of one's social and economic responsibilities to the next generation, and a move away from worldly and sexual pursuits to more spiritual concerns.

Noun

vanaprastha (uncountable)

  1. (Hinduism) The third of four ashrama (stages) in a human life, characterised by a gradual transition of one's social and economic responsibilities to the next generation, and a move away from worldly and sexual pursuits to more spiritual concerns.
    • ‘We should adopt Vanaprastha even while remaining householders. The responsibilities of being a householder should now be passed on to the children,’ she said.2015, Tridip Suhrud, translating Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi, Sarasvatichandra I, Orient BlackSwan 2015, p. 263

Origin of vanaprastha

From Sanskrit वनप्रस्थ (vanaprastha).

Questions about vanaprastha

What does vanaprastha mean?
Vanaprastha means the third of four ashrama (stages) in a human life, characterised by a gradual transition of one's social and economic responsibilities to the next generation, and a move away from worldly and sexual pursuits to more spiritual concerns.
What part of speech is vanaprastha?
Vanaprastha is a noun.

Words near vanaprastha in the dictionary

  1. Vanalstynes
  2. Vanaman
  3. Vanamans
  4. Vanantwerp
  5. Vanantwerps
  6. vanaprastha
  7. vanara
  8. vanaras
  9. Vanard
  10. Vanarsdale
  11. Vanarsdales

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: vanaprastha (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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