Abstract

There is two parts in life- forenoon and afternoon. The afternoon part of life indicates the life at post retirement. At the afternoon stage of life, individual usually follows the rules of renunciation and detachment which the Vanaprastha of the Vedic Age directed. But at present global age, the elderly population lead a highly consumerised life. The present paper attempted to explore the above differences in the lives of elderly. For this purpose 100 elderly populations of 60-70 years of age living at Kolkata Metro were studied. From this study, it revealed that majority of them was suffering from various problems (physical and mental). They used to follow highly consumerised life. While a little portion of them lived with happiness because they were practicing the rules of Vanaprastha and they led a simple living with renunciation. They used to practice a spiritual living. So, it might be a path of happy aging and acceptance of death.

Keywords

Afternoon stage of life, Highly consumerised life, Renunciation, Spiritual practice, Vanaprastha, Clothing, Hierarchy, Environmental, Consumption, Philosophy, Qualitative analysis, Conjugal partners, Self-dependent, Private sectors, Matriculate, Observation