Hinduism

=== Asrama ===
[[File:Iraivan Temple.jpg|thumb|[[Saiva Siddhanta Church|Kauai Hindu monastery]] in [[Kauai Island]] in Hawaii is the only Hindu Monastery in the North American continent.]]
{{Main|Āśrama (stage)}}
Traditionally the life of a Hindu is divided into four Āśramas (phases or life stages; another meaning includes monastery).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Olivelle |first=Patrick |title=The Āśrama System: The History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution |url=https://archive.org/details/asramasystemhist00oliv |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1993 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/asramasystemhist00oliv/page/n1 1]–29, 84–111 |isbn=978-0-19-508327-9 |oclc=466428084}}</ref> The four ashramas are: [[Brahmacharya]] (student), [[Grihastha]] (householder), [[Vānaprastha]] (retired) and [[Sannyasa]] (renunciation).<ref name="rks">{{Cite book |last=Sharma |first=RK |title=Indian Society, Institutions and Change |year=1999 |isbn=978-81-7156-665-5 |page=28|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist }}</ref>
Brahmacharya represents the bachelor student stage of life. Grihastha refers to the individual's married life, with the duties of maintaining a household, raising a family, educating one's children, and leading a family-centred and a dharmic social life.<ref name="rks" /> Grihastha stage starts with Hindu wedding, and has been considered the most important of all stages in sociological context, as Hindus in this stage not only pursued a virtuous life, they produced food and wealth that sustained people in other stages of life, as well as the offsprings that continued mankind.{{sfn|Widgery|1930}} Vanaprastha is the retirement stage, where a person hands over household responsibilities to the next generation, took an advisory role, and gradually withdrew from the world.<ref name="alnu">{{Cite book |last=Nugteren |first=Albertina |title=Belief, Bounty, And Beauty: Rituals Around Sacred Trees in India |publisher=Brill Academic |year=2005 |isbn=978-90-04-14601-3 |pages=13–21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Saraswathi |title=Bridging Cultural and Developmental Approaches to Psychology |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-538343-0 |editor-last=Jensen |editor-first=Lene Arnett |pages=280–286 |chapter=Reconceptualizing Lifespan Development through a Hindu Perspective |display-authors=etal}}</ref> The Sannyasa stage marks renunciation and a state of disinterest and detachment from material life, generally without any meaningful property or home (ascetic state), and focused on Moksha, peace and simple spiritual life.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Radhakrishnan |first=S. |year=1922 |title=The Hindu Dharma |journal=International Journal of Ethics |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=1–22 |doi=10.1086/intejethi.33.1.2377174|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="DP Bhawuk 2011 pages 93-110">{{Cite book |last=Bhawuk |first=DP |title=Spirituality and Indian Psychology |url=https://archive.org/details/spiritualityindi00bhaw |publisher=Springer |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4419-8109-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/spiritualityindi00bhaw/page/93 93]–110 |chapter=The Paths of Bondage and Liberation}}</ref>

The Ashramas system has been one facet of the dharma concept in Hinduism.{{sfn|Widgery|1930}} Combined with four proper goals of human life ([[Purusartha]]), the Ashramas system traditionally aimed at providing a Hindu with fulfilling life and spiritual liberation.{{sfn|Widgery|1930}} While these stages are typically sequential, any person can enter Sannyasa (ascetic) stage and become an Ascetic at any time after the Brahmacharya stage.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Holdrege |first=Barbara |title=The Hindu World |url=https://archive.org/details/hinduworld00mitt |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-415-21527-5 |editor-last=Mittal |editor-first=Sushil |page=[https://archive.org/details/hinduworld00mitt/page/231 231] |chapter=Dharma |editor-last2=Thursby |editor-first2=Gene}}</ref> Sannyasa is not religiously mandatory in Hinduism, and elderly people are free to live with their families.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Olivelle |first=Patrick |title=The Ashrama System: The History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-19-534478-3}}</ref>