A very well-read and dear relative of mine — himself who just recently turned an octogenarian— forwarded to me this morning via WhatsApp a very interesting and insightful message on what is “GROWTH in OLD AGE” and really what it means with reference to the famous Vedic passage known as “CHAMAKA PRASHNA” (Krishna Yajurveda, specifically in the Taittiriya Samhita (4th Kāṇḍa, 7th Prapāṭhaka or Prasna). This is a Vedic hymn that forms the second part of the Shri Rudram chant. It is a prayer seeking both material and spiritual blessings, where the devotee requests for abundance, well-being, knowledge, strength, prosperity, and ultimate fulfillment. The chant emphasizes the holistic fulfillment of human aspirations, seeking a balance between worldly prosperity and spiritual elevation.
After I had read the forwarded WhatsApp post , I could not help the rapid thoughts that flew through my own mind on the subject. I felt that my own impressions on Old Age and Growth ought to be recorded here since I’m myself on the cusp of turning all of 70 years in 2026 … and who knows? … if I too lived to be 80 years like my dear relative , I might one day then perhaps rediscover this blogpost and be again able to recollect the importance of this forwarded message and refresh and rejuvenate my octogenarian mind with it.
You can first read the full text of the forwarded WhatsApp message below . Thereafter, if you scroll further down, you can also read my own thoughts and the impressions I expressed immediately upon reading the message.
I wonder if both the WhatsApp forward and my ruminations on it will also elicit the responses of other senior citizens who happen to read this blogpost.
Sudarshan Madabushi
*****************
This writing about “Old age” by Sri Gollapudi Maruti Rao superbly describes the interpretation of getting older:👇🏻👇🏻
In the sacred Sri Rudram of the Yajur Veda, there is a section called Chamakam. Hidden within its rhythmic chants lies a curious prayer:
“Vr̥dham cha me, vr̥dhiś cha me” — “Grant me growth, and grant me old age.”
At first, it sounds strange. To ask for growth makes sense — but why ask for old age? Why invite what most people fear?
The answer lies in its spiritual wisdom.
The seeker, who cannot easily free himself from the web of desires and pleasures, is praying not for more life, but for liberation from it —for that sacred stage of mind where longing ends, where the restless heart finds stillness.
Among countless worldly wishes,
he places one rare, luminous request:
“Grant me the blessing of old age —
the age that brings detachment.”
Perhaps, in no other faith, has any devotee asked a god for such a mature, profound gift — not wealth, not power, not youth —but the quiet grace of aging.
It is as if he is saying: “O Lord, this mind of mine is a monkey —leaping, chattering, never still. You may have to satisfy its whims; there is no avoiding that. But someday, please bless me
with the strength, serenity, and age
to let go of every whim. Grant me old age.”
Old age is not a curse; it is a destination — a station that everyone reaches, whether they wish to or not. It is the shaded rest house at life’s end, where one lays down the baggage of ambition, and gently revisits the faded memories of youth.
Old age is also a gift — a time to look back and smile at past mistakes, to take pride in the obstacles once overcome,
and to breathe a peaceful sigh, knowing there are no more mountains to climb.
Old age walks a step behind one’s son,
leans softly on a granddaughter’s shoulder, and learns to make peace with truths that life refused to bend.
When the son says, “You don’t understand, Dad,” there is no anger anymore. The old man smiles —
for he knows that his son, too, must someday trade his ignorance for wisdom.
He does not feel hurt when the young say, “You won’t understand.” Instead, he feels proud — that a generation has grown confident enough to question him. He understands, quietly and completely.
When his wife says gently, “Let him do what he thinks is right,” he bows his head in calm agreement. Criticism no longer stings; insults no longer burn.
For the one who has walked the full circle of life finds peace in simply being.
Old age earns respect — not for the achievements of youth, but for the grace of endurance, for the wisdom that time alone can bestow.
It is not the end. It is the summit —the final, serene height from which life looks beautifully complete..
— Sri Gollapudi Maruti Rao (Translated and Adapted in English)
*****************
The following is the appreciative response that M. K. Sudarshan (the “Unknown Sri Vaishnava”) thought it fit to send to Sri Gollapudi Maruti Rao):
Very true … and well articulated …
It also triggers a related train of thoughts within my own mind :
The Chamakam phrase that prays for “growth” — “vriddischa may”..— is for growth to be attained through cessation of all Desires in old age… except the one paramount desire that seeks freedom from all other petty worldly desires … Here, we must allude to Andal’s significant phrase (Tamil) in the Tiruppaavai: “mattrai namm kaamangal maatru”… (pray, put an end to all other desire)
The beauty of Nature is that it is naturally designed to diminish Desires and Passions in the inevitable and irreversible passage of time .
All Desires are desires of the Sarira or Body alone . They are collectively called “Kama”.
One of life’s principal goals ( purushaartha) is indeed the satiation of bodily desires, Kama . But Kama is only a transient, evanescent “Purushaartha”. It is not the ultimate one , not the “neengaadha selvam”(“the inexhaustible bounty”, in Tamil) that Andal in her Tiruppavai speaks about.
Kama is not the goal post. It is only a milestone on the path of life that Nature lays for the human being on earth. It the milestone beyond which the man whose Sarira is ageing must travel still further and beyond to the ultimate purushaartha… that Desire that permanently puts an end to all desires . That desire is “neengaadha selvam”.
In old age , we see that there is an irresistible urge to turn back, however, the clock somehow … To try and delay if not impede precisely this unique function of Nature.
Nature by design thus weakens the Body in order to ensure that Desires in time start to wane and eventually they will release too their iron grip on us. Our appetites will diminish. Our senses will not function efficiently. We will lose the old zest for so many objects and experiences which once used to thrill us and excite us ….
All these are not so much to be regarded as signs of incipient senility of the mind and body but are to be recognised and respected more as Nature’s way of signalling to us our soulful growth .. the Growth that the “chamaka prashna” too asks for through the prayer “vriddischa may!”. .. In metaphoric terms, it is from the chrysalis that the butterfly finally grows out … In other words , Nature is indeed telling us not to worry too much (Deha–vichaara) about our steady bodily degradation but to rejoice in the commencement of a new life in spiritual growth. Nature is telling us that finally in our old age , the journey of life is nearing its preordained destination: truly the only real permanent and joyous deal awaiting us … It is the spiritual deal called “parama purushaartha”, the same deal for which Andaal coined “neengaadha Selvam”, an exquisite Tamil phrase.
*******
Modern life, education and lifestyles, however, do not seem to understand or appreciate Nature’s subtle design for the Body and Soul, nor the dynamics of Growth or the Adhyaathmic experience when the Sarira begins to age and wither.
Modern life, we see all around us today, instead, only urges us to defy ageing … I.e. it encourages us to go on trying to reverse the natural course of Growth from going forward, and instead, to revert or regress to that state called Kama — hankering after transient or ephemeral goals in life such as creature comforts, sensual enjoyment and continuing obsession with all manner of bodily gratification (“preyas”, not “shreyas”, to use Upanishad terminology)
Thus, even in old age, we are all daily bombarded by social media and electronic media sermons and advisories , by health-care and beauty experts’ homilies, and by the brainwash-material offered to us by so-called “wellness life-coaches” and jet-age “gurus” and “mentors” to think of Ageing as something whose natural progress must somehow be retarded and delayed through all kinds of artificial and artful means : e.g. beauty care treatment, health and wellness spa retreats, Botox, breast uplift and facial plastic surgery, hair-implant for balding men’s scalps, exotic diet regimes, sweating it out daily in gymnasium and “yoga centre” work-out centres, running city marathons … and so on and so forth, — activities all prescribed and peddled to us as “anti–ageing (reversing) or age defying” new-age cures and techniques for the modern generation that refuses to acknowledge that there is Growth in Ageing.
The Growth of the Soul that Nature itself has designed through the process of Bodily Ageing is thus sought to be denied; sought to be desperately thwarted and resisted by these maniacal pursuit of Kama when the Atma itself residing within the ageing Sarira yearns only for the ultimate “purushaartha” called Liberation or “moksha”. Both the Chamaka Prashna and the Tiruppaavai hold it up to us as destiny in the eternal realm of Bhagavan.
**********
“Shubhamasthu”
Sudarshan Madabushi