Grhastha must be prepared or trained up to give charity. And who will accept the charity? The charity will be accepted by the brahmacari and sannyasa. Not the vanaprastha. Brahmacari will accept charity on behalf of the spiritual master

Expressions researched:
"Gṛhastha must be prepared or trained up to give charity. And who will accept the charity? The charity will be accepted by the brahmacārī and sannyāsa. Not the vānaprastha. Brahmacārī will accept charity on behalf of the spiritual master"

Lectures

Festival Lectures

Grhastha must be prepared or trained up to give charity. And who will accept the charity? The charity will be accepted by the brahmacari and sannyasa. Not the vanaprastha. Brahmacari will accept charity on behalf of the spiritual master. And a sannyasi will accept charity only for his maintenance. That's all.

730905 - Lecture Festival Appearance Day, Srimati Radharani, Radhastami - London

Prabhupāda: . . . yajño dānaṁ tapaś caiva pāvanāni manīṣiṇām. There are four stages of spiritual life: the brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa. For brahmacārī, yajña. Yajña means to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Varṇāśramācāravatā puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān, viṣṇur ārādhyate (CC Madhya 8.58). The whole scheme . . .

(aside) I thinking I am feeling very hot. I have to take off . . .

In another place it is said, yajñārthāt karmaṇaḥ anyatra karma-bandhanaḥ (BG 3.9).

(sounds of Prabhupāda's sweater being removed)

(aside) Hmm. That's all right. That's all right. Keep it now.

So brahmacārī, in the beginning of life—brahmacārī means beginning of life, student life—they must be trained up how to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the first training. The brahmacārī is trained up to rise early in the morning and offers fire sacrifice, then studies of Vedas, then saṅkīrtana. There are so many routine work for brahmacārī. So this must be executed. And for gṛhastha, dāna, charity. Gṛhastha must be prepared or trained up to give charity. And who will accept the charity? The charity will be accepted by the brahmacārī and sannyāsa. Not the vānaprastha. Brahmacārī will accept charity on behalf of the spiritual master. And a sannyāsī will accept charity only for his maintenance. That's all.

The gṛhastha cannot accept charity. But a gṛhastha-brāhmaṇa, he can accept charity, but he will not, I mean to say, accumulate money by taking charity. Whatever he gets, he must spend then. Dāna-pratigraha. Pratigraha means accept. But he cannot keep in bank, a bank balance. He must, whatever extra he has got, he must immediately give in charity. Then he can accept, a gṛhastha-brāhmaṇa, accept charity. There is a proverb in Bengali that "A brahmin, even if he gets one lakh of rupees, one hundred thousands of rupees, still he is a beggar." Because he will not keep it. He will not keep it for . . . he will immediately distribute it in charity. Therefore he is called in Bengali lakh takai bamun bhikiri (A brāhmaṇa stays like a beggar even if he has got one lakh rupees.) It doesn't matter he gets one lakh of rupees' contribution, but still he remains a beggar, because immediately he will distribute. So these things are very important things. Yajña-dāna-tapaḥ. And for sannyāsī and vānaprastha—tapasya. Tapo divyam (SB 5.5.1). Tapasya means accepting voluntarily all kinds of inconveniences. Voluntarily.