Vanaprastha:Example of King Malayadhvaja and Queen Vaidarbhi

Reference Post for context: Activities of a Disciple in Separation from Spiritual Master

Srila Prabhupada's purport on vanaprastha life SB 4.28.45:

1. The wife especially should remain austere, not desiring luxurious dresses and living standards. She should accept only the bare necessities of life and minimize her eating and sleeping.
   
2. There should be no question of mating. Simply by engaging in the service of her exalted husband, who must be a pure devotee, the wife will never be agitated by sex impulses. The vānaprastha stage is exactly like this. Although the wife remains with the husband, she undergoes severe austerities and penances so that although both husband and wife live together, there is no question of sex. In this way both husband and wife can live together perpetually.
   
3. Nonetheless, the wife is expected to give up all luxurious habits. She should not even dress nicely or comb her hair. Hair combing is one of the main businesses of women. In the vānaprastha stage the wife should not take care of her hair. Thus her hair will become tangled in knots. Consequently the wife will no longer be attractive to the husband, and she herself will no longer be agitated by sex impulses.
   
4. In this way both husband and wife can advance in spiritual consciousness. This advanced stage is called the paramahaḿsa stage, and once it is obtained, both husband and wife can be actually liberated from bodily consciousness. If the disciple remains steady in the service of the spiritual master, he need no longer fear falling down into the clutches of māyā.

Example of King Malayadhvaja:

1. He was a powerful king and great devotee.
   
2. He was not attached when retiring from family life as we can see he divided his kingdom amongst his sons and then engaged in worship,executing austerities and following regulative principles in a solitary place(nirjana bhajan).SB 4.28.33
3. Practiced austerities and became equipoised in dualities.Austerities prescribed in the sastras help one transcend the material body.Sense control can be achieved automatically by engaging in the Lord's service. SB 4.28.37
4. He became fixed by following these principles for 36000 years.
   
5. He attained the perfection of life: Not only did he come to the conclusion that Krsna is everything but he also remained fixed in that realization.

Example of Queen Vaidarbhi:

1. She gave up all sensual enjoyment and in complete renunciation followed the principles of her husband, who was so advanced. Thus she remained engaged in his service.SB 4.28.43
2. Srila Prabhupada says in this regard:"If a woman is fortunate enough to be the wife of a pure devotee, she can serve her husband without any desire for sense gratification. If she remains engaged in the service of her exalted husband, she will automatically attain the spiritual perfections of her husband."
   
3. She remained austere, accepted only bare necessities of life, minimized her eating and sleeping and dressed in old garments.
4. While serving her husband the Queen did not even talk to her husband while serving.he would simply perform her prescribed duties without talk.This is evident from text SB 4.28.45
5. When she discovered her husband had left his body, she cried out of affection for him and she then prepared a blazing fire with firewood and placed the dead body of her husband upon it. When this was finished, she lamented severely and prepared herself to perish in the fire with her husband.SB 4.28.50