Hinduism proposes an alternate paradigm, which I'll call the spiritual model of aging. According to this model, the later years are not simply a time to battle one's decline or keep oneself occupied with business and pleasures. Rather, life's second half provides unique opportunities for soul-expansion. Even the losses associated with the passage of years can provide modes of liberation. As the story of Buddha suggested, such losses can help us awaken. They thrust us against the limits of our ego-self, and invite us to go beyond. They provide the impetus, the maturity, the leisure, to plunge into the spiritual quest. For some, this transition to renunciation can come early, maybe in our thirties, forties, or fifties, provoked by life's upheavals. For others, it will be associated with retirement or the approach of death. But it is never too soon to begin the work of "aging gracefully" by contacting the source of grace.
— Drew Leder, Spiritual Passages