Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 6.4.9
Sthāna· The universe in orderRestrain Appetite and Protect Cows
“By nature’s arrangement, fruits and flowers are considered the food of insects and birds; grass and other legless living entities are meant to be the food of four-legged animals like cows and buffalo; animals that cannot use their front legs as hands are meant to be the food of animals like tigers, which have claws; and four-legged animals like deer and goats, as well as food grains, are meant to be the food of human beings.”
What the purport teaches
- By nature’s law, the arrangement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one kind of living entity serves as food for another.
- The purport distinguishes animals such as deer and goats from cows, which must never be killed or eaten. Cows are accepted as mothers of human society because they supply milk.
- Human life is meant for learning to curb material tendencies. Vaiśyas should provide food through agriculture and give full protection to cows.
Try this today
Choose a grain-and-vegetable meal today as a small exercise in restraining appetite.
Ask yourself
What food-related desire could you begin to restrain rather than simply satisfy?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
The study points, practice and question are short summaries drawn from Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport. Read the full purport to go deeper.