Study a Verse

• The word udara-bhājana indicates that a saintly person eats only to keep body and soul together and not for sense gratification.
• One should eat palatable foodstuffs to maintain one’s mind in a cheerful mood; however, one should not eat luxuriously, because this will cause sex desire and laziness.
• To carelessly approach a Kṛṣṇa conscious personality is just like carelessly approaching fire, which immediately burns if not handled properly.

The purport's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Grief and dependence → Detachment. The temporary world becomes a source of spiritual instruction.

Chapters 7–9 of Canto 11: The avadhuta's twenty-four teachers. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 7: Lord Kṛṣṇa Instructs Uddhava

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

From the sky he had learned how the soul, which pervades all material substances, is both indivisible and imperceptible, and from the water he had learned how to be naturally clear and purifying. From the fire he had learned how to devour all things without becoming dirtied and how to destroy all the inauspicious desires of those who make offerings to him.