Text 8]
Understanding Material Nature
1143
he does, he offers for the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
TEXT 8
यद्यस्त्योपलब्धेन सन्तुष्टो मितभुङ् मुनिः । विविक्तशरणः शान्तो मैत्रः करुण आत्मवान् ॥ ८ ॥
yadṛcchayopalabdhena santuṣṭo mita-bhuṅ muniḥ vivikta-śaraṇaḥ śānto maitraḥ karuṇa ātmavān
yadṛcchayā—without difficulty; upalabdhena—with what is obtained; santuṣṭaḥ—satisfied; mita—little; bhuk—eating; muniḥ—thoughtful; vivikta-śaraṇaḥ—living in a secluded place; śāntaḥ—peaceful; maitraḥ—friendly; karuṇaḥ—compassionate; ātma-vān—self-possessed, self-realized.
TRANSLATION
For his income a devotee should be satisfied with what he earns without great difficulty. He should not eat more than what is necessary. He should live in a secluded place and always be thoughtful, peaceful, friendly, compassionate and self-realized.
PURPORT
Everyone who has accepted a material body must maintain the necessities of the body by acting or earning some livelihood. A devotee should only work for such income as is absolutely necessary. He should be satisfied always with such income and should not endeavor to earn more and more simply to accumulate the unnecessary. A person in the conditioned state who has no money is always found to be working very hard to earn some with the object of lording it over material nature. Kapiladeva instructs that we should not endeavor hard for things which may come automatically, without extraneous labor. The exact word used in this connection,  yadṛcchayā , means that every living entity has a predestined happiness and distress in his present body; this is called the law of  karma . It is not possible that simply by endeavors to accumulate more money a person will be able to do so, otherwise almost everyone would be on the same level of wealth. In reality everyone is earning and acquiring according to his predestined  karma . According to the  Bhāgavatam  con-