198
Śrimad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 6, Ch. 4]
TEXT 9
अन्नं चराणामचरा ह्यपदः पादचारिणाम् । 
  अहस्ता हस्तयुक्तानां द्विपदां च चतुष्पदः ॥ ९ ॥
annam carāṇām acarā 
  hy apadaḥ pāda-cāriṇām 
  ahastā hasta-yuktāṇām 
  dvi-padām ca catuṣ-padaḥ
annam—food; carāṇām—of those that move on wings; acarāḥ—the nonmoving (fruits and flowers); hi—indeed; apadaḥ—the living entities without legs, like the grass; pāda-cāriṇām—of the animals who move on legs, like the cows and buffalo; ahastāḥ—animals without hands; hasta-yuktāṇām—of the animals with hands, like the tigers; dvi-padām—of human beings, who have two legs; ca—and; catuḥ-padaḥ—the four-legged animals like the deer.
TRANSLATION
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.
PURPORT
By nature's law, or the arrangement of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one kind of living entity is eatable by other living entities. As mentioned herein,  dvi-padām ca catuṣ-padaḥ : the four-legged animals ( catuṣ-padaḥ ), as well as food grains, are eatables for human beings ( dvi-padām ). These four-legged animals are those such as deer and goats, not cows, which are meant to be protected. Generally the men of the higher classes of society—the  brāhmaṇas ,  kṣatriyas  and  vaiśyas —do not eat meat. Sometimes  kṣatriyas  go to the forest to kill animals like deer because they have to learn the art of killing, and sometimes they eat