Text 16] Deliverance of the Yamala-arjuna Trees 189

nityam—always; ksut—with hunger; kséma—weak, without neces-
sary strength; dehasya—of the body of a poor man; daridrasya—
poverty-stricken; anna-kariksinah—always desiring to get sufficient
food; indriyani—the senses, which are compared to snakes;
anuSusyanti—gradually become weaker and weaker, with less potency;
himsad api—the tendency to be envious of others; vinivartate—reduces.

TRANSLATION

Always hungry, longing for sufficient food, a poverty-stricken
man gradually becomes weaker and weaker. Having no extra po-
tency, his senses are automatically pacified. A poverty-stricken
man, therefore, is unable to perform harmful, envious activities.
In other words, such a man automatically gains the results of the
austerities and penances adopted voluntarily by saintly persons.

PURPORT

According to the opinion of experienced medical practitioners,
diabetes is a result of voracious eating, and tuberculosis is a disease of
undereating. We should desire neither to be diabetic nor to be tubercu-
lar. Yavad artha-prayojanam. We should eat frugally and keep the body
fit for advancing in Krsna consciousness. As recommended elsewhere in

Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.10):

kamasya nendriya-pritir
labho jiveta yavata

Jivasya tattva-jyndsa
nartho yas ceha karmabhih

The real business of human life is to keep oneself fit for advancement in
spiritual realization. Human life is not meant for making the senses un-
necessarily strong so that one suffers from disease and one increases in
an envious, fighting spirit. In this age of Kali, however, human civiliza-
tion is so misled that people are unnecessarily increasing in economic
development, and as a result they are opening more and more
slaughterhouses, liquor shops and brothels. In this way, the whole
civilization is being spoiled.
