198 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 6, Ch. 4

TEXT 9
FA AMAR TS: Weahony |
FEM eg farat a WAIT 113 II

annam caranam acara
hy apadah pada-carinam
ahasta hasta-yuktanam
dvi-padam ca catus-padah

annam—food; caranadm—of those that move on wings; acaradh—the
nonmoving (fruits and flowers); hi—indeed; apadah—the living en-
tities without legs, like the grass; pdda-carinadm—of the animals who
move on legs, like the cows and buffalo; ahastah—animals without
hands; hasta-yuktanam—of the animals with hands, like the tigers: dvi-
padam—of human beings, who have two legs; ca—and; catuh-padah—
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-padam ca catus-padah: the four-legged animals
(catus-padah), as well as food grains, are eatables for human beings
(dvi-padam). 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 brahmanas, ksatriyas and vaisyas—do
not eat meat. Sometimes ksatriyas go to the forest to kill animals like
deer because they have to learn the art of killing, and sometimes they eat
