SB 1.13.47 (1965)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT No. 47
Ahastani sahastanam apadani chatuspadam Phalguni tatra mahatam jivo jivasya jivanam.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Ahastani—those who are devoid of hands, Sahastanam—of those who are endowed with hands, Apadani—those who are devoid of legs, Chatuspadanam—of those who have four legs, Phalguni—those who are weak, Tatra—there, Mahatam—of the poweful, Jivo—the living being, Jivanam—subsistance.
TRANSLATION
Those who are devoid of hands are subsistence for those who are endowed with hands, those who are devoid of legs are of the four legged. As such the weak is the subsistence of the strong and the general rule is that one living being is the food for another living being.
PURPORT
A systematic law of subsistence in the field of struggle for existence is there by the Supreme will and there is no escape by anyone by any amount of planning commission. The living being who have come to the material world against the will of the Supreme Being are under the control of a Supreme Power called the Maya Shakti deputed agent of the Lord and this Daivi Maya is meant for pinching the conditioned souls by three fold miseries one of which is explained here in this verse that the weak is the subsistence of the strong. But nobody is strong enough to protect himself from the onslaught of the stronger one and by the will of the Lord there are systematic categories of the weak and the strongest than the stronger. There is nothing to be lamented if a tiger eats another weaker animal including the man because that is the law of the Supreme Lord. But for the human being, although the law is there that the human being must subsist on another living being, there is the law of good sense also for the human being which is meant to obey the law of the scriptures also which is impossible for other animals. The human being is meant for self realisation and for that purpose he is not to eat anything which is not first offered to the Lord. The Lord accepts from his devotee all kinds of food preparations made of vegetables namely fruits and leaves and as such grains fruits leaves and milk in different varieties of foodstuff can be offered to the Lord and after acceptance of the food stuff by the Lord a human being devotee of the Lord can partake of the Prasadam by which his all sufferings of struggle for existence will be gradually mitigated. This is confirmed in the Bhagwat Geeta (B.G. 9/22). Even those who are accustomed to eat animals they can offer the foodstuff not to the Lord directly but to the agent particular of the Lord under certain conditions of religious rites. And injunctions of the scriptures are not meant for encouraging the eaters in animal foodstuff but to restrict them by regulated principles.
The living being is the source of subsistence for other sronger living beings. Nobody should be very anxious for his subsistence at any circumstances because there are living beings everywhere and no living being starves for want of food at any place. Maharaj Yudhisthir is advised by Narada not to worry for his uncles that they would suffer for want of food but on the contrary they could live on vegetables available there also in the jungle as Prasadam of the Supreme Lord and thus realise the path of salvation.
Exploitation of the weaker living being by the strong is the natural law for existence; there is always an attempt to devour the weak by the stronger neighbour in different kingdoms of the living being. There is no possiblity of checking this tendency by any artificial means under material condition but it can only be checked by awakening the spiritual sense of the human kind by practice of the spiritual regulations. The spiritual regulative principles however does not allow a man to slaughter the weaker animals on one side and teach others for peaceful co-existence. If you do not allow the animals for peaceful co-existence under good sense of humanity how you can expect peaceful co-existence in the human society. The blind leaders of human being must therefore understand the Supreme Being and then try to implement the Kingdom of God. Kingdom of God or Ramrajya is impossible without the awakening of God consciousness in the mass mind of the people of the world.