Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 1.19.39

nunam bhagavato brahman

grhesu grha-medhinam

na laksyate hy avasthanam

api go-dohanam kvacit

SYNONYMS

nunam -- because; bhagavatah -- of you, who are powerful; brahman -- O brahmana; grhesu -- in the houses; grha-medhinam -- of the householders; na -- not; laksyate -- are seen; hi -- exactly; avasthanam -- staying in; api -- even; go-dohanam -- milking the cow; kvacit -- rarely.

TRANSLATION

O powerful brahmana, it is said that you hardly stay in the houses of men long enough to milk a cow.

PURPORT

Saints and sages in the renounced order of life go to the houses of the householders at the time they milk the cows, early in the morning, and ask some quantity of milk for subsistence. A pound of milk fresh from the milk bag of a cow is sufficient to feed an adult with all vitamin values, and therefore saints and sages live only on milk. Even the poorest of the householders keep at least ten cows, each delivering twelve to twenty quarts of milk, and therefore no one hesitates to spare a few pounds of milk for the mendicants. It is the duty of householders to maintain the saints and sages, like the children. So a saint like Sukadeva Gosvami would hardly stay at the house of a householder for more than five minutes in the morning. In other words, such saints are very rarely seen in the houses of householders, and Maharaja Pariksit therefore prayed to him to instruct him as soon as possible. The householders also should be intelligent enough to get some transcendental information from visiting sages. The householder should not foolishly ask a saint to deliver what is available in the market. That should be the reciprocal relation between the saints and the householders.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness