Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 11.17.42

brāhmanasya hi deho 'yam

kshudra-kāmāya neshyate

kricchrāya tapase ceha

pretyānanta-sukhāya ca

SYNONYMS

brāhmanasya — of a brāhmana; hi — certainly; dehah — body; ayam — this; kshudra — insignificant; kāmāya — for sense gratification; na — not; ishyate — is meant; kricchrāya — for difficult; tapase — austerities; ca — also; iha — in this world; pretya — after death; ananta — unlimited; sukhāya — happiness; ca — also.

TRANSLATION

The body of a brāhmana is not intended to enjoy insignificant material sense gratification; rather, by accepting difficult austerities in his life, a brāhmana will enjoy unlimited happiness after death.

PURPORT

One may ask why a brāhmana should voluntarily accept inconvenience in keeping his body and soul together. In this verse the Lord explains that advanced human life is meant for serious austerity and not for insignificant sense gratification. By spiritual advancement one is fixed in transcendental bliss on the spiritual platform and gives up useless absorption in the temporary material body. One should remain detached from the material body, accepting only the bare necessities of life. The brāhmanas, by accepting a troublesome form of livelihood, never forget that the material body is destined to grow old, become diseased and die in misery. Thus remaining alert and transcendental, an advanced brāhmana, at the end of this life, goes back home, back to Godhead, where he enjoys unlimited spiritual bliss. Without such higher awareness, how can one be considered a qualified brāhmana?

Those devotees engaged twenty-four hours a day in spreading the mission of Lord Krishna are beyond the platform of renunciation or sense gratification because they engage everything in Lord Krishna's service. A pure devotee of the Lord eats only to get strength for serving the Lord and does not accept either sumptuous or meager food simply for the body's sake. However, everything may be accepted for the Lord, even sumptuous meals. A brāhmana who is not working day and night to spread the glories of the Lord should feel embarrassed to eat sumptuously for his personal sense gratification, but a renounced Vaishnava preacher may accept invitations from all classes of pious people, and just to bless their homes he will eat the opulent foods they offer to him. Similarly, he sometimes eats sumptuously to get strength for defeating atheists and impersonalists. As stated in Vedic literature, one cannot be a highly qualified brāhmana unless one becomes a devotee of the Lord. And among the devotees, those who are preaching Krishna consciousness are the best, as confirmed by the Lord Himself in the Eighteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.

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