Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 11.8.20

indriyāṇi jayanty āśu

nirāhārā manīṣiṇaḥ

varjayitvā tu rasanaḿ

tan nirannasya vardhate

SYNONYMS

indriyāṇi — the material senses; jayanti — they conquer; āśu — quickly; nirāhārāḥ — those who restrain the senses from their objects; manīṣiṇaḥ — the learned; varjayitvā — except for; tu — however; rasanam — the tongue; tat — its desire; nirannasya — for one who is fasting; vardhate — increases.

TRANSLATION

By fasting, learned men quickly bring all of the senses except the tongue under control, because by abstaining from eating such men are afflicted with an increased desire to gratify the sense of taste.

PURPORT

In South America there is a saying that when the belly is full the heart is content. Thus, one who is eating sumptuously is jolly, and if one is deprived of proper food one's appetite becomes even more voracious. An intelligent person, however, does not fall under the control of the tongue, but rather tries to make progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. By accepting the remnants of food offered to the Lord (prasādam), one gradually purifies the heart and automatically becomes simple and austere.

In this connection, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura states that the business of the tongue is to gratify itself with the varieties of flavor, but by wandering in the twelve holy forests of Vraja-mandala (Vṛndāvana), one can be freed from the twelve flavors of material sense gratification. The five principal divisions of material relationships are neutral admiration, servitude, friendship, parental affection and conjugal love; the seven subordinate features of material relationships are material humor, astonishment, chivalry, compassion, anger, dread and ghastliness. Originally, these twelve rasas, or flavors of relationships, are exchanged between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entity in the spiritual world; and by wandering in the twelve forests of Vṛndāvana one can respiritualize the twelve flavors of personal existence. Thus one will become a liberated soul, free from all material desires. If one artificially tries to give up sense gratification, especially that of the tongue, the attempt will be a failure, and in fact one's desire for sense gratification will increase as a result of artificial deprivation. Only by experiencing real, spiritual pleasure in relationship with Kṛṣṇa can one give up material desires.

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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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