TEXT 16
nityam ksut-ksama-dehasya
daridrasyanna-kanksinah
indriyany anususyanti
himsapi vinivartate
SYNONYMS
nityamalways; ksutwith hunger; ksamaweak, without necessary strength; dehasyaof the body of a poor man; daridrasyapoverty-stricken; anna-kanksinahalways desiring to get sufficient food; indriyanithe senses, which are compared to snakes; anususyantigradually become weaker and weaker, with less potency; himsa apithe tendency to be envious of others; vinivartatereduces.
TRANSLATION
Always hungry, longing for sufficient food, a poverty-stricken man gradually becomes weaker and weaker. Having no extra potency, his senses are automatically pacified. A poverty-stricken man, therefore, is unable to perform harmful, envious activities. In other words, such a man automatically gains the results of the austerities and penances adopted voluntarily by saintly persons.
PURPORT
According to the opinion of experienced medical practitioners, diabetes is a result of voracious eating, and tuberculosis is a disease of undereating. We should desire neither to be diabetic nor to be tubercular. Yavad artha-prayojanam. We should eat frugally and keep the body fit for advancing in Krsna consciousness. As recommended elsewhere in Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.10):
kamasya nendriya-pritir
labho jiveta yavata
jivasya tattva-jijnasa
nartho yas ceha karmabhih
The real business of human life is to keep oneself fit for advancement in spiritual realization. Human life is not meant for making the senses unnecessarily strong so that one suffers from disease and one increases in an envious, fighting spirit. In this age of Kali, however, human civilization is so misled that people are unnecessarily increasing in economic development, and as a result they are opening more and more slaughterhouses, liquor shops and brothels. In this way, the whole civilization is being spoiled.

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