Don’T Live Like Hogs

Thus, looking to the spiritual advancement as well as the personal affairs of his sons, Maharaja Rsabhadeva instructed, "O my dear sons, do not think that this particular body, this human body, is the same as those bodies of the cats, dogs and hogs. Please do not think like that." Maharaja Rsabhadeva particularly mentions the word viḍ-bhujam which means a stool-eater. As in the human society the dog-eater is considered to be the lowest human, in the animal society those animals which eat stool are considered to be the lowest. The gradations of human beings and animals are also calculated according to their eating processes. Indeed, George Bernard Shaw has written one book entitled, "You Are What You Eat." So the eating process is very important. If one eats like the cats and dogs, then he'll become like a cat and dog, even in the human form of life. Similarly, if one works very hard like the animals, then what is the value of human life? Human life should be very sober, peaceful, full of knowledge and bliss. The devotee has a good sense of the real purpose of human life. One should not simply work hard like an animal and then eat like an animal.

Thus Maharaja Rsabhadeva is instructing, "My dear sons, everyone has a different body, but the body of the human being is to be considered different. It is not like the hog body. Day and night the hog is simply eating stool for sense gratification. Similarly, if all day and night the human being is simply eating and gratifying his senses, then he is missing the real opportunity of human life." This is the instruction: Human life should be regulated. One should eat only specified foods, should have sex in such and such a way, should sleep for just so long, should act in this way, think in this way, etc. There are so many regulations. One should not simply act in an unrestricted way. In human society there are books of regulations, but this is not the case in animal society. Some people claim that human society becomes free when man somehow or other manages to abolish law and custom, but this only means that human society will become like animal society, for the animal society has no law book. For this reason Maharaja Rsabhadeva instructs his sons that they should not live like the hogs, for they have a human body, and the human form of life is specifically meant for austerity and penance. One should voluntarily accept some regulative principles, even though they may not be to one's liking. For example, the students in the Krsna consciousness movement were accustomed to certain habits from the beginning of life, but now they are living under certain regulations and are accepting them. This is called tapasya. Tapasya means penance. For example, one may be habituated to smoking, and the spiritual master tells the student that he cannot smoke. When one tries to give up smoking, he feels some inconvenience and is put in an uncomfortable position. Nonetheless he gives up smoking because of the spiritual master's order. This is called tapasya. Despite inconveniences, one abides by the regulative principles set down by the spiritual master.