(Click to enlarge painting of Krishna and His beloved cows in Vrindavan)
"You should be sober. You should think what is the value of life. And you be satisfied with nature's gift. Nature will give you so many things. Kṛṣṇa has given you food grains, fruits, milk. You don't require to eat meat and open slaughterhouses. Be satisfied with, as Kṛṣṇa is satisfied: patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). Kṛṣṇa does not say, ḍima mācha māṁsa (eggs, fish, meat). No. Kṛṣṇa says, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ (leaf, flower, fruit, water). And one who is Kṛṣṇa conscious, he should simply take what is taken by Kṛṣṇa. That is the meaning of distribution of prasādam. Why? Kṛṣṇa has given you everything—so many varieties of fruits, so many varieties of grains, and sufficient milk. You can make milk products, so many. This is Vedic civilization, that be satisfied.
And you can produce food anywhere. Anywhere, any part. You haven't got to go from hundred miles away from Bombay city by the electric train hanging, full, for earning your livelihood. This is not civilization, making all people like asses. Kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye. This is the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke kaṣṭān kāmān arhate... (SB 5.5.1). Why you should? Kāma. We require to fulfill our..., some desires. That desire means we have to eat something, we have to sleep somewhere, we must have a little sense gratification also, and we must defend. That is allowed. That is allowed. But why kaṣṭān kāmān? Why you should work so hard to satisfy your senses like the dogs, hogs and other animals?
That is the Kṛṣṇa philosophy. Be satisfied, plain living and high thinking. That is required. If you miss this opportunity of human life and spoil it like dogs and hogs, then you lose the opportunity."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Bombay, April 8, 1974)
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