So you can ask a tree, apple tree, to give you some apples to eat. So your clothing and eating problem is solved. All right, then your shelter . . . ruddhā guhāḥ kim. Oh, you find out some cave. There is nice place. So the house problem is solved. Then water? There are many rivers. There is no water problem. So he has recommended like that.
And actually, in India still there are persons who do not care for anything of the world. They are ātma-rati, ātma-rati. They are self-satisfied, doesn't care, doesn't care for anything. So for such person there is no need of doing any yajña or purifying their activities or so many things as recommended in the rituals. The Lord says that, "They have nothing to do."
- tasmād asaktaḥ satataṁ
- kāryaṁ karma samācara
- asakto hy ācaran karma
- param āpnoti puruṣaḥ
- (BG 3.19)
Now, what is this meaning of this ātma-rati? The meaning of ātma-rati, that one has to be situated in full spiritual consciousness and aloof from material engagement. That is the sum and substance. So the same thing can be practiced by us also. Of course, we may find difficulty. We may think, "How it is possible to become like Śukadeva Gosvāmī?" No, it is not possible. The real fact which Kṛṣṇa is explaining here, that don't be attached to your result of the activities. Just become free.
Now, for maintenance of your body you have to do something. That's all right. But you don't be attached to that work. You are simply to . . . because you have got this body, you have to maintain it so that the body and soul can be maintained, and you have to perform this spiritual realization just to keep the body nicely, not neglecting the body. But become detached from the bodily attachment. You just try to . . . yuktāhāra. Yuktāhāra means to take food is not forbidden, but you have to take food only just to maintain your body, not for, I mean to say, taste of your palate or tongue. That should be practiced. You should live . . . you should eat to live, you should not live to eat. That should be your life's principle.
Tasmād asaktaḥ . . . tasmād asaktaḥ satatam. Asakta: "Don't be attached." Kāryaṁ karma samācara: "Do your duty as duty, as you are duty bound. But don't be attached to that work. Because you should always know that your real work is self-realization." Asakto hy ācaran karma param āpnoti puruṣaḥ: "And if you practice like that, then the same perfection of life you will attain." Don't be attached to your work. Don't be attached—unattached.
nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate. Anāsaktasya viṣayān yathārham upayuñjataḥ (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.2.255). The same advice is given in several places, that "Work, but do not work with attachment. Just to make the best use of a bad bargain, that's all. You go on working like that."