In our childhood, when I was a boy of eight or ten years, sometimes I used to accompany my father. My father was a great devotee. He would take prasādam from the temple. So I have got experience that we paid for two dishes, four annas. Four annas means, according to modern exchange, it is five cent only, five cent according to your exchange value. For five cent we were, very nice prasādam we can get. Two persons, we are fed. Still there is a place which is called Nāthadvāra. Nāthadvāra, if you pay there two annas, you will get worth prasādam, two dollars' worth. So this system is going on still.
So if one has got sufficient means, he should supply Kṛṣṇa to his best capacity. But when Kṛṣṇa wants that, "You give Me . . . He says . . . this is the lowest common factor. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam (BG 9.26). Anyone, any poor man in any part of the country, they can supply Kṛṣṇa and take the prasādam. So that by taking that prasādam, you become free from the, I mean to say, responsibility of being sinful. That is the point. That you will find in Bhagavad-gītā, that yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ (BG 3.13): "If you take the remnants after offering Kṛṣṇa, that foodstuff makes you free from all kinds of sins."
So anyone—it doesn't matter what he is—he can prepare foodstuff either family-wise or . . . just like I am here, single. I am cooking my foodstuff, and I am offering my food Kṛṣṇa, and I am taking, and as far as possible, some of the remnants is distributed to the devotees. So this process we can adopt, everyone, because we have to maintain this body. So if we do not take kṛṣṇa-prasāda, then I become responsible for all kinds of sins. But if we take, accept, kṛṣṇa-prasāda, then I have no responsibility, because Kṛṣṇa is taking.
Just like Arjuna is fighting. Arjuna was afraid of sinful acts by killing his kinsmen and, I mean to say, grandfather. But when he understood that "I am fighting on Kṛṣṇa's account, so I am free . . . sārīraṁ kevalaṁ karma kurvan na āpnoti kilbiṣam. If you simply don't try to increase your artificial demands for maintaining this body . . . you have every right to live, and everyone has got right to live, not only myself. Even the ant has got the right to live. But in human society, by our so-called civilization, we give all protection to the human society but we don't give any protection to the animal society. Because it is due to want of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
When we shall be Kṛṣṇa conscious, then naturally we shall feel for every living entity, because we shall know . . . because in the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated, mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7): "All these living entities, they are all My fragments." They are parts and parcels of Kṛṣṇa. Under circumstances, some of them have become lower animals, some of them have become big men, some of them become higher demigods, some of them become small germs. It doesn't matter. But they are all parts and parcels of Kṛṣṇa. So a person who is under Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he cannot make any injustice to any living entity. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Therefore, one who has dedicated his life for acting on account of Kṛṣṇa, under Kṛṣṇa consciousness, nirāśīr yata-cittātmā, he has no other hope except, save and except, to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Nirāśīr yata-cittātmā tyakta-sarva-parigrahaḥ: "He doesn't like to make, exploit, the resources of the material nature." Whatever is obtained easily, as gift of nature, he accepts, and he maintains his body and soul together for Kṛṣṇa's satisfaction, and he eats everything which is offered to Kṛṣṇa. Then he is freed from all kinds of sinful reaction. Then, by the next śloka, it is more nicely explained.
- yadṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭo
- dvandvātīto vimatsaraḥ
- samaḥ siddhāv asiddhau ca
- kṛtvāpi na nibadhyate
- (BG 4.22)
Now, the process of life described here, yadṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭaḥ: "One should be satisfied with things which comes very easily." We should not try for anything too much to obtain it. No. We shall be satisfied. Whatever comes automatically or by the will of Kṛṣṇa, we may be satisfied in that way. Yadṛcchā-lābha. For gaining something, we should not be too much endeavoring. Then I shall be deviated from Kṛṣṇa consciousness.