Anywhere, you can keep a cow. There is no expenditure. The cow will go out and eat some vegetables and grass, so you haven't got to spend anything for the cow. And when she returns, she gives you milk, nice milk. We are trying to introduce this system in our New Vrindaban scheme. We are keeping there cows, and that place is in New Virginia, Moundsville. It is about three miles away from any city or any citizen approach. But they are living very nicely, depending on some vegetables, fruits and cow's milk.
So actually, a man can live very peacefully and healthy life. Not only peacefully. If you are healthy, if your mind is equilibrium, then naturally you are peaceful. So that was a system for the sages and hermitages, hermits, that they used to live on cow's milk and fruits.
So this king, being tired, being thirsty, entered the home of a sage, and he was in meditation. So the king called him. Because he was king, so he is habituated to order. A king is not supposed to submit, although they submitted to great sages and Brāhmins. But generally, their spirit is ordering, commanding spirit. So he commanded, "Give me a glass of water. I am very thirsty." So that sage, who was in meditation, could not hear him. The king became little angry that, "I am your guest. I am king. I am asking you water, and you are not hearing me. You are in your meditation." So he became little disgusted, and there was a dead snake. So he took that dead snake and got it round about the neck of the sage and went away in disgust, that "This sage did not offer me even a glass of water."
Because, according to Vedic system, if somebody comes in your home, even if he is enemy, it is the injunction of the Vedas, gṛhaṁ śatrum api prāptaṁ viśvastam akuto 'bhayam. When a person comes at your home, never mind even if he's enemy . . . friend is welcome, that's all right; but even an enemy comes, they are not forbidden. Not that in the gate there is, oh, "Beware of dog," "No trespasser allowed." No. There was no restriction. Even enemy was admitted, "Come on." So gṛhaṁ śatrum api prāptaṁ viśvastam akuto 'bhayam. Even an enemy enters your house, you'll receive him in such a friendly way that he will forget that you are his enemy. That was the system.
So because Mahārāja Parīkṣit was king, he saw that there is negligence of this disciplinary action. "I became . . . I was king, and I was thirsty. I became his guest, I came . . ." Athiti. This guest is called athiti. Athiti means there are some guests who give notice before, prior to coming there, and some guests come without any notice. So the guest who comes without any notice, he's called athiti. So according to Hindu custom, the householder is to keep always some foodstuff for athiti guest. Somebody may come without notice, so some foodstuff is already in the stock. That is called athiti food.
And a gṛhastha, the householder, is ordered that before eating, a householder was to see in the members of the family first the children must be fed, then diseased person must be fed, then elderly, old person must be fed. In this way, when everything is finished, then the proprietor of the household, he will take his meals, and before taking his meal, he will stand outdoors and call loudly, "If somebody is hungry, please come. Still there is food here." And if there is no response, then he'll take. This is the system of Vedic civilization.