The verse and its meaning · Uddhava Gita · Uddhava Gita — The Avadhuta's Twenty-Four Teachers

Honey From Every Flower

Bhagavata Purana 11.8.9

स्तोकं स्तोकं ग्रसेद् ग्रासं देहो वर्तेत यावता । गृहान् अहिंसन् आतिष्ठेद् वृत्तिं माधुकरीं मुनिः ॥ अणुभ्यश्च महद्‍भ्यश्च शास्त्रेभ्यः कुशलो नरः । सर्वतः सारमादद्यात् पुष्पेभ्य इव षट्पदः

Meaning · English

A sage takes his food a little at a time, only as much as keeps the body going. He goes to people's houses and does them no harm. This is the bee's way of living. A wise person, whether the teaching before him is small or large, takes the essence from all of it, as the bee takes honey from the flowers.

The avadhuta tells King Yadu, in Krishna's retelling, what the bee taught him. Two words carry it. Madhukari vritti means a bee's livelihood: madhu is honey, vritti is the way one earns a living. Sara means essence, the part that is left when the husk is gone. The first verse is about food and houses. The sage takes a little at a time, only what the body needs to keep going. He goes to many houses, and none is burdened or hurt by his coming, just as a flower is not harmed when the bee leaves. The second verse turns the same habit to learning. Teachings come small and large, short sayings and vast books. The wise person does not try to hold them all. From each he takes the essence and moves on. The commentators read the two verses as one lesson: the same light touch applies to what the body eats and what the mind gathers. The reason it is taught here is that the avadhuta is explaining how a free wanderer lives without being a weight on anyone, and without drowning in his own gathering. It asks the listener to take what is needed and leave the rest standing.

A gold-washer stands in a stream with a flat pan of gravel. He swirls it, lets the water carry off the sand and stones, and keeps a few bright grains. The river is all the teachings and houses; the grains are the essence, and the washing is the sage's way of taking.

1. Choose one thing you read or heard this week, a page, a talk, a piece of advice. 2. Sit for five minutes tonight and write down the one sentence in it worth keeping. 3. At your next meal, serve yourself a little less than you want, eat slowly, and notice when the body says enough. 4. Where you are a guest, leave the place as tidy as you found it.

A retired teacher sits in her kitchen at night with six cookbooks open and a phone full of forwarded advice about what to eat. Each source says something different, and she cannot decide what to cook tomorrow. The verse would change the evening in small steps. She would close five books and ask what the body needs. She would take one idea from the pile, such as more vegetables or smaller portions, and leave the rest. She would serve herself a little, stop when she has had enough, and see how she feels. Ordinary experience confirms that a mind with too many instructions often follows none of them, and that eating slowly makes it easier to notice fullness. The verse does not promise that the one idea she keeps is the right one for her health. For an illness, a medicine, or a special diet, her doctor's advice comes before any bee's habit of taking lightly.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: The Moth and the Lamp · Bhagavata Purana 11.8.7
• Next: Nothing Stored for Tomorrow · Bhagavata Purana 11.8.11
• All of Uddhava Gita · Ask Krishna about it

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