Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.8.12
सायन्तनं श्वस्तनं वा न सङ्गृह्णीत भिक्षुक: ।
मक्षिका इव सङ्गृह्णन् सह तेन विनश्यति ॥ १२ ॥
sāyantanaṁ śvastanaṁ vā
[saayantanam shvastanam vaa]
na saṅgṛhṇīta bhikṣukaḥ
[na sangrihneeta bhikshukah]
makṣikā iva saṅgṛhṇan
[makshikaa iva sangrihnan]
saha tena vinaśyati
[saha tena vinashyati]
Word-for-word
sāyantanam
—
meant for the night
śvastanam
—
meant for tomorrow
vā
—
either
na
—
not
saṅgṛhṇīta
—
should accept
bhikṣukaḥ
—
a saintly mendicant
makṣikā
—
honeybee
iva
—
like
saṅgṛhṇan
—
collecting
saha
—
with
tena
—
that collection
vinaśyati
—
is destroyed.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
sāyantanaṁ śvastanaṁ vā
sāyantanam
meant for the night
śvastanam
meant for tomorrow
vā
either
na saṅgṛhṇīta bhikṣukaḥ
na
not
saṅgṛhṇīta
should accept
bhikṣukaḥ
a saintly mendicant
makṣikā iva saṅgṛhṇan
makṣikā
honeybee
iva
like
saṅgṛhṇan
collecting
saha tena vinaśyati
saha
with
tena
that collection
vinaśyati
is destroyed.
A saintly mendicant should not even collect foodstuffs to eat later in the same day or the next day. If he disregards this injunction and like the honeybee collects more and more delicious foodstuffs, that which he has collected will indeed ruin him.
Purport
Bhramara refers to that honeybee who wanders about from flower to flower, and makṣikā is the honeybee who accumulates more and more honey in the beehive with great attachment. A saintly mendicant should be like the bhramara bee because if he imitates the makṣikā bee his spiritual consciousness will be ruined. This point is so important that it is repeated in this verse.
— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura
Gauḍīya
Translation
A saintly mendicant should not collect foodstuffs to eat later in the same day or the next day. If he disregards this injunction and like the honeybee collects food, he will be destroyed along with the food.
If he hoards food, what happens? That is explained in this verse.
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
Like the bhramara who sips and moves on, take only what today requires; the makṣikā habit of hoarding what is "yours" quietly ruins the renunciant within.
Practical Applications
- Identify one category where you stockpile "just in case" — food, books, clothes, even tabs — and take only what today truly needs.
- Refuse the makṣikā logic of "a little more won't hurt"; treat each accumulation as a hidden attachment that must be named, not justified.
- Before any purchase or saving move today, ask whether it is for sustenance or for storage, and let only sustenance pass.
Reflection Questions
- Where in my life have I quietly shifted from bhramara to makṣikā — gathering far beyond what sādhana actually requires?
- What am I telling myself "belongs to me for later" that is in fact slowly ruining my taste for dependence on Kṛṣṇa?
For Each Age Group
youth
- Notice the makṣikā move in your phone — saved posts, hoarded screenshots, endless bookmarks — and clear what you will honestly never return to.
- Refuse the campus reflex of stockpiling certifications, internships, and contacts "for later"; choose the one that serves sva-dharma now and release the rest.
- When friends pressure you to overspend or overcommit "because it might be useful someday," name it as makṣikā logic and step out.
householder
- Audit one shelf, one folder, or one bank reserve this week and distinguish what genuinely protects the family from what is simply accumulation in disguise.
- Before adding another stream of income or possession, ask whether it strengthens your capacity for bhakti or only thickens your dependence on storage.
- Teach the children, by your own restraint at the table and the store, that "enough for today" is a sane and dignified standard, not deprivation.
senior
- Begin giving away today what you have been keeping "in case"; let your home visibly become lighter as your dependence on Kṛṣṇa becomes heavier.
- Refuse the late-life makṣikā temptation to amass legacy — property, reputation, even seniority in the community — and quietly hand it on.
- Mentor a younger devotee by showing, not lecturing, how a life can be arranged around "just enough for sādhana today" rather than around reserves.
Common Pitfalls
- Mistaking the verse as a ban on planning, then swinging into reckless improvidence rather than detached sufficiency.
- Applying the injunction outwardly — owning little — while inwardly hoarding grievances, credits, and spiritual "merit."
- Imagining this applies only to formal mendicants, exempting one's own household life from any examination of accumulation.
Discussion Prompts
- Where exactly does prudent provision end and makṣikā-style hoarding begin in our current stage of life — and who decides?
- Share one thing you have stored "for tomorrow" that, examined honestly, you suspect you will never actually need.
- If a saintly mendicant must not even keep tomorrow's meal, what does the spirit of this verse demand of those of us who are not mendicants?
Role Play
One student plays a sincere practitioner who has just been offered a large bulk discount on six months of groceries and supplies, citing prudence and family responsibility; another plays a senior devotee who has read SB 11.8.12 that morning. Work through the conversation until both can name where bhramara-bhāva ends and makṣikā-bhāva begins for this specific household.
Objections & Responses
- This is romantic medieval advice; in a modern economy without savings, insurance, and reserves, my family will simply suffer.
The verse is spoken to the bhikṣuka, the renunciant, as his standard; for the householder it sets a direction, not a literal rule. The point is the inner posture — do I lean on accumulation or on Kṛṣṇa? Reasonable provision under varṇāśrama is not condemned here; makṣikā-style clinging, even to modest reserves, is. - Hoarding food is hardly my problem — I am not a bee or a beggar, so this verse has nothing to say to me.
The honeybee is an image, not a limit. Wherever you collect "a little more" of anything — money, status, approval, even spiritual experiences — beyond what today's service requires, you are the makṣikā. The verse asks you to find where that pattern actually lives in your life.
My note
Source: vedabase.io