Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.8.2
ग्रासं सुमृष्टं विरसं महान्तं स्तोकमेव वा ।
यदृच्छयैवापतितं ग्रसेदाजगरोऽक्रिय: ॥ २ ॥
grāsaṁ su-mṛṣṭaṁ virasaṁ
[graasam su-mrishtam virasam]
mahāntaṁ stokam eva vā
[mahaantam stokam eva vaa]
yadṛcchayaivāpatitaṁ
[yadrichchayaivaapatitam]
grased ājagaro ’kriyaḥ
[grased aajagaro ’kriyah]
Word-for-word
grāsam
—
food
su-mṛṣṭam
—
clean and delicious
virasam
—
tasteless
mahāntam
—
a large quantity
stokam
—
a small quantity
eva
—
certainly
vā
—
either
yadṛcchayā
—
without personal endeavor
eva
—
indeed
āpatitam
—
obtained
graset
—
one should eat
ājagaraḥ
—
like the python
akriyaḥ
—
remaining neutral without endeavor.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
grāsaṁ su-mṛṣṭaṁ virasaṁ
grāsam
food
su-mṛṣṭam
clean and delicious
virasam
tasteless
mahāntaṁ stokam eva vā
mahāntam
a large quantity
stokam
a small quantity
eva
certainly
vā
either
yadṛcchayaivāpatitaṁ
yadṛcchayā
without personal endeavor
eva
indeed
āpatitam
obtained
grased ājagaro ’kriyaḥ
graset
one should eat
ājagaraḥ
like the python
akriyaḥ
remaining neutral without endeavor.
Following the example of the python, one should give up material endeavors and accept for one’s maintenance food that comes of its own accord, whether such food be delicious or tasteless, ample or meager.
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura
Gauḍīya
Translation
Following the example of the python which does not endeavor, one should accept for one’s maintenance food that comes of its own accord, whether such food be delicious or tasteless, ample or meager.
One should take food as the python does, without much action.
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
Like the python, accept whatever maintenance comes of its own accord — tasty or bland, plenty or scant — and let go of anxious striving for the body.
Practical Applications
- At your next meal, eat what is served without adjusting, complaining, or seeking a better option, and offer it inwardly to Kṛṣṇa.
- Identify one income- or comfort-chasing endeavor you are pushing today purely from anxiety, and consciously stand down from it for 24 hours.
- When something unsought arrives — a delay, a plain meal, an unexpected gift — receive it as yadṛcchā, Kṛṣṇa's arrangement, instead of negotiating with it.
Reflection Questions
- Where in my life am I still treating bodily maintenance as my central project rather than as a quiet edge of my sādhana?
- Which 'better grāsa' am I chasing right now, and what would it look like to let it come, or not come, on its own?
For Each Age Group
youth
- In the dining hall or at home, eat the first plate offered without swapping, scrolling for a better option, or photographing it.
- Pick one status-chasing move this week — a post, a comparison, a calculated friendship — and refuse it as anxious grāsa-hunting.
- When an exam result, a like count, or a reply comes in less than you hoped, practice receiving it as yadṛcchā instead of immediately re-strategizing.
householder
- This month, run the household on what actually arrives — salary, gifts, leftovers — without taking on a side hustle driven purely by lifestyle anxiety.
- At the family dinner, model python-like acceptance: eat what your spouse or children prepared without critique, even silently, and thank Kṛṣṇa aloud.
- Before any major purchase, ask whether it is sva-dharma maintenance or appetite for sumṛṣṭa grāsa, and let that distinction decide.
senior
- Accept the body's diminishing menu — softer food, smaller portions, fewer pleasures — as the python's training arriving on schedule, not as deprivation.
- Stop renegotiating your retirement comforts; let what your children, pension, or circumstances provide be the grāsa, and turn the freed attention to japa and study.
- When mentoring younger devotees, share one concrete story of an unsought outcome you now see as Kṛṣṇa's arrangement, so they learn yadṛcchā from a life, not a slogan.
Common Pitfalls
- Mimicking the python's inactivity as an excuse for laziness in prescribed duty, instead of as freedom from anxious striving.
- Performing simple living outwardly — plain food, few clothes — while inwardly cataloguing, comparing, and resenting what arrives.
- Imagining this verse licenses neglect of dependents; the python instruction is for one cultivating renunciation, not for abandoning sva-dharma toward family.
Discussion Prompts
- Share one area where you feel genuine yadṛcchā-tolerance, and one where you still aggressively engineer outcomes — what is the difference between them?
- When does 'accepting what comes' cross the line into irresponsibility, and how would you know in your own case?
- If you ate, earned, and consumed only what arrived of its own accord this week, what specifically would you have to give up — and what fear sits underneath that?
Role Play
A householder student tells the group they have been offered a higher-paying job that requires aggressive networking and self-promotion they find draining; another student insists this verse means they should refuse it and live simply on whatever comes. Pair up: one plays the householder, one plays a Gauḍīya elder applying SB 11.8.2 without collapsing sva-dharma — work out together what 'python-like' actually looks like in this case.
Objections & Responses
- This is a recipe for passivity and poverty — if everyone waited for food to fall into their mouth, society would collapse.
The verse is spoken to one cultivating vairāgya, not as social policy; it targets the anxious, identity-driven striving for the body, not the steady performance of sva-dharma. A householder still works, but inwardly holds results as yadṛcchā — Kṛṣṇa's arrangement — rather than as proof of self. - Modern life simply does not allow this — rent, insurance, children's school fees do not 'come of their own accord.'
Exactly so, and that is why the python is held up as an example of a particular renunciate mood, not a literal template. The transferable instruction is internal: stop letting the quality and quantity of bodily maintenance dictate your mind. Earn honestly within your āśrama, and let the grāsa that actually arrives — sumṛṣṭa or virasa — be enough.
My note
Source: vedabase.io