Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.8.20
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
In South America there is a saying that when the belly is full the heart is content. Thus, one who is eating sumptuously is jolly, and if one is deprived of proper food one’s appetite becomes even more voracious. An intelligent person, however, does not fall under the control of the tongue, but rather tries to make progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. By accepting the remnants of food offered to the Lord ( prasādam ), one gradually purifies the heart and automatically becomes simple and austere.
In this connection, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura states that the business of the tongue is to gratify itself with the varieties of flavor, but by wandering in the twelve holy forests of Vraja-maṇḍala (Vṛndāvana), one can be freed from the twelve flavors of material sense gratification. The five principal divisions of material relationships are neutral admiration, servitude, friendship, parental affection and conjugal love; the seven subordinate features of material relationships are material humor, astonishment, chivalry, compassion, anger, dread and ghastliness. Originally, these twelve rasas, or flavors of relationships, are exchanged between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entity in the spiritual world; and by wandering in the twelve forests of Vṛndāvana one can respiritualize the twelve flavors of personal existence. Thus one will become a liberated soul, free from all material desires. If one artificially tries to give up sense gratification, especially that of the tongue, the attempt will be a failure, and in fact one’s desire for sense gratification will increase as a result of artificial deprivation. Only by experiencing real, spiritual pleasure in relationship with Kṛṣṇa can one give up material desires.
- Before your next meal, offer the food to Kṛṣṇa and eat only the remnants as prasādam, treating taste as a gift to be received, not chased.
- Notice the moment hunger turns into craving for a specific flavor, and instead of denying or indulging it, redirect that attention to chanting Kṛṣṇa's names.
- Refuse the macho fast that quietly fantasizes about the meal afterward; eat simply, on time, and let the tongue serve kīrtana rather than rule the day.
- Where in my sādhana have I been controlling outward behavior while the tongue, in food or in speech, still runs the house unchecked?
- What spiritual taste in relation to Kṛṣṇa would have to actually arise in me before material flavors lost their grip?
- When friends pressure you into another late-night food run or trendy diet, quietly cook or order something simple, offer it to Kṛṣṇa, and eat it as prasādam instead of as performance.
- Before scrolling food, mukbang, or restaurant reels, ask whether you are actually hungry or just feeding the tongue through the eyes, and switch to even five minutes of chanting Kṛṣṇa's names.
- Watch your speech-tongue in group chats and classrooms; refuse one piece of gossip or sarcastic put-down today and notice how that restraint steadies your study and mood.
- Make the family kitchen a place of offering: cook with the intention that Kṛṣṇa eats first, and serve children and spouse prasādam, so taste is trained at home rather than outsourced to restaurants.
- When work stress drives you toward comfort eating, alcohol, or compulsive snacking late at night, pause, drink water, chant a round, and only then decide if you actually need to eat.
- Audit your speech-tongue with your spouse and children this week; cut one habitual complaint or harsh tone, and replace it with one specific appreciation rooted in seeing them as souls.
- As the body's appetite naturally narrows, do not chase richer flavors to compensate; simplify to small, regular portions of Kṛṣṇa-prasādam and let that simplicity become part of your preparation for death.
- Use mealtimes as deliberate sādhana: offer the plate, remember that you are eating the Lord's mercy, and let younger family members see an elder who is governed by remembrance rather than by taste.
- Guard the tongue's other function in your role as elder; refuse to use age as license for blunt criticism or nostalgic complaint, and instead spend that breath on hari-kathā and blessings for the next generation.
- Treating fasting as the goal itself and feeling proud of the deprivation, while the mind grows more obsessed with food than before.
- Swinging between strict fasts and compensatory feasts, mistaking the oscillation for austerity instead of unchecked rasanā.
- Forgetting that the tongue has two functions, taste and speech, and disciplining the eating while letting gossip, complaint, and flattery run free.
- Share an honest example of an austerity you took up that secretly increased the very desire it was meant to curb, and what you think went wrong.
- Prabhupāda says the tongue is conquered through prasādam, not deprivation; where does that clash with the willpower-and-discipline model you grew up with?
- If material relationships carry twelve rasas that are distortions of relationships with Kṛṣṇa, which rasa most often hijacks your tongue, and how would you begin to respiritualize it?
One student plays a sincere new devotee who has been fasting two days a week and is now irritable, secretly browsing food videos, and proud of the fast; the other plays a senior devotee who must, using this verse, redirect them from suppression toward a prasādam-centered, Kṛṣṇa-conscious discipline without shaming the effort.
- Modern nutrition and psychology show that restrictive eating backfires; isn't this verse just confirming that fasting is a bad idea?
The verse agrees that mere deprivation backfires, which is exactly why Gauḍīya practice does not stop at fasting; it replaces empty restraint with honoring Kṛṣṇa's prasādam, so the tongue is satisfied by a higher taste rather than starved into rebellion. - Why single out the tongue? Lust or anger seem far more destructive than enjoying good food.
Prabhupāda and Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura point out that the tongue is the gateway sense: once it is pacified through prasādam and the chanting of Kṛṣṇa's names, the other senses, including those tied to lust and anger, lose their fuel and come under control almost on their own.
My note
Source: vedabase.io