What do you mean by subsistence ?

Question

What do you mean by subsistence ?

Answer 1

To give an example, it's like living paycheck to paycheck.  You have enough for food, rent, and bills, but not much else.  You can live with little problem as long as nothing goes horribly wrong.  If your car breaks down or the furnace stops running then you have a problem.  You probably won't be able to afford to fix these things.  That would change your subsistence level.

Answer 2

subsistence

Existence, but of a rather shadowy kind, apt for universals, fictional characters and other insubstantial entities. The term is associated with Meinong, but the idea that varieties of existence can be distinguished has been a favourite target of modern logicians.

Answer 3

its like when you have a good meal or something.... if you  just have a piece of candy, its lacking subsistence. this is fo sho..

Answer 4

Subsistence comes from the Latin, 'subsistencia' meaning to continue existing, by whatever minimum requirements necessary to do so...

Answer 5

Maintaining the existence provided from an external source.

Example:

"Those who are devoid of hands are prey for those who have hands; those devoid of legs are prey for the four-legged. The weak are the subsistence of the strong, and the general rule holds that one living being is food for another."

PURPORT

A systematic law of subsistence in the struggle for existence is there by the supreme will, and there is no escape for anyone by any amount of planning. The living beings who have come to the material world against the will of the Supreme Being are under the control of a supreme power called mäyä-sakti, the deputed agent of the Lord, and this daivi mäyä is meant to pinch the conditioned souls by threefold miseries, one of which is explained here in this verse: the weak are the subsistence of the strong. No one is strong enough to protect himself from the onslaught of a stronger, and by the will of the Lord there are systematic categories of the weak, the stronger and the strongest. There is nothing to be lamented if a tiger eats a weaker animal, including a man, because that is the law of the Supreme Lord. But although the law states that a human being must subsist on another living being, there is the law of good sense also, for the human being is meant to obey the laws of the scriptures. This is impossible for other animals. The human being is meant for self-realization, and for that purpose he is not to eat anything which is not first offered to the Lord. The Lord accepts from His devotee all kinds of food preparations made of vegetables, fruits, leaves and grains. Fruits, leaves and milk in different varieties can be offered to the Lord, and after the Lord accepts the foodstuff, the devotee can partake of the prasäda, by which all suffering in the struggle for existence will be gradually mitigated.

Exploitation of the weaker living being by the stronger is the natural law of existence; there is always an attempt to devour the weak in different kingdoms of living beings. There is no possibility of checking this tendency by any artificial means under material conditions; it can be checked only by awakening the spiritual sense of the human being by practice of spiritual regulations. The spiritual regulative principles, however, do not allow a man to slaughter weaker animals on one side and teach others peaceful coexistence. If man does not allow the animals peaceful coexistence, how can he expect peaceful existence in human society?

  

From Srimad Bhagavatam

http://srimadbhagavatam.com/