Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare

Hare

SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM (2.3.19) DATED 13-01-2000

Pure Devotional Service
BY H.D.G. A.C BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI PRABHUPADA
va-vi-varhora-kharai
sastuta purua pau
na yat-kara-pathopeto
jtu nma gadgraja
TRANSLATION
Men who are like dogs, hogs, camels and asses praise those men who never listen to the
transcendental pastimes of Lord r Ka, the deliverer from evils.

PURPORT
The general mass of people, unless they are trained systematically for a higher standard
of life in spiritual values, are no better than animals, and in this verse they have
particularly been put on the level of dogs, hogs, camels and asses. Modern university
education practically prepares one to acquire a doggish mentality with which to accept the
service of a greater master. After finishing a so-called education, the so-called educated
persons move like dogs from door to door with applications for some service, and mostly
they are driven away, informed of no vacancy. As dogs are negligible animals and serve
the master faithfully for bits of bread, a man serves a master faithfully without sufficient
rewards.
Persons who have no discrimination in the matter of foodstuff and who eat all sorts of
rubbish are compared to hogs. Hogs are very much attached to eating stools. So stool is
a kind of foodstuff for a particular type of animal. And even stones are eatables for a
particular type of animal or bird. But the human being is not meant for eating everything
and anything; he is meant to eat grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, sugar, etc. Animal food is
not meant for the human being. For chewing solid food, the human being has a particular
type of teeth meant for cutting fruits and vegetables. The human being is endowed with
two canine teeth as a concession for persons who will eat animal food at any cost. It is
known to everyone that one man's food is another man's poison. Human beings are
expected to accept the remnants of food offered to Lord r Ka, and the Lord accepts
foodstuff from the categories of leaves, flowers, fruits, etc. (Bg. 9.26). As prescribed by
Vedic scriptures, no animal food is offered to the Lord. Therefore, a human being is meant
to eat a particular type of food. He should not imitate the animals to derive so-called

vitamin values. Therefore, a person who has no discrimination in regard to eating is

compared to a hog.
The camel is a kind of animal that takes pleasure in eating thorns. A person who wants to
enjoy family life or the worldly life of so-called enjoyment is compared to the camel.
Materialistic life is full of thorns, and so one should live only by the prescribed method of
Vedic regulations just to make the best use of a bad bargain. Life in the material world is
maintained by sucking one's own blood. The central point of attraction for material
enjoyment is sex life. To enjoy sex life is to suck one's own blood, and there is not much
more to be explained in this connection. The camel also sucks its own blood while
chewing thorny twigs. The thorns the camel eats cut the tongue of the camel, and so
blood begins to flow within the camel's mouth. The thorns, mixed with fresh blood, create
a taste for the foolish camel, and so he enjoys the thorn-eating business with false
pleasure. Similarly, the great business magnates, industrialists who work very hard to
earn money by different ways and questionable means, eat the thorny results of their
actions mixed with their own blood. Therefore the Bhgavatam has situated these
diseased fellows along with the camels.
The ass is an animal who is celebrated as the greatest fool, even amongst the animals.
The ass works very hard and carries burdens of the maximum weight without making
profit for itself. Footnote. The ass is generally engaged by the washerman, whose social
position is not very respectable. And the special qualification of the ass is that it is very
much accustomed to being kicked by the opposite sex. When the ass begs for sexual
intercourse, he is kicked by the fair sex, yet he still follows the female for such sexual
pleasure. A henpecked man is compared, therefore, to the ass. The general mass of
people work very hard, especially in the age of Kali. In this age the human being is
actually engaged in the work of an ass, carrying heavy burdens and driving hel and
rickshaws. The so-called advancement of human civilization has engaged a human being
in the work of an ass. The laborers in great factories and workshops are also engaged in
such burdensome work, and after working hard during the day, the poor laborer has to be
again kicked by the fair sex, not only for sex enjoyment but also for so many household
affairs.
So rmad-Bhgavatam's categorization of the common man without any spiritual
enlightenment into the society of dogs, hogs, camels and asses is not at all an
exaggeration. The leaders of such ignorant masses of people may feel very proud of
being adored by such a number of dogs and hogs, but that is not very flattering. The
Bhgavatam openly declares that although a person may be a great leader of such dogs
and hogs disguised as men, if he has no taste for being enlightened in the science of
Ka, such a leader is also an animal and nothing more. He may be designated as a
powerful, strong animal, or a big animal, but in the estimation of rmad-Bhgavatam he
is never given a place in the category of man, on account of his atheistic temperament.
Or, in other words, such godless leaders of dogs and hoglike men are bigger animals with
the qualities of animals in greater proportion.

Lecture By His Holiness Radhanath Swami Maharaja

Dont be Like Dogs, Hogs, Camels and Asses

Sriman Gauranga Prabhu has personally selected this verse for your enlightenment.
We are reading from the second canto, chapter 3 of Srimad Bhagavatam entitled Pure
Devotional Service. In order to attain pure devotional service, it is important to
understand what is not pure devotional service. As opaniad explains, we must
cultivate both knowledge and ignorance simultaneously because yama and niyama in
the yoga system, we must know what is favorable and what is unfavorable.
Here we find Sukadeva Goswami is explaining the psychology of the common person
who is addicted to materialistic temperament of life. These qualities are to one degree
or another embedded within the consciousness of every conditioned soul. Unless we
detect these tendencies within ourself and unless were able to identify them also in
others and understand the nature of these tendencies and what the results will be if we
act according to their dictation, we will not be able to overcome them.
Just like a doctor, he knows what is good health, but he must also understand what is
the symptom of disease and how to deal with that to bring a person to good health.
So these dogs, hogs, camels, and asses are living within all of our hearts, and in this
age of Kali-yuga; especially, these tendencies are prevalent everywhere.
Unfortunately, those who live by these animalistic tendencies, due to false ego, they
consider that these tendencies are something very, very glorified. Therefore, a person
who sees one who has these tendencies to a stronger extent and whos able to
manifest them in a greater way, these are the people that common man will look up
to.
Look at our society today, have you ever seen monkeys jumping around? But why do
they jump around? They jump around like anything simply to attract the female
monkeys and to somehow or other get some food to fill their bellies. So, now we have
these great, great entertainers and they get on stage in front of stadium, sometimes
with tens and thousands or hundreds and thousands of people and they jump around
like a monkey and they make all kinds of sounds like a monkey [Laughter] with all sorts
of very, very sophisticated sound equipment blaring out their monkey sounds on loud
speakers and with crores of rupees worth of incredibly sophisticated lights and big, big
screens showing magnified versions of their monkey-like dancing [Laughter]. One
such monkey came to Bombay [Laughter]. And months ahead of time, there was
hoardings, advertisingeveryone come [Laughter] and stadiums were filled and
women were weeping and crying and fainting, like female monkeys [Laughter]. And
this was the front page of every paper in Bombay. When Gauranga Prabhu speaks
Bhagavat katha, does that ever make front page of the newspapers of India? Well,
when such a person dances around, why does he dance? Only for 2 reasonsto get
money, which is same as the monkey trying to get food from the trees, and to attract
the opposite sex. You dont move like that unless youre trying to attract the opposite
sex. He was not dancing like Lord Caitanya [Laughter]. He was dancing like monkey,
not a monkey from Vrndavana, a monkey from Delhi. And paid millions and millions of
dollars, crores of rupees, and famous and honored and glorified all over the world. All
over the world, people have posters of such monkeys on their walls, and magazines,

newspapers always eager to hear, read about what they are doingwho they are
marrying, who they are divorcing, what kind of legal problems they have for various
types of illegal activities, and the more they do these things, the more they become
heroes in the eyes of man.
And in regard to athletes, some people, who ever can beat another man the best, do
you know how much money they make [Laughter]? Just by taking your fist and
smashing somebody on the head for about 45 minutes, they make 20 million dollars.
Thats about 80 crores of rupees, 10 crores, how many? Sixty crores of rupees. Just
for 45 minutes. And if youre really good, it might take only 5 minutes [Laughter] for
just beating people in the face with your fist. But let that person come to IIT and let
him meet one of the panthers in the forest [Laughter] and within 2 minutes, finished.
But nobody will glorify the panther. Theyll come with the gun and shoot the panther,
but if a man does the same thingAah! Everybody is big, big, hero, travelling
around the world showing his trophies.
Or if somebody jumps higher, some of these people, they jump very high and they
throw a ball in circles and people glorify, Oh! Very, very good jumping, glorious, they
want to see photographs, posters everywhere in the world, wearing t-shirts, wearing
belts, wearing hats. But let him have a jumping contest with a kangaroo from the
forest of Australia. Utterly defeated!!! So yes, it is true that in our society today,
because its devoid of God consciousness, people are living like animals, and whoever
is most animalistic is glorified as the most successful and accomplished of so called
human beings.
In this particular verse, it is mentioning dogs, hogs, camels, and asses, and Srila
Prabhupada explains the condition of a dog. Now first of all, in a civilized society like
India, people respect the spirit soul in every living being.
vidy-vinaya-sampanne
brhmae gavi hastini
uni caiva vapke ca
pait sama-darina
A learned and gentle brahmana sees every living being with equal visiona
brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog, or a dog-eater, because he sees that every
living being is essentially part and parcel of Krishna and that jivatma along with the
Paramatma is within the heart of everyone. Therefore, we should respect Krishna
within everyones heart.
But at the same time, such a soul discriminates to
understand according to what conditionings under the modes of material nature that
one is living within, and in this way one protects oneself from the infection by these
modes of material nature and also tries to show compassion according to the
particular persons extent of his diseased condition.
Dog is considered to be a very lowly animal. Why? Because its actions are basically
quite low. A dog, if theyre allowed to be in their free, wild condition are something like
wolves. I remember, they are first of all carnivorous, they are meat eaters and theyll
kill rabbits, theyll kill whatever else is smaller than them that they can murder and
eat. Yes? But theyre not very discriminate. I have personal experience. Ive seen

dogs eating stool on the ground, they like it very much, and theyre very, very proud
[Laughter] of considering their little area to be their domain of where they are the
rulers, and when you come into a dogs little area of illusory proprietorship, they will
bark and show their teeth and threaten you in so many ways, Get out of here, this is
my property, this is my place. You get out! Its out of ego and fear that theyre
barking. Do you hear?
Srila Prabhupada, once he went to Singapore. He was invited there for a program and
the immigrations would not let him in. They said, Where are you coming from? Why
are you coming? What business do you have? You cannot come here, this is our
country, get out! They sent him away. In the eyes of Srimad Bhagavatam,
Prabhupada considered that they have the exact, same mentality as these dogs
[barking]. Why have you come? What is your business? This is my country, you get
out! You have no right!
Now in India, dogs are somehow or other, you respect the soul in their heart and you
give them some prasada to purify them, but theres not much respect for their
mentality. But in the West, the civilization that is ruling the world as far as culture,
they have a saying, Love me, love my dog [Laughter]. Because it is a fact. In any
family in the West practically, the most popular member is the dog. The dog is the one
everyone likes, everyone else in the family is fighting like dogs. They fight like dogs
amongst themselves but they love the dog. Everyone cooperates; he is the unifying
factor in most families.
I am not exaggerating, personally seen, witnessed,
experienced. How the brothers, the sisters, the mothers, the fathers, they have sibling
rivalry and theres always generation gaps between the parents and the children
where theres always so much competition. Deep down inside they have some
affection, but when it comes to practical, daily life, its mostly just argumentation, and
nobody argues with the dog, everyone kisses the dog and pets the dog and if the dog
is more inclined toward one member of the family, people become envious [Laughter].
Dog is licking my brother, why dog is not licking me? [Laughter]. Dog sleeps on the
bed of my brother, why dog doesnt sleep in my bed? [Laughter]. This is not
exaggeration. And how much they love their dogs and how much they spend, so much
money on the dogs. Today, if you go to big, big cities like Beverly Hills, Hollywood,
very costly cities, you will see signs on the streets, there is a law that if youre walking
your dog, now when you walk a dog, the dog doesnt walk behind you, the dog walks
in front of you and youre following, mahjano yena gata sa panth [Laughter],
following in the footsteps of the great souls. This is the conception. You have to keep
your dog on leash because otherwise itll run away and youll lose it and you spend
fortune on dogs. Sometimes you have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to
get a nice dog with nice hairs and pedigree certificates. And you take them on your
leash and you walk them. But what does the dog do? You know how much people
spend on decorating dogs? One of the most successful businesses in the West are pet
shops where they sell puja paraphernalia [Laughter] for the animals. Very nice! In the
winter they put little boots, sometimes silk with wool, boots on the dogs feet; paws,
Im sorry. And sometimes they put little coats on them. And what to speak of beauty
parlors for the dogs where they get grooming, costs lot of money, where they give the

dog a very nice haircut, but not just an ordinary, its not like us, we just shave our
heads and leave a shikha. They have decorative fashions, theyll have photos with the
fashions for each particular type of dog, how they will cut their hairs to make them
beautiful. And theyll be walking down the street with their dog and this is behind their
dog and this is very prestigious. If a person has a beautiful dog, everyone in the street
will honor. They will say, O, you have such a wonderful dog, such a beautiful dog,
where did you get such a dog? But as far as the dog goes, he is a dog. What does he
do on the street? Everyone knows what dogs do on the street. They pass stool, and
the signs in these big, beautiful cities are that it is a law that the owner of the dog has
to clean up the stool after the dog; otherwise, you get arrested. So, here are these
big, big, multimillionaires, theyre carrying this certain little type of machines that pick
up the stool after their dogs, clean up their stool. Now, this is the most menial service
you can get [Laughter] to clean anothers stool.
We read about Narottam Das Thakura clean the stool of his Guru Maharaja, Lokanath
Goswami; or Isvara Puri clean the stool of his Guru Maharaja, Madhavendra Puri, and
we worship thiswhat a menial, humble servant, taking such a lowly position before a
great soul. But in the West, they are accepting this menial service for a dog. Theyre
das das dasanudas, but not gop-bhartur pada-kamalayor, for dogs. This is common
acceptability.
So, the mentality of dogs is they are very much, that this is mine, get out! Therefore
they bark, watch dogs. And therere dogs in the West that literally are as big or bigger
than the horses in India. Prabhupada was very amazed when he saw these greyhound
dogs. And Ill tell you another thing that may interest you. Do you know what the
largest tourist attraction and one of the biggest money making industries in the state
of West Virginia is? Does anyone of you know? Dog racing. Not horse racing, dog
racingthe higher principle [Laughter]. People by the tens and thousands go into
stadiums to see dogs racethese big, big greyhound dogs. They have numbers on
them and they shoot the gun and the dogs race around the tracks so many times.
And people bet their hard-earned money, some people lose thousands of dollars, I
mean lakhs of rupees on the basis of which dog runs faster than the other, and as the
dogs are running, everybody in the crowd, thousands and thousands of people are
cheering on the dogs, Go Rover, go Rover, go faster, go Rover, go.. [Laughter]. And
when the dog wins the race, everyones cheering. I am not exaggerating. Theyre
very fast runners. People are glorifying dogs and dogs are very expert at having sex
with anything and anyone. When dogs are sniffing, you see dogs with their nose are
always sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff? What do you think theyre sniffing for? Theyre not
looking for what we put on after Nrsimha arati [Laughter], nice, essential oils. Theyre
sniffing for the opposite sex. Thats the nectar they are seeking.
But here Srila Prabhupada is explaining how people who are trained in the modern
universities, they end up with the same psychological combination as a dog. Dogs beg
for some scraps of food and similarly, as it is explained in this beautiful purport, a
person works so many years. I dont know what the system is in India so much, but in
the West, first you go 8 years in elementary school, then 4 years in high school, you

graduate high school when youre 18 years old. Then you go to college. To get a
Bachelors degree takes 4 years, then youre 22 years old. Generally, to get a Masters
degree takes another 3 years, youre 25 years old. Then to get a Ph.D. could take
anything from 3 years to the rest of your life [Laughter]. So by the time youre finished
with your Ph.D., youre about what 28 years old, something like that. About 28 years
old, now youre Ph.D., people are calling you doctor. And then what do you do with
your Ph.D.? From the age of 6 you begin school to the age of 28; that means 22 years
of the best, most productive youthful years of your life, youre just struggling and
laboring in your education. Why? Generally, its not because people have a
spontaneous taste for academic pursuits, its because they are thinking that by doing
this, in the future; I will have good hopes for material prosperity. So, youre almost 30
years old and you have your Ph.D. and then you have to get a job. Now, some people
in their colleges, they right away get posted in certain jobs. I think, IIT, sometimes,
they do like this. But thats not the way it is in most places in the world. Most places,
they have to go out looking for a job. I personally know people who have Ph.D.s in
subject matters like psychology, philosophy, engineering and do you know what they
do to make their money? They are at the petrol pumps putting some petrol in the
tanks because they cant get any other job. Because theres so many people with so
much education, the market is becoming very saturated. Theres certain people who
get Ph.D.s in certain academic subjects, especially, where really the only job you can
really get is a professor and there are so many and theres so little need of such
professors because these days all the students theyre going into engineering and
computerization and everything, if someone gets a Ph.D. in anything dealing with arts
or philosophy or history, they usually cannot get a job after 22 years of studying. So
yes, you may have your job or you may get some job, but then if the company,
something goes wrong, then youre on the streets begging like dog. I have B.A., I
have M.A., I have Ph.D. Give me job. You go to the big, big companies and they go
hutt[Laughter]. Then you go to the next place, you go Ruf, ruf, ruf, ruf, give me
job, give me job, and they go hutt [Laughter].
This is the condition, very sad. But what is the saddest thing? That we come to this
human form of life after perhaps roaming through 8,400,000 species, weve already
had the bodies of dogs and hogs and camels and asses and now we come to this
valuable human life which gives us the opportunity to realize the inner content of our
soul, to realize our eternal nature and experience unlimited ecstasy, reunite with
Krishna, the Absolute Truth. That is the integrity of human existence but instead the
society forces us by its conditioning to act in the mentality of these lower animals.
What a loss! What a shame! Therefore, when a devotee sees someone become very,
very successfully materially, on one end a devotee honors that person because
according to the scripture wherever theres power, we understand theres the presence
of God, even in material power. Prabhupada explains if someone has a very big
positionKing, Prime Minister, President, we should on one level respect those people
because somehow or other that person has gotten such immense influence and power
which is coming originally in its pure form from Krishna but because people do not
understand the source of that energy and theyre not using it in His service; generally
their very opulences become the cause of their degradation and their bondage.

Therefore, the devotees, theyre never envious of anyone with material success or
prosperity, rather they feel compassion and sympathy for such a person because
theyre wasting their valuable human lives. We should never ever, ever be envious of
someone who has better material facilities or acquisition than ourselves; that is
ignorance, it is illusion. So what, its all temporary. He may have or I may have it, she
may have it, they may have it, but laksmi is cancala in this world. Good fortune never
stays with anyone for very long. So, we should not be impressed by these thingsby
someone with great, great education, with great, great money, with great, great
physical powers or abilities, with much fame amongst dogs, hogs, camels and asses,
with physical beauty, or even those who are very detached and renounced. These
things do not impress us. What impresses us is those qualities that attract Krishna
humility, devotion, detachment from egothat is real renunciation. That willingness to
serve without desiring anything in return, determination to be fixed on the path of
devotion, these attributes bring us a great amount of inspiration. And wherever we see
this, we worship those qualities. That is Krishna Conscious culture. But without Krishna
Conscious culture, va-vi-varhora-kharai sastuta purua pau, prestigious
university, you can utilize your education to acquire assets which will use in the service
of God for upliftment of humanity for the rest of your life or you can use those same
assets to become a big, big, over-glorified dog, hog, camel, or ass. That is your choice.
Thank you very much. Is there any questions?
I made any aparadhas? Actually we like dogs and we like hogs and we should feel
love and sympathy for every creature of the Lord, but at the same time we have to see
through the eyes of the scriptures. Krishna reveals different types of illusion in
different ways in different types of living entities and as human beings, we must learn
from this process. Sivananda Sen, you know the story of that dog? He was taking the
devotees to Puri, several hundred devotees. He was such a great Vaisnava. Sivanand
Sen literally, he paid the expenses and made all the arrangements for two to three
hundred devotees every year to walk from Navadvipa dhama, Shantipur dhama,
Kulina-grama dhama all the way to Sri Puri dhama. One time a dog came. Most of the
people would just say, Hutt, get out of here. But Sivananda Sen, No, no, this dog
has come to join us. He treated him like the other Vaisnavas, provided prasada every
day. Even when they came to a boat, all the devotees got on the boat and when dog
was about to come on the boat, the boatman, Hutt! Get out. No dogs on my boats.
Dogs are considered dirty, they lick themselves with their tongues, and they do all
kinds of dirty things. So, Sivananda Sen said, No, no, I am his servant, I must take
him to Puri. So, he paid extra money, more than any of the humans, paid extra
money to convince that person to let the dog on the boat. And when his assistants did
not feed the dog, he was so upset, he stopped everything to search for him and when
they finally arrived in Puri, and they saw the dog being fed by the hand of Mahaprabhu
Himself, Sivananda Sen offered his obeisances to the feet of the dog, apologizing for
his offences.
So, how do we accommodate these two apparently opposite observations of the dog? You
see, Sivananda Sen, due to the love and compassion in his heart, he wanted to upgrade
the dog to get the mercy of Krishna. But people in Western civilization, they want to

degrade their own consciousness to that of a dog, that is the difference. The devotee can
be very compassionate to the dog, he doesnt sacrifice his own position to follow in the
footsteps of the dog, but he tries to accommodate the opportunity for the dog to reach the
perfection of life. Srila Prabhupada said, If you feed a dog prasada, that dog is
guaranteed a human birth in his next life. Otherwise, he has to go through thousands
and thousands and thousands of births to reach the human existence, suffering terribly.
But give him prasada, hell be a human in his next life. Not only a human, but because
hes begun his spiritual life by taking prasada, if that dog hears the holy name, takes
prasada or somehow or other becomes attracted to a devotee, then that doghuman
birth and will meet Vaisnava in that next human birth and will be given an opportunity to
continue on in his spiritual life.
So, devotees are very merciful to the animals, compassionate to the animals, but they
dont try to imitate the activities of the animals. They dont try to glorify the animalistic
propensities that we find in other human beings. But rather as a humble servant like
Sivananda Sen, is trying to give everyone Krishna. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
I very much appreciate your very wonderful hospitality upon me since Ive been here. Its
been a great fortune and very happy moments being with all of you. I find that all of you
have very rare and treasured enthusiasm to hear and chant about Krishna. My prayer is
that this enthusiasm forever increase within your hearts to bring you higher and higher
realms of humility and devotion at the lotus feet of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna. And that
you may day by day become more and more attached to serving Vaisnavas, chanting the
holy names [Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare]. Srila Prabhupada ki jai! (END)