When Mathurā was thus besieged, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa began to consider, in consultation with Baladeva, how much the Yadu dynasty was in distress, being threatened by the attacks of two formidable enemies, Jarāsandha and Kālayavana. Time was growing short. Kālayavana was already besieging Mathurā from all sides, and it was expected that the day after next, Jarāsandha would also come, equipped with the same number of divisions of soldiers as in his previous seventeen attempts. Kṛṣṇa was certain that Jarāsandha would take advantage of the opportunity to capture Mathurā when it was also being besieged by Kālayavana. He therefore thought it wise to take precautionary measures for defending against an attack upon Mathurā from two strategic points. If both Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were engaged in fighting with Kālayavana at one place, Jarāsandha might come at another to attack the whole Yadu family and take his revenge. Jarāsandha was very powerful, and having been defeated seventeen times, he might vengefully kill the members of the Yadu family or arrest them and take them to his kingdom. Kṛṣṇa therefore decided to construct a formidable fort where no two-legged animal, either man or demon, could enter. He decided to keep His relatives there so that He would then be free to fight the enemy.
Human beings as two-legged animals
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 3
Better than those living entities who can perceive sound are those who can distinguish between one form and another. Better than them are those who have developed upper and lower sets of teeth, and better still are those who have many legs. Better than them are the quadrupeds, and better still are the human beings.
It is said that certain birds, such as crows, can distinguish one form from another. Living entities that have many legs, like the wasp, are better than plants and grasses, which have no legs. Four-legged animals are better than many-legged living entities, and better than the animals is the human being, who has only two legs.
SB Canto 5
Degraded men are actually no better than animals. The only difference is that animals have four legs and such men have only two. These two-legged, animalistic men used to call Jaḍa Bharata mad, dull, deaf and dumb. They mistreated him, and Jaḍa Bharata behaved for them like a madman who was deaf, blind or dull. He did not protest or try to convince them that he was not so. If others wanted him to do something, he acted according to their desires. Whatever food he could acquire by begging or by wages, and whatever came of its own accord—be it a small quantity, palatable, stale or tasteless—he would accept and eat. He never ate anything for sense gratification because he was already liberated from the bodily conception, which induces one to accept palatable or unpalatable food. He was full in the transcendental consciousness of devotional service, and therefore he was unaffected by the dualities arising from the bodily conception. Actually his body was as strong as a bull's, and his limbs were very muscular. He didn't care for winter or summer, wind or rain, and he never covered his body at any time. He lay on the ground, and never smeared oil on his body or took a bath. Because his body was dirty, his spiritual effulgence and knowledge were covered, just as the splendor of a valuable gem is covered by dirt. He only wore a dirty loincloth and his sacred thread, which was blackish. Understanding that he was born in a brāhmaṇa family, people would call him a brahma-bandhu and other names. Being thus insulted and neglected by materialistic people, he wandered here and there.
When one is not spiritually realized, the bodily conception entangles one in the material world. At the present moment all human society is laboring under the bodily conception; therefore in the śāstras people in this age are referred to as dvipada-paśu, two-legged animals. No one can be happy in a civilization conducted by such animals. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to raise fallen human society to the status of spiritual understanding. It is not possible for everyone to become immediately self-realized like Jaḍa Bharata. However, as stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.18): naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. By spreading the Bhāgavata principles, we can raise human society to the platform of perfection. When one is not affected by the bodily conceptions, one can advance to the Lord's devotional service.
SB Canto 6
We may show our respect to the demigods, but the demigods are not worshipable. The intelligence of those who worship the demigods is lost (hṛta jñānāḥ) because these worshipers do not know that when the entire material cosmic manifestation is annihilated, the demigods, who are the departmental heads of that manifestation, will be vanquished. When the demigods are vanquished, the benedictions given by the demigods to unintelligent men will also be vanquished. Therefore a devotee should not hanker to obtain material opulence by worshiping the demigods, but should engage in the service of the Lord, who will satisfy all his desires.
- akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā
- mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ
- tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena
- yajeta puruṣaṁ param
"Whether full of all material desires, free from material desires or desiring liberation, a person who has broader intelligence must by all means worship the supreme whole, the Personality of Godhead." (SB 2.3.10) This is the duty of a perfect human being. One who has the shape of a human being but whose actions are nothing but those of an animal is called nara-paśu or dvipada-paśu, a two-legged animal. A human being who is not interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is condemned herewith as a nara-paśu.
SB Canto 7
While chanting the holy name of the Lord, one should be careful to avoid ten offenses. From Sanat-kumāra it is understood that even if a person is a severe offender in many ways, he is freed from offensive life if he takes shelter of the Lord's holy name. Indeed, even if a human being is no better than a two-legged animal, he will be liberated if he takes shelter of the holy name of the Lord. One should therefore be very careful not to commit offenses at the lotus feet of the Lord's holy name.
SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13
There is no question of overpopulation or of children's being a burden for their parents in a Vedic society. Such a society is so well organized and people are so advanced in spiritual consciousness that childbirth is never regarded as a burden or a botheration. The more a child grows, the more his parents become jubilant, and the child's attempts to turn over are also a source of jubilation. Even before the child is born, when the mother is pregnant, many recommended ritualistic ceremonies are performed. For example, when the child has been within the womb for three months and for seven months, there is a ceremony the mother observes by eating with neighboring children. This ceremony is called svāda-bhakṣaṇa. Similarly, before the birth of the child there is the garbhādhāna ceremony. In Vedic civilization, childbirth or pregnancy is never regarded as a burden; rather, it is a cause for jubilation. In contrast, people in modern civilization do not like pregnancy or childbirth, and when there is a child, they sometimes kill it. We can just consider how human society has fallen since the inauguration of Kali-yuga. Although people still claim to be civilized, at the present moment there is actually no human civilization, but only an assembly of two-legged animals.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Everyone is rendering service. Here we have so many ladies and gentlemen present, but every one of us is rendering some service to the superior. That is our position. The animals also, the inferior animals, they are rendering service to the superior animal. The superior animal is eating the inferior animal, jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. Big snake is eating small snake. There is a verse in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, apadāni catuṣ-padām. Those who are two-legged, they are eating the four-legged. And the four-legged animals, they are eating who cannot walk. Apadāni catuṣ-padām. Those who cannot move, just like grass, plants, tree, they cannot move, they are being eaten up by the four-legged animals. And the four-legged animals are being eaten by the two-legged animals, human beings. Just try to understand how the weaker section is serving the stronger section. That is the law of nature. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. One living entity is the food or living means for another living entity, by nature's law. So the conclusion is that we must render service to the strong. This is nature's law.
Now that being the position, we all living entities, we are weaker, and the strongest is the Supreme Lord; therefore our business is to render service to the Supreme Lord. We are rendering service to the stronger section, but the strongest of all stronger is the Supreme Lord. Therefore the conclusion is that our normal position is to render service to God. This is the position.
So this business, four business—eating, sleeping, mating and defending—these are common. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ sāmānyam etat. This is common. Then what is the special advantage of human life? The special advantage is athāto brahma jijñāsā. Jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā. You should be inquisitive to know the value of life, the Absolute Truth. That is... The dog cannot do it. That is the distinction between dog and human being. The human being... In the human form of life there should be inquiry about Brahman, Parabrahman. That is human life. So after inquiring what is Brahman, Parabrahman, janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1), the original source of everything, when you attain brahma-jñāna, brahma-bhūtaḥ, that is your perfection, not that to compete with the dog in eating, sleeping, mating and defending. That is not civilization. That is not perfection of life. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). These foolish men, animalistic, dogs and cats, two-legged animals, they do not know what is the aim of life.
The natural law is that ahastāni sahastānām: "The animals which has no hands"—that means four-legged animals; they have got legs, no hand—"so they are food for animals with two legs and two hands." That means human being. Human being is also animal, more powerful, more intelligent than the lower animals. So the śāstra says, ahastāni, "The animals who hasn't got hands, they are food for the animals with two hands." Ahastāni sahastānām and apadāni catuṣ-padām: "And the animals or the living entities which cannot move, apadāni..." Pada means legs.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
The human society should be divided into four classes of men, not that everything is a drunkard, that's all. This is not civilization; this is animal life. There must be first-class men. There is already, just like you are, you are all first class, but they will not admit. They will admit drunkard first class. That is a different thing. But you are all first class, devotees of Kṛṣṇa. So there must be first class, second class, third class, fourth class, because this material world is conducted under the influence of three qualities—goodness, passion and ignorance. How you can avoid it? So those who are on the platform of goodness, they are first-class men. Those who are on the platform of passion, they are second-class men. Those who are mixed up, they are third-class men, and those who are in ignorance, they are fourth-class men, and less than that, they are animals. They may have two hands, two legs, but they are simply animals, that's all, no better than animals.
Pradyumna: "In the Bhagavad-gītā (BG 7.3) it is said that out of many thousands of ordinary men, one fortunate man endeavors for perfection of life. Mostly they are conducted by the modes of passion and ignorance, and thus they are engaged always in lust, desire, hankerings, ignorance and sleep. Out of many such manlike animals, there is actually a man..."
Prabhupāda: Manlike animals. They show with two hands, two legs, but actually they are animals. Four-legged. Two legs have been transformed into two hands.
Everyone is in the pravṛtti-mārga. What is that pravṛtti-mārga? The pravṛtti-mārga is these things: sex, meat-eating, intoxication, like that. This is pravṛtti-mārga. Pravṛttir eṣā bhūtānāṁ nivṛttes tu mahā-phalām. So the whole Vedic literature is there how to make him stop this pravṛtti-mārga. That is the whole plan. Otherwise there are many instances, loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā nityas tu jantuḥ. Nitya. A jantuḥ, he's called jantuḥ. Jantuḥ means animal or no intelligence. Those who are jantuḥ, they have got this tendency. Pravṛttir eṣā. What is that? Vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā: sex and meat-eating. Āmiṣa, meat, egg, fish; and madya, intoxication. This is pravṛtti. Loke vyavāya. Vyavāya means sex. Āmiṣa-madya-sevā nityā tu jantuḥ. Jantuḥ means living being, conditioned in the material world, they have got this general tendency. Pravṛtti. You will find in animals, in birds, in beasts, and beastly human being, two-legged beast... There are four-legged beasts and two-legged beasts. Four-legged beasts are the animals—cats, dogs, tigers, etc. Cows, asses. They are four-legged beasts. And there are two-legged beasts, dvi-pāda-paśu. It is not manufactured; it is there in the śāstra. Dvi-pāda-paśu. Dvi means two, and pāda means legged. So any human being who is attached to this pravṛtti-mārga-sex, meat-eating, intoxication, gambling—he is dvi-pāda-paśu, two-legged animals. This is pravṛtti-mārga.
Just like in Western countries there is no marriage practically. But they have sexual intercourse. They think, "Sex is there, available. Why we should bound ourselves by marriage tie?" They think like that. So why the marriage is there? Just to restrict. Without marriage, the man and woman will be open to so many other men and women. Therefore it is to restrict. One man, one woman. Otherwise, if you associate with so many men and so many women, this is animalism. So in order to check him from the animal life, sex intercourse, the marriage is there. This is the purpose. Therefore śāstra. Śāstra means simply restrict. One who is accustomed to restriction, he's perfect. Not indulgence. The animals are not restricted. But nowadays, better animal is restricted. They have got a time for sexual intercourse. But these, these animals, the four-, two-legged, two-hands animal, they have no restriction. Any time. Less than animal. Therefore śāstra is there.
So the cats' and dogs' life or the cats and dogs in two legs... Any human being who has no spiritual knowledge, he is no better than the cats and dogs, but difference is: the cats and dogs have got four legs, and this animal has got two legs, that's all. Dvipāda-paśu. They have been described as dvipāda-paśu. Dvi means two, and pāda means leg. So anyone who has no knowledge of the spiritual existence—how this material body has developed, how we are put into different conditions life—without this knowledge he is two-legged animal, that's all. So don't remain as two-legged animal. You may develop from two-legged animal another body—four-legged animal—but that is not our business. Our business is athāto brahma jijñāsā. That is our life. Now this human form of life should be inquisitive: jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam. That is life. You must be very much inquisitive to understand what is your ultimate goal of life. Śreya uttamam. Tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam (SB 11.3.21).
Just like for a child, playing is priya, preya. He likes to play. But he is by force, by the parents, he is studied books. That is called preya. But because without education, his future life will be dark. So parents know it. Therefore, although the child likes to play—that is preya—the parents engages them into śreya, into education. So that is the Vaiṣṇava's duty. These rascals and fools, they are busy in material sense gratification, and it has become the duty of the devotee. Because the devotees means the servant of the supreme father, Kṛṣṇa. So they have been engaged. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa (CC Madhya 7.128). So devotees are so confidential servant of the Supreme Lord. Therefore they are engaged in preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They have no business for themself—they are completely perfect as soon as they have accepted Kṛṣṇa—but they are working on behalf of Kṛṣṇa to turn these two-legged animals to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. This is the meaning of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
Devotee (1): Would the spirit soul that is within, say, a cow's body, is in a different shape?
Prabhupāda: Yes. It has got also legs. But the shape has taken according to his desire. Every animal has got these four things. Just like bird, it has got two wings, two legs. The animal has got four legs. And the man has got two hands, two legs. So the same parts of the body, they are appearing in a different type. But the four limbs of the body are there.
Pathyam means good foodstuff, not "Anything I can eat." That is the business of the hogs and dogs. Just like hogs have no discrimination. Anything, up to stool you give him: it will eat. That is not human civilization. Although it is the law of nature that ahastāni sahastānām. Vegetables or animals who has no hand... Just like ordinary animals, they have got four legs, no hand. So these four-legged animals is the food for the two-legged animals. Ahastāni sahastānām. Uncivilized men means two-legged animals. They are animals, but two-legged. There are four-legged animals; there are two-legged. Ahastāni sahastānām apadāni catuṣ-padām: "And living entities who have no legs, just like the vegetables, grass, plants, trees..." They have no legs. They cannot move, but they are living entities. They are food for catuṣ-padām, for the animals who have got four legs. Ahastāni sahastānām apadāni catuṣ-padām, phalgūni mahatāṁ tatra: "And the weak is food for the strong." Phalgūni... Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. This is the law of nature, that one life is meant for maintaining another life. That is going on. So sometimes they put forward this argument that "You are also eating vegetables. They have got life. Why you object that nonvegetarians who are eating four legged animals...?" No. We are not going to infringe to the laws of nature. That is not our business. You can eat four-legged animals because you are also animal. But when we speak of civilized animals... Civilized is not animal. That is human being. So long one is not civilized, he is animal.
Human life is not meant for polished dogism and pigism. That is not human life. If a cat and dog becomes nicely dressed, that does not mean he becomes a human being. He is cat and dog. Similarly, if we keep our mentality like cats and dog and outwardly we dress very nicely, they have been described as dvi-pada-paśuḥ, "two-legged animal." Animal. He is animal because he is not cultivating Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The cats and dogs cannot do it, so he is no better than cats and dog. This is the conclusion. Sa eva go-kharaḥ (SB 10.84.13). That is the verdict of Vedic literature.
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
Just like in the prison house: it is the place for suffering, and if you want to be comfortable, this is called māyā. Māyā-sukhāya bharam udvahato vimūḍhān (SB 7.9.43). The whole world is running after happiness what is not possible. Therefore they have been described as vimūḍhān, rascal. We sometimes use this word very frequently, "rascals," and they become angry. But actually that is the description, "rascals." All these so-called civilized men, so-called civilized men, they are not men even. They're all animals. But in the śāstra, they have been described as dvi-pada-paśu. They are animals, but they have got two legs. That's all. That is the difference. Animals, generally, they have four legs, catus-pada, but these animals are two-legged. That is the difference. They're animals because... The same example: In the desert there is no water, and the animal is running after it. Why he's called animal? Because he does not understand that "In the desert, how there can be water?"
This morning we were discussing one story, how a rabbit entangled one lion and saved his life. So here in this material world, similarly, the small animal may be afraid of the big animal, but the big animal or small animal, they are animals. They are animals. Therefore Bhāgavata says the small animal may eulogize the big animal. That does not mean the big animal is of any importance. He is animal, that's all. Similarly, our position is that we do not go... We may not go to the big animal, but we may go to like Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Then we will be benefited. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, if we approach Caitanya Mahāprabhu... That is caitanya, living, supreme living being.
Therefore our request is that for your enlightenment of life you do not approach a big animal. You approach Kṛṣṇa, the supreme being. Then you will be benefited. There is no use. And who is animal? Even if he is two-legged, but still, if he remains an animal... Who? Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke (SB 10.84.13). One who is thinking of this body as identified with the self, he is animal. Anyone, it doesn't matter. We do not speak of any particular man, but any person who does not know his real identification...
Na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ: (BG 7.15) "Anyone who does not recognize God, he's the lowest of the lowest creature." Duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ. These, these terms have been used. Just like mūḍha, ass; duṣkṛtina, miscreant; and narādhamāḥ, and lowest of the mankind. Mankind. Mankind is meant for recognizing. This is the life. In animal life, one cannot recognize that there is God and everything is coming from God. They cannot read Vedas, or scriptures. They cannot take any instruction. So these Vedas and scriptures are there for human beings. Therefore, a human being, so-called human being with two hands and two legs, but they're animals who do not accept the authority of scripture and do not accept the existence of God, so Bhagavad-gītā very nicely describes them, narādhamāḥ. Naradhāmāḥ means lowest of the mankind.
So God is never dead. Kṛṣṇa is never dead, as some of the modern philosophers, they are putting forward the philosophy of "God is dead." God is dead for those who are following the owl philosophy. Owl has never seen sun, or it does not like to see the sun. Therefore the owl says, "There is no sun." Similarly, the atheistic philosophy is... There are so many logic. Just like the owl philosophy, the frog philosophy, the camel philosophy and the dog philosophy, the hog philosophy—there are so many philosophies. So only the persons who are, who have got two hands and two legs, but they are counted amongst the animals. And therefore they cannot think of the eternal, blissful existence of the Supreme Lord at all times.
Festival Lectures
I am not this body. I am spirit soul. That is, just like a man suffering from some disease, so that is not his normal life to suffer from some disease. Normal life is to keep healthy life, no disease. That is normal life. So in order to keep to the normal life, we must know how to cure the disease. Just like when you have got fever, you go to the doctor, he says, advises "You do this" and "You do not do this." The "do not do this" means nivṛtti-mārga, and "do this," pravṛtti-mārga. If you are serious to cure your disease, then you must know what you should do and what you should not do. But just like a man, a very foolish man, he is suffering from disease but he does not know how to cure the disease, what to do and what not to do, similarly an animal-like man, a two-legged man, he does not know what to do and what not to do. This is explained here.
Initiation Lectures
The cats and dogs, they have also got life. So loke, in this material world, vyavāya āmiṣa madya sevā. Vyavāya means sex indulgence, sex life. And āmiṣa means meat, fish, egg-eating. Āmiṣa. Therefore vegetarian diet is called nirāmiṣa, not āmiṣa. So it is general tendency of the living being to become āmiṣa, to eat meat. That is the general laws of nature. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. One living entity is the life for another living entity. Ahastāni sahastānām. There are animals, two-legged animals, and there are four-legged animals. The four-legged animals is the food for the two-legged animals. So long we remain as animals, then there is the necessity of eating meat. Ahastāni sahastānām. Hasta means hands. So those who are living like animals, only two legs. The other animals, four legs, and here is an animal of two legs, dvipad-paśu. For them, the animal is eatable, āmiṣa-madya sevā. And drinking wine, or intoxication, and vyavāya, sex life. Loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya sevayā nityastu jantu. So long he is jantu, these things are required. Pravṛttir eṣā bhūtānāṁ nivṛttis tu mahā-phalā. That is general tendency. But when one gives up voluntarily for higher status of life, that is called nivṛtti-mārga. Pravṛtti-mārga and nivṛtti-mārga. Pravṛtti-mārga means to fulfill these desires, āmiṣa vyavāya madya sevā. But when one is trained up to give up these habits, that is called nirvrtti-mārga. So we have got so many pravṛttis, inclinations. But when you voluntarily give up all these nonsense habits, that is called nivṛtti-mārga and tapasya.
| Page Title: | Human beings as two-legged animals |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, Mayapur |
| Created: | 22 of Aug, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=6, CC=0, OB=1, Lec=18, Con=11, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 36 |