The animals, they are taken to slaughterhouse, and one said . . . if one animal enters, all the animals will enter. They do not know. Even they know that, "We are going to be slaughtered," they have no means to protest or to go out. If a human being is slaughtered in the street, then his relatives, his kinsmen, file suit and brings the man into law.
So many facilities are there for a human being. But an animal, because it is animal, it has no facility. A cow is born in America and a gentleman is born in America, but the state takes care of the gentleman, not of the cows. They say "national," "nationality." Why nationality is refused to the animals?
Just like few days or few years ago the nationality was also awarded to the black man. This is nice. Why one section of humanity should be denied nationality? That was very nice. So similarly, if national means the living entity born in that land . . . that is natural. If a child, even of an Indian, if a child is born in your country he gets immediately the citizenship. That is the law. So the conclusion is that anyone who is born in this land, he gets nationality. But why we should refuse nationality to the poor animals? This is called ignorance. He is also . . .
But we have made concoction, law that, "Animal has no soul." Why it is, it has no soul? What is the difference between you and animal? You eat; the animal eats. You sleep, the animal sleeps. You have sex life, the animal has sex life. You also try to defend yourself and the animal also tries to defend himself. So āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca (Hitopadeśa), eating, sleeping, mating and defending, these four principles, bodily demand, are similar to the animal and to the man.
So why the animals should be denied nationality? It is not that because they are less intelligent they should be denied nationality. No. Just like a father has got four boys. Not that everyone is of the same intelligence. But does the father gives less protection to the less intelligent son? No. The protection, the family protection, is equal for everyone.
These are the conception, bhāgavata community, equal right to everyone, even to the animals. That is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness means paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ, learned. One who is Kṛṣṇa conscious, he is fully learned, paṇḍita. So what is the symptoms of a paṇḍita, learned man? That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā:
- vidyā-vinaya-sampanne
- brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
- śuni caiva śva-pāke ca
- paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ
- (BG 5.18)
One person is very learned. In our country a brāhmiṇ, he is supposed to be very learned; therefore he is addressed as paṇḍita. Paṇḍita means very learned. Nowadays he may be a fool number one, but he is called paṇḍita. That is not actually the fact. A brāhmiṇ means very, very learned in Vedic literature. Veda-pathād bhaved vipraḥ. One who has studied the Vedas very nicely, he is vipra.
So one who is actually paṇḍita, he will see a learned brāhmiṇ, a hog, a dog and a caṇḍāla, an elephant, like that, everyone, all living entities—that means all living entities—on the equal level, because he sees to the soul, not to the body. Just like we are meeting here. We are seeing each other. We have not come here to see the dress, we have come to see or to learn some knowledge. Similarly, the human life is especially meant for grasping the knowledge we are missing. The missing knowledge is that I have forgotten that I am spirit soul, part and parcel of God, Kṛṣṇa. That is the missing point.
So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is meant for reviving that lost consciousness. That lost consciousness. We have lost this consciousness that, "I am the part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, the supreme blissful enjoyer, but somehow or other, being complicated within this matter, I am suffering. I am trying to become happy with this material atmosphere, which is not possible." Just like if you are put into the water you may be very nice swimmer, but you cannot be happy there, because the water is not your place.
You are a living entity of the land. Similarly, a fish, if you take out of the water and give it a velvet bedding, "My dear fish, you lie down here, on the velvet," he'll die, because the condition is different. Similarly, we are spirit soul, Kṛṣṇa's part and parcel. So unless we go back to Kṛṣṇa, just like the gopīs or the cowherds boy, we cannot be happy. There is no possibility.