Just like a child is sleeping on the lap of his mother, feeling secure, completely secure, that "I am on the lap of my mother . . ." Naturally a child, when it is on the lap of its mother, he is quite comfortable, silent, feeling very secure. So in that position if the mother kills the child . . . It is like that, that prajā and the king . . . The prajās . . . Prajā means the citizens, subjects. They should be feeling so much secure, that "We are under good government. There is no disturbance." Just like during the government of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, they were so secure that even they had no very much anxieties. "Our king is there." The world is full of anxieties, miseries and difficulties. So the good government means when the subjects, citizens, feel secure from all such things.
So here, yasyāṅke śira ādhāya. Suppose I am sleeping very comfortably, feeling secure by keeping my head on your lap, yasyāṅke śira ādhāya lokaḥ svapiti, and dreaming very happily. Svaya dharmam adharmaṁ vā na he veda yathā paśuḥ. You cannot expect all men to understand what is religion and what is not religion, general mass of people. So what is the position of a person or any being who does not know to make distinction what is dharma and adharma? So they have been described. He is described as yathā paśuḥ. Paśuḥ. Paśuḥ means animal. An animal cannot make distinction what is right or what is wrong. That is not possible. Therefore it is said, dharmeṇa hīnā paśubhiḥ samānāḥ: "One who is ignorant of dharma-adharma, he is no better than paśu." Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca sāmānyam etat paśubhiḥ narāṇām (Hitopadeśa 25). Āhāra, eating. I eat, the dog eats, the cat eats. I sleep, the dog sleeps and the cat sleeps. I have sex desire, I satisfy it; the cats and dogs also satisfy it. And I am also afraid of my enemy; the cats and dogs are also afraid of enemy. Then where is the difference between cats and dogs? The difference is that I can be trained up to become religious; the cats and dogs cannot be trained. That is the difference. Dharmeṇa hīnā paśubhiḥ samānāḥ. So if I don't take education and enlightenment how to become religious, I do not know how to distinguish between right and wrong, then yathā paśu—then I am as good as animal.
That is the position at the present moment, that people are not educated to distinguish or to become pious. They are not educated. They are being . . . Now, at the present moment, education means you learn technology and learn how to earn money, and then, after earning money, you spend it for sense gratification: eating meat, eating wine, going to the brothel, prostitutes. This is modern civilization. So therefore it is the civilization of paśu, animal civilization, polished animals. It is not civilization. It is the duty of the guardian, father, guru, government or elderly relative—everyone should be compassionate with the dependent. The father should be compassionate to the children, that "My children, they have come to me. They are now innocent. If I do not train them nicely . . ." What kind of training? Na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum. That is the duty of the father, of the guru, how to save the dependent from the clutches of death. This is the duty. The government also. Because death is sure. As soon as we get this material body, the death is sure.