Those who are under the material energy, they are pulled by the ear of the person by the material energy. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (BG 18.61). Yantrārūḍhāni. This body is a yantra, is an automobile, mechanical car. Just like I . . . we are placed on the motorcar, and the driver moves us in different places, similarly, according to our karma, we are given a certain type of body, cat's body, dog's body, human body, this body, that body—8,400,000 species. So we are moving. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā.
So actually, we are under the control of the material nature. But ahaṅkāra-vimūḍha ātmā, those who are fools and rascals, they are thinking "I am independent," "I am God," "I don't care for God," this or that . . . so many. So this is called mati-cchanna, madness. The Vaiṣṇava Kavi says therefore:
- piśācī pāile yena mati-cchanna haya
- māyā-grasta jīvera se dāsa upajaya
- (Prema-vivarta 6.2)
Just like when a man is ghostly haunted—in Bengal it is called bhute pava—and he speaks nonsense, even his father is before him, he wants to attack his father without any respect. Madman, crazy. So anyone under this protection of the material energy—more or less crazy. More or less.
It is not only our words; it is scientifically true. I know, there was one case, a man was condemned to death, and his pleader presented that "This man was in . . . in insanity condition; therefore he committed this act. He may be excused." So the, a civil surgeon was invited to examine him, whether he's, actually he was in sanity condition. The civil surgeon gave evidence that so far he had treated so many patients, he saw everyone is more or less crazy. (laughter) "Under the circumstances, if this man is crazy, that depends on your judgment, what to do. But in my opinion, every man is a crazy man."
So this is a fact. This is a fact. Anyone who is under the control of the material energy, he's a crazy man. He's thinking, "I am this, I am that, I am this," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am Hindu," "I am a Muslim," "I am so on, so on," so many things. But he's nothing of all this. These are all creation of māyā.