Men who are like dogs, hogs, camels and asses praise those men who never listen to the transcendental pastimes of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, 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 Śrī Kṛṣṇa, 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 Bhāgavatam 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 ṭhelā
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 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam'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 Bhāgavatam
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 Kṛṣṇa,
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 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
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. -Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
