Prabhupada 0354 - Blind Man Leading Other Blind Men
Lecture on SB 2.3.2-3 -- Los Angeles, May 20, 1972
Pradyumna: "Purport: In the human society, all over the world, there are millions and billions of men and women, and almost all of them are less intelligent because they have very little knowledge of the spirit soul."
Prabhupāda: This is our challenge, that the, there are millions and trillions of men and women all over the world, but they're not at all intelligent. This is our challenge. So, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement may be taken by others as crazy, or we challenge that "You are all crazy men." Therefore we have got a little book, "Who is Crazy?" Because they're thinking that "These shaven-headed boys and girls are crazy," but actually they are crazy. Because they have no intelligence. Why? They do not know what is spirit soul. This is the animal consciousness. Dogs, cats, they think that the body, they are the body.
- yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
- sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ
- yat tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij
- janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
- (SB 10.84.13)
Go-khara. Go means cow, and khara means ass. A person who is in bodily conscious, "I am this body." So 99.9% of the whole population of the world, they're like this, "I am this body," "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am African," "I am this..."
And they're fighting just like cats and dogs, they fight, "I am cat, you are dog. You are dog, I am cat." That's all. So this challenge, that "You are all rascals," it is a very strong word, but actually that is the fact. That is the fact. It is a revolutionary movement. We are challenging everyone that "You are all set of asses and cows and animals, because you have no knowledge beyond this body." Therefore it is said... In this purport, I have especially mentioned. "Because they have little knowledge of spirit soul, all of them are not intelligent." I have spoken with big, big professors. In Moscow, that gentleman, Professor Kotovsky, he said, "Swamiji, after death, there is nothing. Everything is finished." And he's one of the big professors in the country. So this is the defect of modern civilization, that the whole society is being governed by cats and dogs, actually. So how there can be any peace and prosperity? It is not possible. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ.
Blind man leading other blind men. If one has eyes to see, he can lead hundreds and thousands of men, "Please come along with me. I shall cross the road." But if the man leading, he is himself blind, how he can lead others? Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ. So Bhāgavata, there is no comparison. There cannot be. It is transcendental science. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ (SB 7.5.31). Īśa-tantryām, these blind leaders, they are bound up by the laws of material nature, and they are giving advice. What advice they can give?