those who are being praised are both ignorant. As the  Vedas  put it,  saṁstutaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ : "A big animal is being praised by a small animal."
Compassion
Śrīla Prabhupāda.  The law is cheating, medical science is cheating, and the government is cheating. Top government officials are charged with taking bribes. If the governor takes bribes and the constable takes bribes, then where is the good society? People elect the leader who promises them happiness. But since that happiness is  māyā  [or illusion], he can never deliver it, and society simply becomes filled with cheaters. Since people are actually after this illusory happiness, however, they continue to elect such unscrupulous leaders time and time again.
The position of a Vaiṣṇava[10] is to take compassion on all these ignorant people. The great Vaiṣṇava Prahlāda Mahārāja once prayed to the Lord, "My Lord, as far as I am concerned, I have no problems. My consciousness is always absorbed in Your very powerful transcendental activities, and therefore I have understood things clearly. But I am deeply concerned for these rascals who are engaged in activities for illusory happiness." A Vaiṣṇava thinks only about how people can become happy. He knows that they are vainly searching after something that will never come to be. For fifty or sixty years people search after illusory happiness, but then they must die without completing the work and without knowing what will happen after death. Actually, their position is like that of an animal, because an animal also does not know what happens to him after death. The animal does not know the value of life, nor why he has come here. By the influence of  māyā , he simply eats, sleeps, mates, defends and dies. That's all. Throughout their lives the ignorant animals-and the animalistic men-greatly endeavor to do these five things only: eat, sleep, mate, defend and die. Therefore the business of a Vaiṣṇava is to instruct people that God exists, that we are His servants, and that we can enjoy an eternally blissful life serving Him and developing our love fo
Beyond the Cagee
Dr. Singh.  But doesn't the living entity need matter as long as he is in material nature?
Śrīla Prabhupāda.  No, the living entity is purely spiritual; therefore, he doesn't require matter. Because his thinking is diseased, however, he believes he does. The conditioned living entity is like a drunkard who doesn't require drinking, but who nevertheless thinks, "Without drinking, I shall die." This is called  māyā , or illusion. is it true that if a drunkard doesn't get his drink, he will die?
Dr. Singh.  No, but if a man doesn't eat, he will die..
Śrīla Prabhupāda.  That's also not a fact. Last night we were discussing Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī.[11] In his later life, he almost completely abstained from eating and sleeping. He would drink only a little buttermilk every three or four days, and he worked twenty-two hours a day, sleeping two or three. And some days he did not sleep at all. So you may ask, "How could he survive?" Actually, he lived for one hundred years. Eating, sleeping, mating and defending were not problems for Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, but still he lived. Because he was a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, he was fully aware that the soul is eternal and independent, although it has been put into this bodily cage, which it actually does not require. Suppose a bird is encaged. Is he living simply because he is in the cage? Without the cage he is free. People are thinking that by being encaged within the body they are happy. That is nonsense. Actually, our encagement