890
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 1, Ch. 17]
The people's government, or government by the people, should not allow killing innocent animals by the sweet will of foolish government men. They must know the codes of God, as mentioned in the revealed scriptures. Mahārāja Parīkṣit quotes here that in the codes of God the irresponsible king or state executive jeopardizes his good name, duration of life, power and strength and ultimately his progressive march towards a better life or salvation after death. Such foolish men do not even believe in existence in the next life.
While commenting on this particular verse, we have in our presence the statement of a great modern politician who has recently died and left his will, which discloses his poor fund of knowledge of the codes of God mentioned by Mahārāja Parīkṣit. The politician was so ignorant of the codes of God that he writes: "I do not believe in any such ceremonies and to submit to them, even as a matter of form would be hypocrisy and an attempt to delude ourselves and others . . . I have no religious sentiment in the matter."
Contrasting these statements of a great politician in the modern age with that of Mahārāja Parīkṣit, we find a vast difference. Mahārāja Parīkṣit was pious according to the scriptural codes, whereas the modern politician goes by his personal belief and sentiments. Any great man of the material world is after all a conditioned soul. He is bound up by his hands and feet by the ropes of material nature, and still the foolish conditioned soul thinks of himself as free to act by his whimsical sentiments. The conclusion is that people in the time of Mahārāja Parīkṣit were happy, and the animals were given proper protection because the executive head was not whimsical nor ignorant of God's law. Foolish faithless creatures try to avoid the existence of the Lord and proclaim themselves secular at the cost of valuable human life. The human life is especially meant for knowing the science of God, but foolish creatures, especially in this age of Kali, instead of knowing God scientifically, make propaganda against religious belief as well as the existence of God, even though they are always bound by the laws of God by the symptoms of birth, death, old age and disease.
TEXT 12
कोऽबृध्वत् तव पादांस्त्रीन् सौरभेय चतुष्पद । मा भूवंस्त्वादृशा राष्ट्रे राज्ञां कृष्णानुवर्तिनाम् ॥ १ २ ॥
ko 'vṛścat tava pādāmṣ trīn saurabheya catuṣ-pada mā bhūvamṣ tvādṛśā rāṣṭre rājñām kṛṣṇānuvartinām