The government must be responsible for the uplift of the citizens to the spiritual life. That is real government. So that was being done five thousand years ago by Mahārāja Parīkṣit. Mahārāja Parīkṣit, those who have read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is this... Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam begins from the question of Mahārāja Parīkṣit. Mahārāja Parīkṣit, at the last stage of his life, when he was to live for seven days only, he decided to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and become liberated from this material life. And it so happened. The idea is the Mahārāja Parīkṣit was so pious that, that when he was touring in his kingdom all over the world, he found one man, one black man was trying to kill one cow. Immediately, Mahārāja Parīkṣit took his sword and wanted to kill the man. He was Kali. So "Who are you, that you are killing cow in my kingdom?" So formerly, when the whole world was under the one king of the Pāṇḍavas, just like Parīkṣit Mahārāja, there was equal protection for the animals and the man. Not that man should be given protection by law, and not the animals. The animals, they're also national. What is the meaning of "national"? One who is born in that land.
Suppose you are American. You are born in this land of America; therefore you are American national. Why not the cats and the dogs and the cows? They are also national. So this is injustice, that to give protection to the human kind and to send the animals to the slaughterhouse. This, this inequality, discrimination between man and animal is due to lack of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When one becomes actually Kṛṣṇa conscious, he does not make such distinction that a man should be given protection and the animal should be killed. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is a, a spiritual movement. It is reformatory movement, inclusive all sides of life. Don't think that we are simply chanting and dancing. Our philosophy includes all different activities of humankind, either it may be religious or political or social or cultural. Anything. Industrial—everything. So my request is that this movement was started in your country, and these American boys and girls, they have taken it seriously. So kindly cooperate with this movement, and you'll be happy. That is my request. Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa.