Impeded by this ignorance and passion they are working very hard, just like an ass, and still they are thinking that "I am happy"

Expressions researched:
"impeded by this ignorance and passion they are working very hard, just like an ass"

Nectar of Devotion Lectures

We also have nothing to do. Why we are working? They are taking, "This is pleasure." This material life means... Because mostly they are infected with two qualities of material modes of nature, namely ignorance and passion. So impeded by this ignorance and passion they are working very hard, just like an ass, and still they are thinking that "I am happy."

The Nectar of Devotion -- Bombay, January 6, 1973:

So the actually our desire is that "There must be easygoing life. I shall not work very much. I shall live in a comfortable house in a secluded place and live peacefully." That is his desire. But because he does not know how to get that desire fulfilled, he is trying to get that desire fulfilled on the bodily comforts of life. This is the mistake. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇum (SB 7.5.31). They do not know. That is the svārtha. Because, as it is said in the Vedas, God... Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate. He has nothing to work. God has nothing to work for His economic development. Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate. Na tasya sama adhikaś ca dṛśyate. And because He is God, nobody is equal to Him and nobody greater than Him. Sama adhikaś ca na dṛśyate, parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). His energies are multi-energies, varieties of energies, and the energies are so perfect that svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca: everything is happening automatically. So that is actually life. Why one should...? Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is dancing with the gopīs, that's all. Why should He work? Why God should work? Na tasya kāryaṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. So because we are part and parcel of God, Kṛṣṇa, we are also trying to achieve that life, that "There will be no, no more to work. Let me accumulate some bank balance, the interest will come, and I shall sit down in a nice apartment, and everything will come automatically and I will enjoy life." That is actually life, because we are part and parcel of God. So God has nothing to do. Kṛṣṇa has nothing to do. So we also have nothing to do. Why we are working? They are taking, "This is pleasure." This material life means... Because mostly they are infected with two qualities of material modes of nature, namely ignorance and passion. So impeded by this ignorance and passion they are working very hard, just like an ass, and still they are thinking that "I am happy." He comes back to home, working very, very hard in the office, and he thinks, "Now I... My successful... I have earned so much money." This is the nature of material life, that he will work very hard and he will think, "That is my life." This is material life. But actually, if you are actually happy, then why you have to work so hard? But that is nonsense. He is nonsense. He does not know. Therefore the karmīs are called mūḍhas, asses. The ass works hard for the washerman, and the washerman gives him a morsel of grass and he thinks, "I am happy." This is ass mentality. He has worked very hard, but getting that little bunch of grass. He can get it anywhere, but he thinks that "This washerman gives it. Therefore I have to work..." Or he does not know that "I'm working for it." This is ass mentality.