SB 5.10.13
unmatta-matta-jadavat sva-samstham
gatasya me vira cikitsitena
arthah kiyan bhavata siksitena
stabdha-pramattasya ca pistapesah
Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
My dear King, you have said, “You rascal, you dull, crazy fellow! I am going to chastise you, and then you will come to your senses.” In this regard, let me say that although I live like a dull, deaf and dumb man, I am actually a self-realized person. What will you gain by punishing me? If your calculation is true and I am a madman, then your punishment will be like beating a dead horse. There will be no effect. When a madman is punished, he is not cured of his madness.
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
Everyone in this material world is working like a madman under certain impressions falsely acquired in the material condition. For example, a thief who knows that stealing is not good and who knows that it is followed with punishment by a king or by God, who has seen that thieves are arrested and punished by the police, nonetheless steals again and again. He is obsessed with the idea that by stealing he will be happy. This is a sign of madness. Despite repeated punishment, the thief cannot give up his stealing habit; therefore the punishment is useless.