Karma, Knowledge, and Kṛṣṇa - How to Become Truly Educated
In modern society, education is often viewed as the ultimate ticket to success. Parents sacrifice everything to ensure their children earn degrees, believing this guarantees a bright future. Śrīla Prabhupāda offers a more nuanced perspective. While he acknowledges that becoming educated is a sign of good fortune, he warns that without spiritual direction, even the highest academic qualifications result in ultimate defeat. Real education is not just about learning how to earn a living; it is about learning how to leave the body and solve the cycle of birth and death.
Fruit of Good Karma
According to the laws of nature, nothing happens by chance. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that material opulences—birth in a high family, great wealth, physical beauty, and high education—are the results of pious activities performed in previous lives. Just as one must work to become rich, one must have "worked" spiritually in the past to be born with the intelligence to acquire vast knowledge. However, these assets are temporary. If they are not used for self-realization, they are merely "adulterated" happiness, mixed with the inevitable miseries of life.
- According to the law of karma, a man takes his birth in a high family, or becomes rich, or very well educated, or very beautiful because of good work in the past.
- There is no chance. Everything depends on some cause. Not that by chance anyone becomes very rich man. No. One has to work for it. Not that by chance one becomes very educated. These things are not chances.
- In the material world, so-called auspicity, to become very rich, to become very educated, to become very beautiful, high parentage, they are auspicity. But they are also adulterated with threefold miseries: adhyatmika, adhibhautika, adhidaivika.
Failure of Modern Academia
If material education is so valuable, why are the most educated nations often the most frustrated? Śrīla Prabhupāda points to the "hippie" phenomenon in the West as a prime example. University students, despite having every facility, were dropping out and becoming hopeless. Why? Because they saw no future. They realized that a degree does not stop death, nor does it provide lasting happiness. Śrīla Prabhupāda bluntly states that without spiritual knowledge, we are "simply being defeated" by the material energy.
- In your country also, why this section of people have become hippies? From university student, they have become hippies. Why? Frustration. They know that "What is this life? If I am become educated, then what is my future?" There is no future
- We are happy. We are becoming educated, we are advanced in science. But Bhagavata says, "No, you are not advancing, you are simply being defeated, because you do not know how to get happiness. You are not trying for real happiness."
Standard of Real Education
What does it mean to be truly educated? It means to know the Absolute Truth. Śrīla Prabhupāda asserts that a person who hears the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā, even if they are illiterate by material standards, becomes a "great learned scholar." The definition of a bhāratī (a learned person) is one who is freed from ignorance and never unhappy. Therefore, a devotee of Kṛṣṇa is the best educated person because they have understood the essence of all knowledge.
- As far as education is concerned, one can become recognized in society as a great learned scholar simply by hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita, wherein the pastimes of the Lord and His devotees are described.
- To become educated in the Krsna consciousness movement, this is the beginning - to hear about Krsna, to understand about Krsna.
- Your parents desire that you become educated also, although they do now know that someone who is a devotee is best educated.
Universal Access
The beauty of spiritual education is that it is open to everyone. Unlike material universities that require tuition and prerequisites, the school of Kṛṣṇa consciousness has no barriers. Anyone, from any community or background, can become God conscious. This is the only education that solves the ultimate problem of life—the repetition of birth and death.
- Just like uneducated person: It is not that he'll have to remain in that uneducated standard, but he can become educated. That is Krsna consciousness movement, that there is no check on any particular person, community, to become God conscious.
- If you become educated, then your future is very nice. If you are not educated, then your future is not so bright. Similarly, this human form of life, we can make a solution of this repeated birth and death.
Conclusion
True education is not the accumulation of facts, but the transformation of character and consciousness. Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that while academic learning is a result of past piety, it remains incomplete without the knowledge of the soul. By taking shelter of the Vedic literature and the bona fide spiritual master, anyone can graduate from the school of illusion and become truly educated in the science of Kṛṣṇa, securing a future that is eternal and full of bliss.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Becoming Educated. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.