What is Education - an essential subject
In a nutshell, Śrīla Prabhupāda describes what is NOT education: any education that does not lead one to understand Kṛṣṇa is false education. In other words, education according to him is meant for preparing the human beings to understand God. The beginning of the educational process starts with one or two questions: "Who am I?" or "What is the goal of my life?". Without this first awakening Prabhupāda states that we are living as cats and dogs, with the same animal propensities. Therefore, with that kind of consciousness, what is the use of material education? The result of material education according to him is the development of the impetus for lording over material nature in the sense of "mine" and "I". So, all these ideas reflect the philosophy of ahaṁ mama, the conception that "I am everything". Then he concludes that persons conducted by such a conception of life can never get liberation from material bondage.
To develop his philosophical proposal of an ideal society, Prabhupāda has the Vedas as his main literature and reference. From there he brings the Education system which divides the society into four varṇās and four āśramas. Each division has a status of quality, education, culture and spiritual advancement attained by practicing control of the mind and the senses. All these divisions are based on the particular nature of each individual person, not on the principle of birth. Prabhupāda extensively states that each division must be represented by personal vocation and not by birth.
The spiritual education proposed by Prabhupāda, however, doesn't have the purpose of theorizing about philosophical issues only. According to him, one may be well versed in all the transcendental literature of the Vedas, but if he fails to be acquainted with the Supreme, then it must be concluded that all of his education is like the burden of a beast or like one's keeping a cow without milking capacity. Devotional service was his proposed for of education. He successfully trained people from different parts of the globe with different kinds of culture, about consciousness of God - also known as Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In this matter, no material education is required because, "by the mercy of the Lord, even a layman can compose prayers of the highest spiritual perfection". So, such spiritual perfection is not limited by material qualifications but is developed by dint of one's sincere endeavor to render transcendental service. Voluntary endeavor is the only qualification for spiritual education to take effect.
Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, lectures, conversations and letters offer a comprehensive presentation of this essential subject as seen in the Vaniquotes Education category. An introduction from his books is given below in the following 16 quotes.
Quotes from Srila Prabhupada's books
Srila Prabhupada's instructions on What is Education - explore more within this category.
Vanipedia has now over 903 introductory articles compiled from Srila Prabhupada's books under the series titled Essential Subjects. All these articles can be seen in the Table of Content on the right side of this article and also here in this Umbrella Category. Browse through them to relish the breadth and depth of Srila Prabhupada's teachings - There is a subject for everyone.