Acquiring Knowledge - an essential subject

In the human form of life, one must learn these two things—how to become detached from the material world and how to acquire full knowledge in spiritual life. All methods of acquiring knowledge can be divided into two groups. The inferior method is to acquire knowledge from academic and empirical research obtained through the imperfect senses. Faithless nonbelievers may be highly educated in the material sense of the term, but factually they are the greatest fools because due to the influence of the external, material nature all their so-called acquisition of knowledge is made null and void. One should not simply acquire knowledge without reaching the goal of life. The superior method is to acquire knowledge from the original source of all knowledge, Krishna, the Supreme Person. The Lord's instructions in the form of Bhagavad-gītā are full of knowledge and renunciation. Krishna says that after many, many births of struggle, or attempts for acquiring knowledge, one comes to the summit point of understanding that He is the cause of all causes and all that is.

Srila Prabhupada's books, lectures, conversations and letters offer a comprehensive presentation of this essential subject as seen in the Vaniquotes Acquiring Knowledge category. An introduction from his books is given below in the following 16 quotes.

Quotes from Srila Prabhupada's books


vanipedia.org 		Knowledge means knowing things as they are, and if by deliberation it is found that there are things which are at all unnecessary, naturally the person who has acquired knowledge leaves aside such unwanted things. When the conditioned soul finds by culture of knowledge that material necessities are unwanted things, he becomes detached from such unwanted things. This stage of knowledge is called vairāgya, or detachment from unwanted things. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.2.12)



vanipedia.org 		The knowledge that we gather by our education in the schools and colleges may help us temporarily in the study of some particular subject in the present span of life, but this acquisition of knowledge cannot satisfy our eternal need for which we hanker life after life, day after day, hour after hour. (Message of Godhead, Chapter 1)



vanipedia.org 		The Vedic system of acquiring knowledge is the deductive process. The Vedic knowledge is received perfectly by disciplic succession from authorities. Such knowledge is never dogmatic, as ill conceived by less intelligent persons. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.9.18)



vanipedia.org 		There are different levels of acquired knowledge—direct knowledge, knowledge received from authorities, transcendental knowledge, knowledge beyond the senses, and finally spiritual knowledge. When one surpasses the stage of acquiring knowledge by the descending process, he is immediately situated on the transcendental platform. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.12.19)



vanipedia.org 		The purified stage of acquiring knowledge becomes the basis of devotional service to the Lord. As long as one is engaged in researching the solution of the problems of life, his knowledge is called jñāna, or purified knowledge, but on realizing the actual solution of life, one becomes situated in the devotional service of the Lord. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.15.27)



vanipedia.org 		Man may discover so many wonderful vehicles of journey, but even if he reaches the moon by his much advertised spacecraft, he cannot remain there. The sane man, therefore, without being puffed up, as if he were the God of the universe, abides by the instructions of the Vedic literature, the easiest way to acquire knowledge in transcendence. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.9.10)



vanipedia.org 		A Vaiṣṇava never agrees with the speculative system of the jñānīs. Both the jñānīs and karmīs depend on direct sense perception for their imperfect knowledge. The karmīs never agree to accept anything not directly perceived, and the jñānīs put forth only hypotheses. However, the Vaiṣṇavas, the unalloyed devotees of the Lord, do not follow the process of acquiring knowledge by direct sense perception or mental speculation. (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 7.66)



vanipedia.org 		It is assumed that even if a person acquires some spiritually uplifting knowledge, circumstantially he is prone to forget it. Not only children but also elderly persons should be very careful to protect their sense of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and avoid unfavorable circumstances so that they may not forget their prime duty. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.31.27)



vanipedia.org 		If we want to acquire transcendental knowledge, our first duty will be to understand that the spirit soul is eternal truth. The external ingredients, the body and the mind which develop around the spirit soul, are all relative or partial truths. In the second chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, the Personality of Godhead explains this fact elaborately. (Message of Godhead, Chapter 1)



vanipedia.org 		Devotional service to the Lord is the ultimate issue, and therefore those who are directly engaged in the devotional service of the Lord not only acquire the necessary knowledge in spiritual science, but also attain detachment from material connection and are thus promoted to the kingdom of God by complete liberation. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.7.3)



vanipedia.org 		One who works for the satisfaction of the Lord only, however difficult such work may be, is working under the principles of buddhi-yoga and finds himself always in transcendental bliss. By such transcendental engagement, one achieves all transcendental understanding automatically, by the grace of the Lord, and thus his liberation is complete in itself, without his making extraneous endeavors to acquire knowledge. (Bhagavad-gītā 2.39)



vanipedia.org 		After acquiring perfect transcendental knowledge, one acquires qualitative equality with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, becoming free from the repetition of birth and death. One does not, however, lose his identity as an individual soul. (Bhagavad-gītā 14.2)



vanipedia.org 		A person is said to be established in self-realization and is called a yogī (or mystic) when he is fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person is situated in transcendence and is self-controlled. He sees everything—whether it be pebbles, stones or gold—as the same. (Bhagavad-gītā 6.8)



vanipedia.org 		The Lord, as the Supersoul of all living beings from Brahmā to the insignificant ant, endows all with the required knowledge potent in every living being. A living being is sufficiently potent to possess knowledge from the Lord in the proportion of fifty sixty-fourths, or seventy-eight percent of the full knowledge acquirable. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.4.22)



vanipedia.org 		There are five groups of five. One group is the sense objects, one is the five elements, one is the five sense organs for acquiring knowledge, another is the senses for working, and the fifth group is the five deities who control these divisions. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.20.13)



vanipedia.org 		One should understand that the wealth and opportunity one gets in the material world should not be squandered in sense gratification. They are meant for the advancement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is therefore teaching people to control the mind and five knowledge-acquiring senses by a definite process. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.14.2)


Acquiring Knowledge - 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.


   
 

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