the king of education

The self by nature is part of the Supreme Self, or God. In essence, you are eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss, saccidananada. Happiness is your nature. You suffer when you are not full of bliss, not full of knowledge, or if you are not in realization of your eternity. 

This means that you are in a diseased condition. You are in an unhealthy condition. You have forgotten the essence of your own being; the realization of you. Who are you? The consciousness within. Who is seeing me, right now? Your eyes, or your soul? Are you seeing through an eye, or  are you an eye? Are you your ear, or are you hearing me through your ear? So who are you? You don’t even know! Some mysterious Consciousness is witnessing this world through your body. But you think you are the body. You are flesh, or are you feeling through your flesh, but we don’t even know who that person is who is witnessing, that’s experiencing. There is a science of Physics to understand the flesh, right? There is science of psychiatry to understand the mind. 

Similarly, there is also a science of self-realization to understand the soul, the consciousness. It is a science. Today religion has become so degraded that everyone, simply says “I believe this, you believe that, whatever I believe is all right. Whatever you believe is all right. I think this and I think that”. And it is so unscientific and ridiculous that most of the educated class of people say, “Forget religion. It is so dogmatic and ritualistic."

But if you read the Vedas, religion is approached as a great science, raja vidya raja guhyam pavitram idam utamam - Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, that this is the king of education, the supreme science, because it gives one the direct perception of you, the self, through realization. 

So let us approach self-realization for what it is: it is a science. It must be understood systematically, in a scientific manner with our intelligence. Let us kick out all of this dogmatic, unscientific, un-philosophical belief system that goes in the name of religion. The nature of Consciousness is that it is eternal, it is full of knowledge and full of bliss. It is part of God, therefore all of the godly qualities are your inherent nature. But why are we not enjoying the very facilities that are our right to enjoy? Because we have forgotten, due to ignorance, our true nature.

without love there is no question of happiness

When I was in America, I gave lectures almost every day at various universities. I have given lectures at Harvard and MIT a few times, but I would regularly give lectures in the Midwest, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois, etc. And what I found in the atmosphere of colleges in America is so corrupt and so degraded, even though they are factually teaching the highest systems of knowledge in the fields of science, technology, business, computer operations and so on. But as soon as the students leave their classes, there are drugs, there is illicit sex, there is alcohol. There is absolutely no management or control over their senses. 

Students become completely selfish: intoxication and illicit sex makes them completely self-centered and selfish. They get the qualities of lust, greed, envy and pride, and then those same students attain tremendous amounts of immense power by the knowledge they are acquiring. And when they come out of school, what do you expect they are going to do with the powerful knowledge that they have simultaneously acquired with greed, pride, envy, lust, anger and illusion? They are going to take that power, and with greed in mind, with no sense of compassion, mercy, or self discipline, they are going to create havoc and chaos in the world. 

And if you doubt what I am saying; read in the newspapers, look at the world, it’s the educated class of men that are causing these big problems. Where is man’s love and concern for his fellow man? 

Without love there is no question of happiness. And you may be turning your heads and saying, “What is this guy talking about, it’s useless!” But believe me, I have been in your position. I lived in a country which is far more materially progressive than you can imagine, and I have lived within that society, everything at my hands, and I have had every opportunity to take over big companies. 

And so you may be saying, "Oh! What’s this religion, it’s not practical.” But I am speaking of  practicality to you. Consider that some of the wealthiest people in the world, the upper-class income society of America, has the highest rate of suicide in the world. They are more prone to suicide, sleeping pills, and psychiatrists than any other class of men on planet Earth. This is a statistic. 

Do you think that by becoming powerful and wealthy that you are going to find happiness in this life? You will not. At the same time, it does not mean that you can’t be a multi-billionaire, big chairman or president of a board, or a successful businessman. If you find integrity within your own self consciousness, and you find knowledge and happiness and love within, then in any situation you can prosper.

a lifetime mission

Our thinking should be as the servant of the servant. Whether you are a counselor, or a guru, or a GBC, or a president, or if you are just a new bhakta or bhaktin, whomever you may be, it is the responsibility of every single one of us to help each other that we never, ever leave the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. 

Krishna Consciousness is a lifetime process. To go back home, back to Godhead, you have to practice strictly and sincerely, until the day you die and go back to Godhead. This is not a movement that is just like a college, where you are in this movement for four years and you graduate, and then you go back into the material world.

This is a lifetime mission.

true education

This body and mind are always changing. We are studying hundreds of courses in the university to suit the needs of the body and mind, and yet we are completely neglecting the needs of the self. So if we are talking of management, you can't manage something unless you know what to manage. And in regards to managing the self, we don't even know who we are!

This is the most fundamental principle of education. Do you know what the word "education" means? The word education comes from the Greek word "educary", which means to bring out what is within. Does that have anything to do with modern education? Modern education is to superimpose from the outside into your brains so much data, so many statistics, facts and figures. But the real meaning of the word "education" is to withdraw what is within you.

Real knowledge is within your own heart, but we are so externalized in our approach to life that we are completely neglecting the real needs of ourselves.