# Education *On spiritual education and the gurukula system* --- ### Purpose of Education > According to Vedic civilization, therefore, a child—he may be a king's son or a poor man's son—must go to gurukula and live for some time under the training of the spiritual master to be very thickly connected with Nārāyaṇa and Kṛṣṇa. — [[spoken/1970/701215sb.ind|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.27, Indore, 1970]] --- ### Cannot Forget Kṛṣṇa > So if a child is trained up in that way, then he becomes automatically Kṛṣṇa conscious. And if a child becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious up to the age of twenty, twenty-five years, then naturally he becomes a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. So when he enters his family life, although he accepts wife and children, he cannot forget Kṛṣṇa. — [[spoken/1970/701215sb.ind|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.27, Indore, 1970]] --- ### Universal Education > Actually the students, the children, should be given chance to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is the duty of the state, that is the duty of the parents, that is the duty of the guru, that is the duty of kinsmen. — [[spoken/1971/711112le.del|Lecture, Delhi, 1971]] --- ### From Childhood > This is the age for injecting Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If children are taught Kṛṣṇa consciousness from this age, the face of the world will be different. — [[spoken/1968/680818r1.mon|Room Conversation, Montreal, 1968]] --- ### Duty of Teacher > One should not become a father, one should not become a mother, one should not become a teacher, one should not become a king unless they are able to elevate their dependents to this spiritual knowledge, which can save him from repeated birth and death. — [[spoken/1970/700514ip.la|Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Mantra 6, Los Angeles, 1970]] --- ### Use It for Kṛṣṇa > So any line of education, you cannot take it, but use it for Kṛṣṇa's satisfaction. Then your education is perfect. Otherwise, śrama eva hi kevalam, simply working uselessly and waste of time. — [[spoken/1975/750310bg.lon|Bhagavad-gītā 7.2, London, 1975]] --- ### Higher Than Universities > This knowledge is not taught in any university of the world. It is unique institution. Although it is the most important subject matter for the human being, still, it is not given education. So we are trying to introduce this educational system all over the world. — [[spoken/1976/760619sb.tor|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.6.3, Toronto, 1976]] --- ### What Is Learned There? > What is this education? Nobody's educated. This education is most unsatisfactory. What education? Simply eating, sleeping, mating, and defending? That is not education. The dogs are doing that without education. So that kind of education is not at all valuable. — [[spoken/1976/760619sb.tor|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.6.3, Toronto, 1976]] --- ### The Real Subject > So far Vedic culture is concerned, there was education, how to become perfect in life. The whole Vedic system was meant for that purpose. Not that education means how to become a technologist and earn money for eating, sleeping. No. That was a secondary thing. — [[spoken/1976/760630sb.nv|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.6.16, New Vṛndāvana, 1976]] --- ### Beginning of Civilization > If you want to become civilized, then you must take education. Without education, how you can become civilized? So what is that education? The first-class education is to understand "What I am." If a man does not know what he is, what is the use of his so-called education? — [[spoken/1976/761016bg.cha|Bhagavad-gītā 9.3, Chandigarh, 1976]] --- *10 quotes from Śrīla Prabhupāda on education* [[wiki/quotes|Back to Quotes]]