Education Uplifts, Not Degrades

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Public speech at a gathering in Purulia
13 November 2019, part 3

You are not a professor, you are not a scholar, you are not a doctor, you are not a chemist—you are only a jiva soul. Your identity is that you are a jiva soul. I say, "This is my hand," "This is my head," "This my ear"—but who am I? This is my question. Our identity is that we are a jiva soul, we come from the Lord and go to the Lord. This is the main thing.

For that, I am humbly requesting you all—you are all great educated people... You know, when I was practising law in the high court, I saw one high court judge giving judgement in a case. There was a man, an aeroplane pilot, his wife, a bank manager, (both had so much money), and there was an old lady who came and started crying to the judge, "This is my son and his wife, but they are kicking me out of my own house!" Both the pilot husband and the bank manager wife are educated, but what does this education give us? Does education teach us to do such things? No. Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur told,

জড়বিদ্যা যয়, মায়ার বৈভব,
তোমার ভজনে বাধা ।
মোহ জনমিয়া অনিত্য সংসারে,
জীবকে করিয়ে গাধা ॥

jada-vidya yata, mayara vaibhava,
tomara bhajane badha
moha janamiya, anitya samsare,
jivake karaye gadha

"All mundane learning is a manifestation of illusion (maya) and an obstacle to Your service. It brings about infatuation with the temporary world and turns the soul into an ass."

(Saranagati, 3.3)

What is this? Even a donkey or a monkey knows, "This is my son," and "This is my mother"—but that pilot and bank manager do not know it, they kicked their own mother out of her house and she became a street beggar in Vrindavan! What is this? What sort of education is this?

Education is not like this. Education teaches very high things, it teaches one to think what they are doing. That is why I am telling everybody—I see so many things going on in this society, people are very selfish, they only know their own interest, and they do not think about others! We think here, "Oh India is poor," "Bangladesh is poor," "Pakistan is poor," "People are in want of food," but look at California—it is one of the richest places on earth, but this place has the highest suicide rate in the world. Why? Do they have no peace? No, they do not. Who has brought peace to us? Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu brought us peace and distributed these Holy Names in this world. I am humbly praying to you all to chant this Holy name in this world. I am not telling you to leave your education, I am not telling you to give up your job, to give up everything. No. Do what you are doing, but in the meantime do not gossip about or with others, do not waste your time—think about the Lord and chant the Holy Name of the Lord.

I am giving my full obeisance to you all and I am very happy to meet you all. I am a very fallen soul, I have no quality and qualification, I only wanted to say these few words on behalf of my Gurudev. Thank you so much.

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj.

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