Education Beyond the Body

To take the first step in transcendental knowledge, one should understand that he is not his body but a spiritual soul. Nevertheless, most big scholars, philosophers and political leaders have not taken even this first step. They have not mastered even the ABC's of real education. Rather, thinking they are their bodies, they identify themselves with their families, races, nations and so on. A person in bodily consciousness thinks, "I am John Thompson," "I am a white man," "I am an American," "I am black," "I am Christian," "I am Communist," "I am human," and so on. Yet within a few years the demise of the body vanquishes all such designations.

According to Vedic literature, the real self, as an eternal soul who exists in a loving relation to God, the complete whole, does not die when the body dies, nor does he grow old when the body grows old. He cannot be cut; nor can he be killed. He is joyful always. If one understands this, he can disentangle himself from his long history of suffering. But if one does not undertake this study, whatever else he does in his bodily identity is defeated at the time of death.

Human education, then, must not merely instruct us how to prepare for a job or how to speculate upon the imperfect views of great thinkers. Rather, it must enable us to solve the problems of life. A human being should be dissatisfied as long as he cannot extricate himself from the prison called the material world, where everyone is subject to the strict punishments of old age, death and disease. To be gainfully employed within the prison, to try to enjoy prison life to the utmost, or to give up all hope of ever getting out of prison and simply to sit down to read and write books for amusement is not the real nature of a freedom-loving being. Each of us, by our original nature, is meant to be free of the sufferings material nature imposes upon us.

Although our confinement in the material world is under the jurisdiction of the supreme controller, Krsna, He is not to blame for our suffering. We ourselves have brought it about by our ignorance. Lacking education in what is what, thinking we belong to the material world, we have forgotten our spiritual nature. But because Krsna has not forgotten us-even though we have absorbed ourselves in temporary activities and thus forgotten Him-He sends His personal representative, the spiritual master, to offer us the path by which to return home, back to Godhead, to teach us by precept and example the life of God consciousness, a life of eternity, bliss and knowledge.