Student: I have finished my studies and now I am taking a break, a
vacation.
Srila Sridhar Maharaj: Please don't take offense, but that you are
involved in the present system of education means that you are diving
deeply in the ocean of ignorance. You are making progress in the
ocean of ignorance.
Student: What do you mean by that?
Srila Sridhar Maharaj: As a student of nescience you are moving in
the opposite direction from truth. You are being taught that you and
other souls of your type are the subjects - the center of the universe -
and everything, all else, is an object meant only for your exploitation.
You are being taught that we are exploiters and that the entire
environment is for our exploitation. That is the foundation upon which
the present system of education is based - a conception which is
completely false...
.
I like this quote very much! And it is not very hard to understand why it is like this with the school system. Of course the system is like that because the whole material world is like that! And since we have associated with this material matter science time in memorial we are habituated to act as lords and not as the servants.
ReplyDeleteAs a devotee in the Krishna movement you are not “against” the society or material world (this is a common misunderstanding about the Hare Krishna movement), we are just always trying to find a way in how to use the material in Krishna´s service. And everything can be used in Krishna´s service, also a nice education from University. This we can see many many, nice examples of.
It´s actually all about consciousness! In what consciousness you do things. That you do it with Krishna consciousness! That´s why it´s called Krishna CONCIOUSNESS and nothing else! This is an internal thing, and about how you arrange your everyday life. Your house can be a temple! The actual temple can be nothing but an empty shell. It depends on the consciousness of the people there.
It´s also nice from a “preaching point of view” that there is all kind of people in the movement, educated and not educated (in the traditional school system and University), but all aspiring “first class of men” :-). This can attract many different people to the movement, to make it a house for everyone. And it also show an opposite to peoples prejudice that Hare Krishna´s don’t have work or education etc. (which is very very far from reality).
/ y.s. Radha-Kunjabihari d.d.
First of all you can not just post a comment from Srila Sridhara Maharaj about the education system which is just some lines and which is taken out from a bigger context! Be careful because people might misunderstand ours( the Hare Krishna's) view about education!!! Thank you Radha for the "post"-explanation! :S
ReplyDeleteI was sent this quote by a very mature, sane and trustworthy vaishnava who told me "Here's a nice quote for the blog". Therefore I put it simply as it was, with a picture of His Divine Grace.
ReplyDeleteI might have made a mistake in not giving further elaboration, but it can be good to just make people think. And it would certainly not hurt with some discussion on this blog. Many of our posts goes by uncommented, and that's boring.
Fortunately we have intelligent thinkers like Radha Kunja-Bihari who also takes time and energy to write something.
I have read the book, in which the quote appears, about four times and know the context. The quote is actually the beginning of a new chapter and the rest of the chapter goes on in the same line.
I'm not saying that there is something wrong in the statement of Srila Maharaj, what I wanted to say is that without elaboration or further text of the Maharaj this statement can easily be misunderstood which may lead to a misconception about the ideas and standards of this movement!!!
ReplyDeleteNeither did I say that you said that you thought Maharaj was wrong.
ReplyDeleteThere is a nice quote I heard from Srimati Vrindaranya devi dasi: "Merely opening one’s mouth makes one vulnerable to having one’s ideas distorted."
I can put the whole chapter, but that could also be misunderstood.
Jesus taught faith, hope and love, still killing has been done in his name.