9-4-86

  This week marked the beginning of the school year for Chicago public
schools.  Generally, students are spending most of their years in school
preparing themselves for what lies ahead.  They are preparing to enter the
labor market.

  This system of education, while practical for making money, does not
educate one in the matter of successfully reaching the goal of human life.
Even though one may successfully complete the 12 years of high school
education and possibly another 4 to 6 years of college--that's about 18
years of education--he still doesn't know what is the goal of human life.

  In his books, Shrila Prabhupada the founder of the Hare Krishna movement
cites the defects of the modern educational system.  He says:

  Modern civilization is in dire need of an educational system to give
people instructions on what happens after death.  In actuality, the present
educational system is most defective because unless one knows what happens
after death, one dies like an animal (K. C.:  The Matchless Gift p.27).

  Indeed, technical knowledge which forms the basis of modern education does
not even address the possibility of life after death.  It only addresses the
questions of how to eat, how to sleep, how to defend and how to have sex.
They will not even touch upon the main question of life that really concerns
us all.  What happens after death?

  Right now, there is the important need to educate everyone into
understanding what happens after death.  One must know that the next life is
dependent on the quality of living he has made out of the present life.

  If every student was taught that the quality of their next life depended
on the way they lived the present life, immediately, they would think, why
should I educate myself simply to earn money?  Why don't I first educated
myself to understand what happens after death?

  This is Krishna conscious education.  Students of Krishna consciousness
learn how to control the mind and the body so that they can understand this
important spiritual knowledge.  In order to begin to control the mind and
the body, the students are restricted from illicit sex life, gambling,
animal killing and taking intoxication.

  When the body and mind are controlled, one can actually concentrate on the
words of Krishna from whom all knowledge is coming from.  When students are
blessed with a Krishna conscious education, he comes a firm believer in God,
he understands that he does not die at the time of death and therefore his
life is successful.

  Our simply request is that people should try to understand these
fundamental questions of life and death and seriously consider the answers
given in books like Bhagavad-gita As It Is in order to get an education
based on freeing everyone from the suffering due to birth and death in the
material world..

--Vaishnava dasa