Slaughter House of the Mind

Here In San Diego, we are into our 2^nd week of Srila Prabhupada’s 2007 December Book Distribution Marathon. We have been going to the UCSD, which has just recently closed for the December holidays. These past 2 weeks, myself, bhakta Bronson and Madavendra have been distributing mainly at the Free Speech Mall, as daily a sea of students are rushing by on their way to their classes. They are really in the mode of passion, as it has been the last of final exams. Sometimes it’s very difficult to stop them.

I would speak to some very nice students who took books, but there were also some, who despite being very learned in many fields of science, just seemed to miss the point of understanding the goal of human life, which is self-realization. Students in university spend a portion of their academic life, dedicating themselves to read, write, think and dream. After getting a degree, they look forward to earning lots of money and to live happily ever after.

I began to think what Srila Prabhupada has written in his purports about these academecic institutions. Real knowledge is in Srila Prabhupada's books, because Krsna is the source of all knowledge!

Generally, people are not educated in this confidential knowledge; they are educated in external knowledge. As far as ordinary education is concerned, people are involved with so many departments: politics, sociology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, engineering, etc. There are so many departments of knowledge all over the world and many huge universities, but there is, unfortunately, no university or educational institution where the science of the spirit soul is instructed. Yet the soul is the most important part of the body; without the presence of the soul, the body has no value. Still people are placing great stress on the bodily necessities of life, not caring for the vital soul.