3. The true aim of education must be seen as the direct realization of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Contemporary education in the West sees learning more or less as a weapon in the national, racial and personal competition which forms the basic worldview of materialistic man. But in the Vedic concept, where spiritual welfare is the true standard of success, education has a somewhat different purpose. The brahmin, or intellectual, is one who knows of “Brahman”—the Absolute. He may or may not be versed in worldly affairs—as in our own society, the scholar is here the guardian of practical as well as theoretical wisdom—but he must be in knowledge of God, following the principles of regulated life found in the Vedas. And his foremost duty is to impart this knowledge of God to his fellow man—with or without remuneration.

“Direct realization” is a way of saying that mankind need not dream or speculate or theorize about God. God is not an abstraction. He is a reality, and “realization” means to experience the absolute reality of God directly for oneself. One who can teach this process of personal confrontation with Krishna, the Godhead, is a true intellectual and a true teacher—and a true benefactor of the human race.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness was formed largely with this purpose in mind. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, who founded the organization, has written: “As for the administrative class of men, the mercantile class and the laborer class, there are many institutions for training. But to train a first class intellectual in spiritual life there is no institution the world over. So this Krishna Consciousness movement is trying to help human society on this point. We have therefore taken a large tract of land in West Virginia, which we’ve named New Vrindaban. We want to train students to become first class intellectuals, and to instruct the whole of human society about the aim of life, which is Krishna Consciousness—God consciousness.