What Is The Purpose To Learning

“After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.19)

Download this episode (right click and save)

बहूनां जन्मनाम् अन्ते
ज्ञानवान् मां प्रपद्यते
वासुदेवः सर्वम् इति
स महात्मा सु-दुर्लभः

bahūnāṁ janmanām ante
jñānavān māṁ prapadyate
vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti
sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ

“I am not against education. This is not a criticism of the way parents guide their children. I am in full agreement with having students sit in a classroom. With proper behavior, let them learn how to read and write. Throw in a little mathematics, and that is sufficient for eventually maturing into a contributing member of society.

“But I do have a few questions. This idea of loss. Erasure. Everything going away. Consider the person who is on their last days, who has lost their mental abilities. They spent so much time learning. They may have earned high marks in school and received various credits to their name from institutions of higher learning.

“What is that knowledge going to do for them? I review my own life and notice that I barely recall anything that I learned in college. I have a degree in a particular field but I am not familiar with even the basic concepts of that discipline. I have since forgotten everything that I once learned.

“What is the purpose to learning, then? We know from the science of self-realization that everything gets erased at the time of death. The soul has endurance. I get that, but what is the reason for having to learn? What will that knowledge get us?”

As Shri Krishna explains to Arjuna, both of them have passed through many births. This is in the visible sense, as even the janma of Krishna is transcendental. It is not like assuming a material covering and then operating under the laws of nature.

जन्म कर्म च मे दिव्यम्
एवं यो वेत्ति तत्त्वतः
त्यक्त्वा देहं पुनर् जन्म
नैति माम् एति सो ऽर्जुन

janma karma ca me divyam
evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
naiti mām eti so ‘rjuna

“One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 4.9)

Krishna can remember those past births. Arjuna cannot. It is as simple as that. Nothing can be done to change the reality. A higher authority can perhaps fill in the gaps. Krishna can supply the missing knowledge, the memories that were erased, but that is still relying on someone else. We do not have the ability to retain everything in memory, from our perceptions, our realizations, and our understandings.

श्री-भगवान् उवाच
बहूनि मे व्यतीतानि
जन्मानि तव चार्जुन
तान्य् अहं वेद सर्वाणि
न त्वं वेत्थ परन्तप

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
bahūni me vyatītāni
janmāni tava cārjuna
tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi
na tvaṁ vettha parantapa

“The Blessed Lord said: Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy!” (Bhagavad-gita, 4.5)

At the same time, within Vedic culture the human life begins with a call to action. Athato brahma-jijnasa. This means that now is the time for inquiring into spiritual matters. Inquiry is posing questions. When asking a question, we have the ability to process the responses. This is the transfer of knowledge.

If we are set to forget everything at the time of death, what is inquiry into Brahman going to do for us? If knowledge only has temporary significance, why waste the time? Why not avoid the endeavor altogether?

While it is true that ordinary knowledge has temporary significance, transcendental knowledge is something different entirely. It is the means by which we gain the detachment necessary for cutting down the illusory tree of material enjoyment.

न रूपम् अस्येह तथोपलभ्यते
नान्तो न चादिर् न च सम्प्रतिष्ठा
अश्वत्थम् एनं सु-विरूढ-मूलम्
असङ्ग-शस्त्रेण दृढेन छित्त्वा
ततः पदं तत् परिमार्गितव्यं
यस्मिन् गता न निवर्तन्ति भूयः
तम् एव चाद्यं पुरुषं प्रपद्ये
यतः प्रवृत्तिः प्रसृता पुराणी

na rūpam asyeha tathopalabhyate
nānto na cādir na ca sampratiṣṭhā
aśvattham enaṁ su-virūḍha-mūlam
asaṅga-śastreṇa dṛḍhena chittvā
tataḥ padaṁ tat parimārgitavyaṁ
yasmin gatā na nivartanti bhūyaḥ
tam eva cādyaṁ puruṣaṁ prapadye
yataḥ pravṛttiḥ prasṛtā purāṇī

“The real form of this tree cannot be perceived in this world. No one can understand where it ends, where it begins, or where its foundation is. But with determination one must cut down this tree with the weapon of detachment. So doing, one must seek that place from which, having once gone, one never returns, and there surrender to that Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom everything has begun and in whom everything is abiding since time immemorial.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 15.3-4)

That tree has its roots upward and its branches descending. The leaves are different departments of knowledge, which have corresponding enjoyments. We can traverse this tree for lifetime after lifetime. It is a tree in illusion, since the real version is in the spiritual world.

Transcendental knowledge is for returning to the spiritual world. Such knowledge may also have temporary significance in the sense that a person who is in full bhava no longer sees distinctions. They do not have to be told the difference between matter and spirit; they are living it. They do not need to be told about the spiritual world since they feel a constant connection to transcendence.

Nevertheless, knowledge is the starting point. It is like learning how to untangle a knot. Once freed, I might never have to use that knowledge again; so I cast it aside. But it was still necessary to get me out of a specific situation.

Knowledge is the way out of the illusion which has influenced us for perhaps countless lifetimes. After many births and deaths a person comes to know Krishna as He is, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

In Closing:

Finally some wisdom got,
In how to untie this knot.

At last feeling free,
Never again to see.

Though knowledge not again to need,
Necessary when first to proceed.

Same with transcendental to go,
Finally the Supreme to know.