oldchakra.com

Are Material Degrees Really Useless?
by Madhusudani Radha devi dasi

Dr S Arnold notes in his recent article that he believes that the Rupanuga Vedic College is accredited in the "real eternal spiritual world." That may be, but then so are ISKCON's other educational programs, such as those offered in Mayapur and Vrindavan and the temple "bhakta/bhaktin" programs. That is wonderful and the world certainly needs more programs that teach us about spiritual matters. In fact, after reading the course content of the revised RVC website, it seems very similar to a temple bhakta program — only of longer duration and including more of Prabhupada's books.

However, the point of my original article was not to say that all ISKCON's educational efforts must produce degrees that are useful in the material world and that programs that don't do this are useless. My point was that its advertising was misleading. The way the advertisement was initially written (I recognize that it has since changed) made it sound as if its degrees might indeed be useful in the material world. It gives degrees and titles identical to those of regular universities and it included testimonials by devotees, using their legal names and exaggerated titles and affiliations. That's why I suggested that consumers read carefully before enrolling themselves or their sons. Otherwise, they may arrive with unrealistic expectations, e.g. believing they would be able to obtain a job or transfer to another educational institution with a degree from RVC.

Dr. S Arnold is implying that the only reason one would attend a regular university would be for "temporary material pursuits, pride, worldly recognition, and personal sense gratification or to pursue temporary material jobs." While it is true that having a job in this world is temporary, that doesn't make it any less useful during this temporary life. Most devotees have families to support, rent to pay, and food to buy. Unless a devotee is planning on remaining a temple devotee his whole life or unless he is independently wealthy, he needs to obtain an education or learn a trade. Or does Dr S Arnold really want to see more devotees living off social welfare or scamming tourists in urban settings?

© CHAKRA 2 July 2002