oldchakra.com

Get a Degree and Serve Krsna
By Subhadra-mayi devi dasi

Dear Prabhu,

I just read your post on Chakra. I can say that I deeply regret not finishing school to join the temple because life can give you things that you may never expect. I lived in the temple for nine years before I married, and I never expected that my marriage would be what it was, with the result that I packed up and left being six weeks pregnant.

And now? I'm a single mum without a degree, on welfare. I started going to school again last year, but my baby ended up in the hospital over and over again because every little cold he got from other children turned really bad. Now he can soon go to school, and hopefully, my school will work out this time and we will get out of this situation, a situation that wouldn't have been like this if I had a degree.

I could have gotten a job at least when my son could go to pre-school. Now I still have to study for something when he goes to school. So I would urge you to get an education. Prabhupada wanted independently thoughtful devotees. Thoughtful also means that you take possible scenarios for your life into consideration.

And please don't restrict yourself to being a wife and mother. Those are wonderful roles, but being a servant of Krishna also means that you make the most of what Krishna has given you. This movement needs intelligent people, especially women because the view of the general public towards ISKCON isn't that great. Educated women can make a big difference in this because, be honest, a movement isn't so praiseworthy if half of its people are kept in the back, quiet and uneducated.

Get a degree and use that to serve Krishna. Become a doctor and treat devotees in the hospices that will be realized in the dhamas. After all, devotees get older and sick too. There's a whole generation of devotees that are getting older and will need care soon. Wouldn't it be great to be able to serve them, care for them, as a doctor? Or get that business degree. Wouldn't you be able to use your knowledge then in improving the sales of Prabhupada's books? discovering new markets?

And with all that, you can be a mother, wife, and servant of Krishna, the kind that people will be proud of.

[See "Women: Education or Marriage?" Chakra 2 November 2002]