True education means knowing oneself as spirit soul and acting accordingly through Krishna consciousness.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Prabhupāda: rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṃ pavitram idam uttamam pratyakṣāvagamaṃ dharmyaṃ susukhaṃ kartum avyayam [Bg 9.2] [This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.] This is called... [aside:] Bruce!
Vidyā means education, and rāja means king. So what is the king of education? Just like we have got a different status of life in the material world, similarly, in the education also, somebody is M.A., somebody is B.A., somebody is school-leaving certificate, somebody three years, somebody four years. There are different grades of education.
Now, what is the summum bonum, highest, topmost education? This topmost education is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, topmost education. Rāja-vidyā. Jīvātmā yathātmādi-rahasyānāṃ rājaḥ.
Real knowledge is: "So what I am." This is real knowledge. Unless we come to this point, that "What I am," that is not knowledge. Just like Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when He began His preaching, His first disciple was Sanātana Gosvāmī. He was a finance minister of Nawab Hussain Shah, but being attracted with Caitanya Mahāprabhu's movement, he retired from service and he joined Lord Caitanya. So at that time, when he came to Caitanya for the first time, his enquiry was that "What is education?" "What is education?" He was educated.
He was highly educated. In those days, Persian language was being taught in England, er, in India. Just like during British rule English language was taught to us, similarly, during Pathan rule, Persian language was state language. Besides that, Sanātana Gosvāmī was a great scholar in Sanskrit also.
Still, he inquired that "What is education?" "What is education?" Why he inquired like that? He placed before the Lord that "People in general, they call me very educated, and I am also so fool that I accept that I am educated." So the next question is, "Then why do you think that you are not educated? You are great scholar in Sanskrit, you are great scholar in Persian language. Why do you think that you are not educated?" He replied that "I am thinking 'not educated' because I do not know what I am.
I do not know what I am. I do not wish to be a suffering member, but these material miseries is enforced upon me. I do not know wherefrom I have come, where I have to go, and still people, they think that I am very much educated, and they designate me that I am a great scholar, and I am satisfied. But I am such a fool that I do not know what I am." Actually, this is the position of our present situation.