8 Raja-vidya: The King of Knowledge

Krsna consciousness. Real. knowledge is understand-
ing “what I am.” Unless we come to the point of
understanding what we are, we cannot attain real
knowledge. When Sanatana Gosvami left his govern-
ment post and came to Caitanya Mahaprabhu for the
first time, he asked the Lord, ‘‘What is education?”
Although Sanatana Gosvami knew a number of lan-
guages, including Sanskrit, he still inquired about’
real education. “The general populace calls me
highly educated,” Sanatana Gosvami told the Lord,
“and I am such a fool that I actually believe, them.”

The Lord replied, “Why should you not think
you’re well educated? You’re a great scholar in
Sanskrit and Persian.”

“That may be,”’ Sanatana Gosvami said, “but I do
not know what I am.” He then went on to tell the
Lord: “I do not wish to suffer, but these material
miseries are forced upon me. I neither know where
I’ve come from nor where I’m going, but people are
calling me ‘educated. When they call me a great
scholar, I am satisfied, but in truth I am such a great
fool that I know not what I am.” Sanatana Gosvami
was actually speaking for all of us, for this is our
present situation, We may be proud of our academic
education, but if asked what we are, we are not able
to say. Everyone is under the conception that this
body is the self, but we learn from Vedic sources
that this is not so. Only after realizing that we are
not these bodies can we enter into real knowledge
and'understand what we actually are. This then, is
the beginning of knowledge.

Raja-vidya may be further defined as not only
knowing what one is, but acting accordingly. If we
