“Mahārāja Hariścandra first purified his mind, which was full of material enjoyment, by amalgamating it with the earth. Then he amalgamated the earth with water, the water with fire, the fire with the air, and the air with the sky. Thereafter, he amalgamated the sky with the total material energy, and the total material energy with spiritual knowledge. This spiritual knowledge is realization of one’s self as part of the Supreme Lord. When the self-realized spiritual soul is engaged in service to the Lord, he is eternally imperceptible and inconceivable. Thus established in spiritual knowledge, he is completely freed from material bondage.” (Shrimad-Bhagavatam 9.7.25-26)

Spiritual knowledge is most important, because it is spiritual knowledge that purifies our life by making us make the correct decisions or take the correct actions. This also results in the ability to correctly discriminate between what is right and what is wrong.

There are many bogus gurus who mislead people by saying knowledge or gyan is not needed. Some say prem (love) is higher than gyan (knowledge). This is complete nonsense. Without knowledge, there is nothing. Following religion without knowledge and proper understanding is pure speculation. To follow the instructions as in the Vedic scriptures and thus to attain knowledge is real prem (love) of God.

If knowledge is not needed, then why did Lord Krishna speak the Bhagavad-Gita?

If knowledge is not needed, then why did Lord Krishna compile all the Vedic scriptures with billions of verses?

If knowledge is not needed, then why are all the gurus doing kathas to give knowledge?

Even material knowledge (biology, mathematics, physics, chemistry, history, physical sciences, food sciences) is important for our daily living and earning money to pay our bills and fill our bellies. There are many bogus gurus who declare themselves as God or show tricks to deceive people. Those who have no material knowledge will be easily fooled by them. For example, there is currently a guru in Vrindavan who deceives people into believing her Deity speaks. But the Deity does not speak, she is an expert ventriloquist and thus creates the voice for the Deity. But those are not educated will be fooled by her and that’s why material knowledge is also important. Those who have material knowledge will have the ability to analyze information based on the facts and not just based on feelings or beliefs or wishes or hopes.

It is knowledge that elevates a person to higher consciousness, and this leads to realization of God and then seeing Him everywhere. Merely material objects renunciation does not lead to realization of God nor freedom from the bondage of material life. The plants and animals are highly renounced, they have no material objects attachments. Are they qualified to know God or see Him? Absolutely not. The souls in animal and plant bodies will have to go through the 8 million species in the animal and plant bodies, before they get another birth in the human species. There are 400,000 human species, of which most are uncivilized.

“The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste].” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita 5.18)

The distribution of knowledge is the highest service unto Lord Krishna. This is what pleases Him the most, because He wants all souls to return to the spiritual world which is only possible by following His instructions and thus this is the real prem marg (path of love of God).

“For one who explains this supreme secret to the devotees, pure devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me. There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita 18.68-69)