1. Srila Prabhupada on gurukul and economic advancement

    Prabhupada talked a lot on his walk, especially focusing on the topic of the gurukula. He told Giriraja, the temple president, that a large gurukula should be constructed on our land here in Bombay. He said that twice a day the boys can come to the beach and sport and swim. In this way they will grow healthy, get a good education, and become men of good character. They will learn to control their senses, and this will save them from becoming "nonsense."

    Prabhupada said there are many wealthy persons in Bombay who would want to put their children in such a school, because they are not concerned whether their children become expert technologists or not. When you have wealth, you can hire others to do such work.

    He told of a man he knew in Allahabad who was a Ph.D., yet he could not get a job. The man was manufacturing soap bars at home and going by cycle every day to sell them in the market. Although he had a Ph.D., he was living like a coolie.
    Prabhupada emphasized that therefore one should not make much endeavor for economic advancement, because whatever one is due, either success or failure, is already decided. Getting a Ph.D. will not change that. One should simply try to become Krsna conscious. He mentioned that Mr. Modi, the founder of Modinagar, where we recently had our program, was not an educated
    man, but he had fifty thousand people working for him.

    From Transcendental Diary by Hari-sauri Prabhu