1. Academic careers & bhakti

    It is not a fact that only one who diligently pursues an academic career can become a devotee. Even with no academic career, if one has full faith in the spiritual master and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he develops in spiritual life and real knowledge of the Vedas. The example of Maharaja Khatvanga confirms this. One who surrenders is understood to have learned the subject matter of the Vedas very nicely. One who adopts this Vedic process of surrender learns devotional service and is certainly successful. One who is very proud, however, is unable to surrender either to the spiritual master or to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus he cannot understand the essence of any Vedic literature. Srimad-Bhagavatam (SB 11.11.18) declares:

    sabda-brahmani nisnato na nisnayat pare yadi
    sramas tasya srama-phalo hy adhenum iva raksatah

    “If one is learned in the Vedic literature but is not a devotee of Lord Visnu, his work is a useless waste of labor, just like the keeping of a cow that does not give milk.”

    Anyone who does not follow the surrendering process but is simply interested in an academic career cannot make any advancement. His profit is only his labor for nothing. If one is expert in the study of the Vedas but does not surrender to a spiritual master or Visnu, all his cultivation of knowledge is but a waste of time and labor.

    From Srila Prabhupada’s purport to CC Adi 17.257

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