BENGALURU : By watching, perhaps you learn more than from books. Books are necessary to learn a subject, whether it is mathematics, geography, history, physics or chemistry. Books have printed on a page the accumulated knowledge of scientists, of philosophers, of archaeologists and so on. This accumulated knowledge which one learns in school and then through college or university, if one is lucky enough to go to university, has been gathered through the ages, from very ancient days.
There is great accumulated knowledge from India, from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Greeks, the romans and of course the Persians. In the Western world as well as in the Eastern world this knowledge is necessary to have a career, to do any job, whether mechanical or theoretical, practical or something that you have to think out, invent. This knowledge has brought about a great deal of technology, especially in the twentieth century. There is knowledge of the so- called sacred books, the vedas, the Upanishads, the Bible, the Koran and the Hebrew scriptures.
There are the religious books and pragmatic books, books that will help you to have knowledge, to act skilfully, whether as an engineer, a biologist or a carpenter.Most of us in any school, and particularly in these schools, gather knowledge, information. That is what schools have existed for so far, to gather a great deal of information about the world outside, about the heavens, why the sea is salty, why the trees grow, about human beings, their anatomy, the structure of the brain, and so on, and also about the world around you, nature, the social environment, economics, and so much else.
Such knowledge is absolutely necessary, but knowledge is always limited. However much it may evolve, the gathering of knowledge is always limited. Learning is part of acquiring this knowledge of various subjects so that you can have a career, a job that might please you, or one that circumstances, social demands may force you to accept, though you may not like very much to do that kind of work.
Learning is extraordinarily important, because learning is endless. Learning why human beings kill each other for instance. Of course there are explanations in books, all the psychological reasons why human beings behave in their particular ways, why human beings are violent. you watch yourself, what you are, how you behave, why you get angry, envious, why you get depressed, you learn much more than from a book that tells you what you are.