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Where can we learn the right lessons?

by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa

Feb 22

Q: Our elders say there is no need to read books. Life can teach lots of lessons - more than books and schools. Your analysis please.
Krishna: No doubt life teaches you lots of lessons.
Books (non-academic) can teach you others' experiences and their interpretations of it which need not  always be correct.
Research papers and  Academic texts, especially science related ones, teach you facts.
But whether they are  life's teachings or book-read, or school -oriented ultimately how you analyse and interpret the lessons is more important.
To interpret things and analyse them correctly, you need facts, evidence based ones and the ability to think critically.
Let me explain. 
Recently a young person died of cancer. His parents and grandparents interpreted it as God's will. They even blamed God for taking the life of a young man. It seems he never smoked, never ate paan masala, gutka, and never drank. But still he faced such a deadly disease. 
Some others interpreted it as karma ( Karma is a concept from Indian philosophy that refers to the idea that a person's actions determine their future consequences. The word "karma" comes from the Sanskrit word kर्म which means "action" or "work"). Because the parents and the young man did bad things, they said, he faced such a fate.
Different people and different ways of analysis and understanding a tragedy.
 
Right. 
But the doctors confirmed, after reading the case history and speaking to the young man before his death,   that he used to get outside food in a very hot condition packed in plastic bags.
He used to drink from plastic bottles. He drank tea and coffee from plastic cups 5-6 times per day.
Autopsy reports confirmed that his body is filled with plastic chemicals. 
That 's the cause of his cancer!
Okay, several people do this. But genetically predisposed persons, and those who are vulnerable face the consequences more.
That is how those who studied academically arrive at the correct conclusion.
Others might just speculate things and these need not be correct.
To arrive at the right conclusion is absolutely necessary in life to take steps so that we and others don't suffer the same fate as this young man.
That is the advantage of evidence based facts and reading research papers and academic books/ articles by experts based on them.
People who don't have this advantage of reading and learning from the right sources cannot take the necessary steps to stop tragedies from happening in their lives.
However, even if you read the right books if you don't learn how to use the information correctly, you are as good as the uneducated. Education without  critical thinking  abilities is of no use!
So the conclusion is 'getting educated from the right sources' and 'learning critical thinking to use the information correctly' are both essential in life. 
 
Q: After going through your answer, I remembered what my grandmother told me. She said , we get knowledge in three ways: 1. by reading books, 2. when others, especially our elders tell us about it, 3. by our own experience. 
Your answer says all the three ways are not reliable. This is strange. 
Krishna: All the three you mentioned give us some information. That information consists of others' experiences, their interpretations of that experience, and your own analysis of your experiences. 
If these things are lop-sided and don't follow the right thinking procedure, they need not be knowledge providers!
Let me give an example: 
Sometime back while I was travelling with my aunt and uncle in a car, we found grey pumpkins on the way and my aunt wanted to buy one and asked the driver to stop the car..

"Do you want to prepare 'fryums' with it?" I asked her.

"No. I want to hang it in front of my house. The old one has become black because of peoples' nazar', she replied.

Before I opened my mouth, she immediately added after seeing the expression on my face, "There is no need to criticize me. My beliefs are mine. You have to respect them if you want to respect me".

My aunt very well knows I don't believe in such superstitions. So she tried to put a brake on my lecture on them.

I respect my aunt as she is older than me, loves me and looks after me. But that doesn't make me respect her beliefs. Why? Because her baseless beliefs are harming the societies we live in! How?

She goes and tells everybody around that 'Nazar' (Buri nazar in Hindi/Urdu, evil eyes, looks, views in English, 'disti' in Telugu) can cause harm and therefore each and every person should use grey pumpkins to neutralize the effect of 'Nazar'. Okay, if that gives them some sort of satisfaction, we have no right to say people cannot follow what they believe in. But when she spread this superstition, everybody around started believing in it. So all her neighbours started using grey pumpkins too. These pumpkins, after sometime, became black, not because of 'nazar' but because of fungal spores.

What is worse is these spores come out of the pumpkin and spread all over the place whenever a breeze brushes it causing allergies in people. Imagine a whole neighbourhood infested with these spores spreading asthma in the vulnerable! How can I respect such a thing?!

No, I cannot respect my aunt's beliefs. I respect her and her right to have such beliefs to make her mind remain calm with a belief that a grey pumpkin can remove 'nazar' and protect her and her family. But it is causing harm to the society we live in! Therefore, I have every right to criticize, educate and remove these misconceptions and baseless beliefs. That doesn’t make me disrespect my aunt. I am only trying to protect her and other people with my ‘disrespect’!

Okay, I told this story some time back too on some other occasion : https://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum/topics/superstitions-d...

But the experience my aunt and others like her with green pumpkins and their interpretations of their experiences are not correct and are culture,  tradition based and also superstitions originated from them,  because of their skewed thinking. I watched  a few videos on You tube and read some books and articles based on it too!

Now did I get any knowledge from them? NO! You get superstitions and irrational thoughts because of them. Then how do you say, you get correct knowledge by reading books/ articles, others experiences or your own interpretations of your experiences?

Unless you are a critical and scientific thinker, and use facts based knowledge to analyse your experiences, your knowledge will be unbalanced! 

That is my point.