The Joy of Learning

A girl ran to her mother in the kitchen who is chopping vegetables. She sportively picked up a coriander leaf and asked her mother, how this thing is prepared? The mother told her that this thing is called as ‘Coriander’ it is not made my dear, it is grown in fields. The girl asked how it is grown. The mother explained her in a simple way telling her that the seeds are sown in soil, watered and kept in sunlight then coriander is grown so that we can cut the leaves and make delicious dish. The girl was amazed and with excitement she asked her mother Mommy, Can I grow Coriander? The mother was so delighted for the curiosity of the daughter, she gave few coriander seeds. The girl ran into the garden and looked for a small pot. She found one which she filled with soil then sown the seeds, pour some water and sat in front of the pot waiting for the coriander to grow. The mom wondered what the girl was doing, she searched everywhere in the house and found the girl sitting in the garden in front of a pot. The girl told her mother what she has done and announced that she will sit there waiting for the coriander to grow. The mother explained that by tomorrow the sprout will come up, convinced her and took her inside. The girl started playing but the coriander thing occupied her mind. From time to time she would go and check eagerly waiting for the sprout to show up. Next day morning she woke up and ran straight to the garden to see but there was no change on the surface of the pot. She complained to her mother, became upset and all day she checked the pot time and again. The next day she ran again to the garden and to her amazement she saw something in the pot, she watched them closely, then touched those with her cute little fingers and shouted with excitement. She started jumping all around shouting with excitement and happiness.

This little girl first knew what it was? Then she knew how it comes? Then, she experimented and succeeded. She not only has knowledge but also had a beautiful experience. After that experience she enjoyed the satisfaction of achievement, a wonderful feeling of learning. Her learning is complete when she saw the coriander seed germinate not when she knew from her mother about it. That my friend……is the Joy of Learning!

We were all like that little girl in our childhood, with extremely high power to learn. This power to learn is a unique quality that humans have. In Sanskrit, it is called as ‘Grahana Sakti’ meaning power to learn. This power will create a ‘desire to learn’, it makes us question and learn, observe and learn and experiment and learn. These are the learning methodologies which were quite natural to us. We questioned, Why?  How did that happen? Does that always happen? Is that a good thing? What if I did that? Can I do it? Why not?, and learnt from our parents & other elders about  so many things. We learnt by observing behavior from our social environments and developed a personality, what we are today. We learnt walk and talk through a repeated process of trail & error experimentation. We have all experienced this joy of learning since our childhood days.

This desire to learn is the exact same thing which made adults learn so many unwanted things which later killed the joy of learning. As children we were ready to admit if we don’t know something and we were not afraid of making mistakes. These two good qualities were completely lost. We learnt being shy to ask a question, we learnt the “I know’ attitude, we learnt procrastination, we also learnt how to get distracted by other external influences and so on and so forth. The power of ego started playing dominant role, with this the desire to learn got replaced by several other desires and learning became a last priority. Adding to this, adults association with learning has been profoundly clouded by negative memories from the school days. So, attending a training program or reading a book or attending a seminar/lecture are all labelled as boring. As adults we have the capacity to unlearn all our negative beliefs and attributes. We have the power and potential to learn anything we wished. But our curiosity which ignited the spark in us in childhood was lost. We must reignite that spark of curiosity. The desire to learn must be nurtured.

The thing that we didn’t know yesterday, if was known today, it would change our level of knowledge, and it would change our understanding. That learning, however minor it may be, has to be embraced and appreciated. The habit of learning has to be cultivated with conscious and sincere effort.

The Joy of learning is a gift to the mankind. Learning is a miracle because our perception or understanding or idea of a thing is changing so drastically just with minor information. Before knowing it we were something but after that knowledge sits in our heads, we become better. Learning is definitely making us better. The process of learning is shaping us continuously. This is the joy in learning. Because it is unleashing our true potential, changing our future and creating great opportunities while we were watching it happen. Isn’t that a miracle? Wasn’t that the joy of learning?

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