Thiruvalluvar sets a double demand on the learner. First, learn without flaw — not a hurried acquaintance with a subject, but a clean, complete mastery. Then comes the harder half: stand by what you learned. Knowledge that stays in the head is unfinished; it becomes real only when it shapes how you act. The couplet quietly refuses learning as decoration or status. To learn is to be changed — and then to live changed. Study, in this light, is not the destination but the first step of a longer walk.