hobby biography reading

I dont bungee jump .. frankly i am scared  ..But i have tried a range of hobbies from aeromodelling to salsa dancing and found most of them quite enjoyable . And one hobby which stands out is biography reading of famous people . And not only their achievements , the reading helps to understand what motivated them , their private life (in that sense i am vouyeristic :)  )  , what was like in the soceity at that time etc  ..

I am not a connoisseur of classical music generally  but am fond of two pieces of music of Mozart and Beethoven . And that is more than reason enough to wikipedia them both and in half an hour knew more about them which is inspiring in so many ways  .  The sequential progression of Beethovens deafness and still he composed music and retained his humour . Also his love life which was always with the nobility and failed due to class difference couldnt help me think . The music he made didnt have any caste or religion but his love wasnt allowed due to class .  ( this was 200 years back )  .

Coming back to my hobby i also referred wikipedia about two heroes of my childhood amar chitra katha . Raja Ram mohan Roy and Dayananand Saraswathi (refer wikipedia )  . We all know the former as he stopped the practice of women jumping into husbands funeral pyre .(which we now know totally illogical ) . But reading through the practices which he were against brought a chill along my spine . And reading Dayananand Saraswathi and his great social reform (both 200 + years back )  brought another chill .
Written in black and white were so many social evils which they were against at that time (two centuries ago )  with clearcut reasons .

Why these have relevance to me is two fold . ? Each great persons life teaches me something new about the human spirit  and i find more similarities than differences in their great lives  . Their philanthropism , their logical thinking , their lack of hypocrisy etc  .  And thanks to internet its so easy these days to read about them by just two clicks  ..

But more reading also has a sideeffect  ... its not 10 or 20 years has passed but close to 200 + years ... We have communication methods which will make people like Ram mohan Roy get shocked , medical treatments which make Beethoven stop his composition ( at his era tuberculosis etc were deadly )  . But culturally have we progressed or regressed . Read wikipedia on Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Dayanand Saraswathi and objectively tell me the answer .