The scriptures are filled just with information. By accumulating information one cannot attain wisdom. No matter how much one knows, wisdom is not attained.
One can go on gathering more and more knowledge, learn the scriptures by heart, become parrots, memorize each and every sutra or stanza, let the complete Vedas be imprinted in his memory -- but still, the wisdom will not dawn.
People think that mastering scriptural knowledge is wisdom. Pundits and religious gurus call scriptural knowledge as wisdom. Scriptural knowledge binds one instead thus it is not liberation. Wisdom is that which liberates one from experiencing the duality as reality.
That is why Sage Sankara, indicated in Bhaja Govindam says: ~ [Jnana Viheena Sarva Mathena Bajathi na Muktim janma Shatena] - one without knowledge does not obtain liberation even in a hundred births, no matter which religious faith he follows.
Sage Sankara says: - VC- 58. Loud speech consisting of a shower of words, the skill in expounding the Scriptures, and likewise erudition - these merely bring on a little personal enjoyment to the scholar but are no good for Liberation.
59. The study of the Scriptures is useless so long as the highest Truth is unknown, and it is equally useless when the highest Truth has already been known.
60. The Scriptures consisting of many words are a dense forest that merely causes the mind to ramble. Hence men of wisdom should earnestly set about knowing the true nature of the Self.
61. For one who has been bitten by the serpent of Ignorance, the only remedy is the knowledge of Brahman. Of what avail are the Vedas and (other) Scriptures, Mantras (sacred formulae), and medicines to such a one?
62. A disease does not leave off if one simply utters the name of the medicine, without taking it; (similarly) without direct realization one cannot be liberated by the mere utterance of the word Brahman.
63. Without causing the objective universe to vanish and without knowing the truth of the Self, how is one to achieve Liberation by the mere utterance of the word Brahman? — It would result merely in an effort of speech.
64. Without killing one’s enemies and possessing oneself of the splendor of the entire surrounding region, one cannot claim to be an emperor by merely saying, ‘I am an emperor’.
65. As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent Truth of the self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.
66. Therefore the wise should, as in the case of disease and the like, personally strive by all the means in their power to be free from the bondage of repeated births and deaths.
Sage Sankara clearly indicated that: - yoga, intellectualism, and scriptural mastery are not the means to self-knowledge. But by the realization of one's identity with consciousness, which is the ultimate truth or Brahman, freedom from experiencing the illusion as reality is possible, and by no other means. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
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