Aghori Vimalane Tantric master declared the study of philosophy as "Without a longing for liberation is like dressing up a corpse". It is useful to read the scriptures but there is no point reading them without devotion.

If approached with faith, humility and surrender, they speak to us with intimacy, love and compassion. Sri Ramakrishna often described scholarly or bookish knowledge as "dry" knowledge. It is dry because such knowledge is intellectual (appropriated in the head) and not lived (experienced in the heart).

Intellectual knowledge tends to bloat the ego, while the objective of the spiritual journey lies in killing the ego.

This explains why Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma) once said, "Jnana (wisdom) without bhakti (devotion) and bhakti without jnana are both harmful."

Scriptures are then best viewed as signposts that can alert the seeker to the path, (the existence of God for example), but the seeker must individually traverse the path itself with guidance from a realized master. 

As Sri Ramakrishna once said: "Books, scriptures and things like that only point out the way to reach God. After finding the way, what more need is there of books and scriptures? Then comes time for action."

God cannot be reached by the mind or through reasoning. He can only be reached through faith and surrender.

Amma was once asked the place of reasoning in spirituality. Her response was characteristically succinct: "To give up all reasoning, is the place of reasoning in spirituality."

"There are a few men," warned Sri Ramakrishna, "who cannot obtain knowledge of God: men proud of their scholarship, proud of their education or proud of their wealth. If you speak to such people about a holy man and ask them to visit him, they will not go. But in the heart of hearts they think: 'Why we are big people ourselves. Must we go and visit someone else?' "

The Aghori Master, Vimalananda, expressed the same thought differently: "I have never been and will never be a teacher. When you try to teach, you usually end up by cheating yourself. For one thing, most people are motivated by idle curiosity rather than a sincere thirst for knowledge.

I have no time to waste my breath on people who want to know whether God exists or not. For those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe in God, no explanation is possible."