Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2.29, “Some see the soul as amazing, and some describe the soul as amazing; similarly, some hear of the soul as amazing and some even after having heard still does not know of it.”
Poet Kabir explains the phenomena as “Reading the book millions have died but one who experienced the two and half letters of love has become the master.”
Studying is a sure-shot way to acquire knowledge. It helps us travel from unawareness to awareness.
But reading alone does not give the experience.
For a real marriage to happen, one must have a bride and go through the experience of wedding rituals. You cannot say I am married by just holding a photo of the bride, performing wedding rituals and garlanding the picture of a bride.
You need to go through four step process for converting knowledge to wisdom:
The first step is learning about the subject through listening and reading.
The second step is reflecting on the subject you have learned through concerted efforts and going deeper into the meaning and origin of the studied subject.
The third step is experimenting with the reflection in a lab-like setup to help garner confidence and authority in the studied subject.
And fourth is implementing and experiencing the subject in a real-world environment accepting and stabilizing the self in the subject.