Poet Kabir explains the phenomenon, “Reading the book, millions have died, but one who experienced the two and a half letters of love has become the master.” Reading certainly helps in acquiring knowledge. It helps us travel from darkness to awareness, but reading alone does not give us experience.
One cannot claim to be married by just obtaining a photo of the bride, chanting the Vedic mantra and garlanding the picture. For a real marriage to happen, one must have a bride and experience wedding rituals. Similarly, one cannot explain the soul by having it beneath the body. For knowledge about the specifics to be communicated convincingly, one must have experience about it and then the ability to communicate it citing the experience.
A four-step process is defined as obtaining wisdom.
Learning about the subject through listening and reading.
Reflecting on the subject through concerted efforts and going deeper into the meaning and origin of the subject.
Experimenting with the reflection in a lab-like setup to help garner confidence on the subject.
Experiencing the subject in a real-world environment by accepting and stabilising the self in an acquired state.