Shastra learning

Lectures and books are of little benefit and are useful only to
point out the way to beginners. 

The real work is done in meditation. 

As the Tamil Saint, Tayumanavar, points out in a poem, a person who sits still and silently can influence a whole country.

The force of meditation is infinitely more powerful than speech or writing. One who sits in silence, meditating on the Self, will draw a whole crowd of people to him, without his going out to anyone. 

Even books like the Bhagavad Gita, and Light on the Path,
must be given up to find the Self by looking within. 

Even the Gita says ,'Meditate on the Self.' It does not say:
“Meditate on the book of the Gita”.

I asked Maharshi why his books are in poem und song. He said
it was easier for people to learn and remember in this form.

Q: How do books help?

M: Only in that they may increase our spiritual aspiration. The study of the sacred books will not be enough to reveal the truth. So long as vasanas are latent in the mind, realization cannot be achieved. 

Shastra learning is itself a vasana. 
Samadhi alone can reveal realization. 
Thoughts cast a veil over reality. and so it cannot be clear in states other than samadhi.

- Conscious Immortality