Now the question might arise, how, when efforts in previous births are rewarded and one is endowed as a result of these with the Four Qualifications, study of the Sastras here and now does not help! Some persons also are handicapped by the evil effects of past Karma and they do not get fruit from Sastic study. But, as far as character and bent of mind are concerned, the lucky ones who are engaged in good deeds in past births are at an advantage. The student whose study is handicapped by past Samskaras is as unlucky as the aspirant who has failed to develop a spiritual bent of mind by his activities in the past births.

Well! Even when one has mastered the Sastras, if one has not taken up Sadhana, he cannot grasp the Atmic basis of Existence. Of course, he who has understood the scriptures has greater chances of entering upon a course of Sadhanas and practising them more steadfastly. The merit acquired in past births appears now as a keen thirst for Liberation, as a sincere endeavour to approach a guru, as a determined struggle to succeed in Sadhana, and comes to fruition with the realisation of the Atma. Success comes to those who have Sraddha more than anything else. Without Sraddha, the prompting to translate what has been read in the Sastras will be absent and scholarship will hang as a burden on the brain.

Since Vairagya etc., are the qualifications for realising the Atma, scholars and the rest are both equally entitled to it. If it is not through Sadhana alone that the Atma can be known, why bother to master all the Sastras? Well, to know the self, Sastras are indispensable; having known it, they are unnecessary. But all that is inferred from the Sastras are only indirect experiences; direct perception is impossible by any means other than Sadhana. Direct understanding alone is Jnana.