One cannot know God by any amount of study of any amount of scriptures. One cannot know God through performing even the most terrible austerities like fasting, sitting in the sun in summer or sitting in the Ganges or Gangotri in the winter. One cannot know God even by giving huge amounts of charity. All of these things can help us to become more powerful or more pious but the only way to actually know the truth is ‘mahajano yena gatah sa panthah’: to follow in the footsteps of great souls. Mahabharata and other scriptures confirm it. When we have faith in that, that faith gives us the genuine connection.
