My biggest trouble when I was young – any 15 / 16 is shown in the statement above
Shankar Acharya says gyana or knowledge is brought about by vichara ( thought)
At that age I had read all the scriptures in Hinduism. I constantly thought that vichara or thinking is needed for realization. My Guru taught me yoga but I would argue that shankaracharya says knowledge is the means
Finally he took out an old book written by shankaracharya and asked me to read a shloka ( verse) – lo and behold it extolled yoga. I had never read or seen that book. It has been out of print for very very very long!
I followed my Guru.
later I understood that what shankaracharya meant knowledge as experience that your the divine and vichara refers to a special yoga technique
Since Shankaracharya was teaching nearly perfected yogi, he could share this secret final step to them
The way we understand thinking and knowledge is incorrect
You can think as much as you like that your the divine. It won’t make you divine! You need proper guidance
I will explain the second part of his saying some other time
Bhavin