Chapter 26 mentions that words alone aren't enough for spiritual progress. What does it say about the importance of direct experience?

Chapter 26 strongly emphasizes that intellectual understanding is insufficient for true spiritual realization and that direct, personal experience is paramount. The author prays to Sai Baba, asking Him to make the knowledge of the Self meaningful through personal experience, or 'anubhava'. The text pointedly states, "without experience, the exhaustion of speech achieves nothing in spirituality." This indicates that merely talking or reading about spiritual truths is futile. The prayer culminates in a request for the ultimate experience: the "gift of the natural state of union (Sayujya) through Your grace." This shows that the goal is not just to know the truth, but to live and become one with it, a transformation that only the Guru's grace can bestow.