If the main goal is happiness and destroying ignorance, why focus on a 'collection of stories, news, and experiences'? Wouldn't a direct philosophical treatise be a more efficient way to achieve self-knowledge?

According to the teachings presented in Chapter 2, the stories themselves are the most direct and potent path to self-knowledge. Sai Baba explicitly states, "By hearing, singing, and contemplating my stories, Devotion to Me will be born and ignorance will be destroyed immediately." This method bypasses what the text considers the pitfalls of dry, argumentative philosophy, which it links to ego and ignorance. As explained further in Chapter 2, these narratives are designed to evoke true feeling and faith in the listener's heart. This faith is the catalyst for attaining "Self-experience and self-bliss," making the stories a powerful spiritual tool that achieves the "entire goal of the Vedas" through a heart-centered, rather than purely intellectual, approach.