Why does the author emphasize the need for personal experience over mere intellectual knowledge of spirituality in this chapter?

Chapter 26 strongly emphasizes that intellectual understanding alone is insufficient in spirituality. The author states, "without experience, the exhaustion of speech achieves nothing in spirituality." This is why the devotee prays to Sai Samarth to make the knowledge of the Self meaningful through direct, personal experience. As explained in Chapter 26, the ultimate goal is not just to know about union with the divine but to actually attain it. The prayer for the "gift of the natural state of union (Sayujya)" shows a deep yearning for a lived reality of spiritual truth, not just a theoretical grasp of it, which can only be granted through the Guru's grace.