The so-called scientific tradition of the West has done the world a huge disservice with its own version of what constitutes science and scientific investigation. In the West, the search for knowledge is often confused with the search for truth. The two are not the same. Science is broadly the study of forms of matter and motion. It is the search for knowledge because its scope is the outer world.
The scientist studies the reality outside him in a way where he considers himself to be beyond the study's purview. He studies everything but himself. Ignorant of the truth that lies inside him, he investigates the world outside. It is objective and he takes pride in the fact that it is objective. He thinks he is clinical, unemotional and focussed. Perhaps he is. The entire gamut of what Marx called “sensuous human activity” is dismissed as "unscientific" and remains beyond the pale of his investigation. It is laughable.
Spirituality, on the contrary, is the search for the truth of our real identity. There is nothing objective about truth since if you examine the matter more closely, you will discover all truth is subjective. The Gita declares that a person is defined by his faith, something that the Western tradition of science cannot approve and dismisses as unscientific. Unlike knowledge, truth has to be experienced.
It is not limited or restrained by memory (like science) but is ever-present, ever new and firmly rooted in the here and now. There is a presence in us that transcends the three states of wakefulness, dream and deep sleep. This insight constitutes the core of Hindu scriptures. To awaken to this awareness is self-realisation. But this must be experienced and should not remain intellectual conviction alone.
Knowledge is of little use in understanding the truth of the spirit. If the truth is told, it is of no use at all and is actually a positive hindrance to spiritual progress. It bloats the head and diminishes the heart, the one quality that makes us genuinely human.
Ramana once said: “illiteracy is ignorance; education is learned ignorance.” It took the sage one line to dismiss all that we have been taught to revere. The implication is clear: An innocent childlike heart is preferable to a refined intellect in the spiritual domain.