Scriptures are only road-maps; at best they are guide-books that give directions for the destination. It is the actual journey that will reveal the hardships, the delays, the land-slips, the potholes as well as the beauty of the scenic route on the way, and the magnificence of the destination. No secondhand account can equal the firsthand experience! The symbols on the map are interpreted differently by different scholars according to their preconceived notions, predilections and pet theories. If you acquire Love, then you can dispense with the Scriptures; for the purpose of all the Scriptures is just that: to create the feeling of Sarvajana samaana prema (equal love for all), and to negate egoism which stands in the way. Reason too, if it comes in the way of this love, is to be discarded as 'perverted'. (Divine Discourse, April 12, 1959.)