To acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. You need not study the scriptures, you don't need any philosophy.+

Sage Sankara says:~ VC-162- There is no liberation for a person of mere book knowledge, howsoever well-read in the philosophy of Vedanta, so long as one does not give up the false identification with the body, sense organs, etc., which are unreal.

Mundaka Upanishad 1.3:~ Complete knowledge includes knowledge of the phenomenal world, the spirit behind it, and the source of both of them.  When the cause of all causes becomes known, then everything knowable becomes known, and nothing remains unknown.” 

Sage  Sankara:~ 'Like a servant who carries a lamp in front of you to find your way, and you have found it, so becomes the Veda to that person. What is the Veda? ~ utterances of those who have known the Truth. Here is one who has known the Truth; why should he or she depend upon the Veda further? Actual realization takes you beyond books. At a certain stage, books become a botheration. The Upanishad itself says that the 'words are only so much distraction for such a mindset.

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The Soul, the  Self, is your Guru. Do not search for a Guru outside of you. Do not waste time in search for a Guru within the world in which you exist. 

The same time can be utilized to realize the truth beyond the form, time, and space. The Guru is hidden by the world in which you exist. If you have an intense urge to realize the truth beyond the form, time, and space then the inner Guru will start revealing the truth.

You don't need a Guru to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. You need not study the scriptures, you don't need to study any philosophy, there is no need to hear any sermons,  there is no need to indulge in yogic samadhi.

Sage Sankara: ~ Atman, the Self is verily Brahman (God in truth), being equanimous, quiescent, and by nature absolute Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss. Atman is not the body that is non-existence itself. This is called true Knowledge by the wise. 

Everyone’s inner work is on.  The Soul is the innermost Self. The Soul the inner Guru guides us all till we get the stillness of its Advaitic true nature. It is the Soul which is in ignorance it is the Soul that has to wake from the sleep of ignorance.

Katha Upanishad says: ~ This Atman is attained by him alone whom It chooses. (II -23-P-20)

Thus, those who have taken the path of wisdom are chosen ones.  The chosen one will get the grace of the Soul the inner Guru. The path of wisdom is the Soulcentric path, whereas all other paths are egocentric.  All egocentric paths are leads to hallucination.

The Soul, the 'Self' reveals ‘what is real’ and ‘what is unreal” when the seeker is receptive and ready.

Sages of truth restrained themselves from parting the Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana to the mass and only a selected few. It was hidden from the people who were not qualified and receptive to it. 

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana was not written down but was imparted orally to the chosen few. Thus, religion was given to the mass, and knowledge of the spirit is given only selected few. Thus we find traces o the knowledge of the spirit in the religious books in the form of parables. 

Gurudom is playing with words because maybe the meaning is floating somewhere in between the spaces of words...

People who think themselves to be in a position to air their knowledge forget one basic fact, namely that they go by mere appearances. Someone expounds knowledge and the one who receives it begins to ape the person from whom he has received the knowledge. They never question the validity of that knowledge.

Katha Upanishad says ~ Fools dwelling in darkness, but thinking themselves wise and erudite, go round and round, by various tortuous paths, like the blind led by the blind. (Ch II-5 P-14)

It indicates that the one who is ignorant (darkness) of the true Self [Atman] searches for truth by accumulating knowledge of every path and practice and uncertain about the truth, and thinks every path leads towards reality. The ignorance of the true 'Self', leads one towards hallucination. 

Bhagavad Gita says: ~ Among thousands of men, scarcely one strives for perfection; and of those who strive and succeed, scarcely one knows the ‘Self’  in truth.

The path of wisdom attracts only those who are in search of truth and they appreciate it greatly.   The ignorant are not spiritually matured to receive Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.  The ignorant indulge in argument and provocation and personal attack, which hinder their own realization of the ultimate truth or Brahman

Sage Sankara says: ~ Neither by the practice of yoga nor philosophy, nor by good works nor by learning, does liberation come, but only through the realization that Atman and Brahman are one in no other way. (1) VivekaChudamani v 56, pg 25

Mundaka Upanishad: - The study of the Vedas, linguistics, Rituals, astronomy and all the arts can be called lower knowledge. The higher is that which leads to Self-realization. The eye cannot see it; the mind cannot grasp it. The deathless 'Self' has neither caste nor race, neither eyes nor ears nor hands nor feet. Sages say this Self is infinite in the great and in the small, everlasting and changeless, the source of life.

There is no higher or lower goal. There is only one goal, Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana, or Atma Gnana.

Your intense urge to know the truth will take you to the ultimate end, but your accumulated knowledge will block you from realizing the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

All the paths and practices have become merely a matter of external they will not help to discover the inner reality, which is beyond the form, time, and space. , it has become a cage for the Soul, the Self.

So-called spiritual Gurus learned to take whatever they have inherited and accumulated knowledge as the ultimate truth, such accumulated knowledge is not Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

That is why Katha Upanishad says:~ Fools dwelling in darkness, but thinking themselves wise and erudite, go round and round, by various tortuous paths, like the blind led by the blind. (Ch~ II-5 P-14)

They think whatever they propagate is the ultimate truth. The question never occurs to them, “Is what I know really the truth? :~Santthosh Kumaar