Just to add to what I said Sarva, and dare I say to rub in some irony. On the Hindu dharma forum I saw many people were criticized for following a Jnana path. When they professed to be Hindus they were asked, “What deity do you worship, how regular do you practice the prescribed rituals(prasadam, pooja), what pilgrimages have you been on, which puranas do you read, what is your caste” The ‘Hindus’ who merely have interest in Jnana are looked upon as inferior Hindus, or not even Hindus(Obviously, this is how I was treated on the forum)
But the greatest irony is that philosophical(Jnana) Hinduism actually predates Puranic Hinduism by a long margin. Thus to say because somebody does not practice Puranic Hinduism, they are an inferior Hindu is hilarious, because Puranic Hinduism is not essential Hinduism.
A further great irony is that the path of Jnana is extolled as the highest in the most authorized texts of Hinduism, the Upanishads and the Gita. These texts even criticize idol-worshipping and rituals as inferior practices and the Puranas themselves admit that they are not authoritative . Thus the Puranic Hindus knowingly engage in inferior practices and reading inferior scriptures, and yet have the gall to look down on Jnana margis
I genuinely believe that I am practicing the true Hinduism, and I have the highest scriptures in Hinduism to support me. Unfortunately, Hinduism has been hijacked by the Puranic Hindus, that it does not serve me anymore to identify as a ‘Hindu’ I thus identify now as a Sanatana Dharmin, a follower of the original Aryan religion. Not the corrupt and degenerated Puranic Hinduism that came later. It is widely agreed, even by Hindu scholars, that Hindu civilization has been in long decline and is badly corrupted. The kind of religious fundamentalist views Sarva and his friends at HDF share exemplifies that corruption.
Anyway Jnana marga is my sadhana, and my philosophical reading in Hinduism is an essential part of my Sadhana. I thus do have very deep religious attitude to my sadhana and my sadhana is now a decade old. The Karika defines my achievement of even having read the core philosophical texts to be one of the 8 successes on the path. So as far Samkhya is concerned I am on the right path.
There are many adherents on this forum of the path of experience, citing often heard cliches in Yoga, “a morsel of experience is greater than tons of theories” But little do they realize that theoretical study is actually considered an essential part of the Samkhya-Yoga tradition, and in Vedanta it is the modus operandi. Thus their convictions I am afraid are not actually endorsed in the authentic tradition.