People dip into meditation but they do not understand that that is only one half of the truth and that this dipping is also a mental discipline to for them to understand the true nature of the external universe, which understanding they must next get if they are to become Gnanis.
Thus in the Gita, Chap.XII Krishna tells Arjuna that knowledge of both matter and spirit is the True knowledge. One is living in the body, which is the world, and he has to eat and move and work in the external environment. One cannot get away from it. It is his life.
Therefore he ought to know, understand and grasp its meaning. A person who refuses to do so is refusing to face the whole of reality.
Sankara definitely says that Yoga is not the means of liberation [page 132-133 of his commentary on Brihadaranyakopanishad].
