Bhagavad Gita 2.46
यावानर्थ उदपाने सर्वतः सम्प्लुतोदके । तावान्सर्वेषु वेदेषु ब्राह्मणस्य विजानतः ॥
yāvān artha udapāne sarvataḥ samplutodake | tāvān sarveṣu vedeṣu brāhmaṇasya vijānataḥ ||
Translation
As much use as there is in a well, when there is a flood of water everywhere, so much use is there in all the Vedas to a brahmin who knows.
Reflection
What book or framework are you still using after the thing it pointed at has arrived?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Two
The image is famous. A well is useful when water is scarce. When water is everywhere, the well becomes a curiosity. The Vedas, Krishna says, are the well; brahman, the realized state, is the flood. The verse is not anti-scripture. It is locating the place where scripture stops being primary. Shankara reads the analogy as conservative: until the flood, the well does its work, and the well must be respected. The flood does not abolish the well; the well becomes secondary in the presence of the flood. Use the books until the books are no longer what you need.