The meaning of this story is that experience on earth is needed to acquire knowledge. Without it, only the capacity for knowledge is there. If a man wishes to become a doctor, an architect, an engineer, a poet, a musician, and he studies and acquires all the knowledge of the science or art but does not seek the inner guidance, then he will have all knowledge of the rules, but no inspiration, no gift, no power. The contrary mistake has often been made by mystics, who have thought that the inner light is enough, the inner knowledge, without any learning of the external world.