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Chapter 10
Appendix:—Of all the worldly sciences `adhyatmavidya' viz., science of the self (soul) is the best. The same science in the colophon at the end of the chapters of the Gita, has been called `brahmavidya'
The Lord calls `adhyatmavidya viz., the science of the self as His divine glory because it is the simplest, easiest and is directly realizable to all. In practising it, in understanding it and in attaining it, there is no difficulty. Practice, understanding and attainment are not applicable to it at all. The reason is that it is ever attained and in all the states—wakefulness, sleep and sound sleep etc., it ever remains the same. The science of the self is as much evident as evident even this world is not there. It means that we can realize the science of the self very clearly, but we can't realize the existence of the world so clearly. We should understand this fact in this way. If we think of our childhood and see our present state, we find that now the body is not the same, habits are not the same, language is not the same, behaviour is not the same, place is not the same, time is not the same, companions are not the same, actions are not the same, ideas are not the same, all these have changed but our entity viz., the self has not changed, so we say, "I am the same who was in childhood". It means that whatever has changed is of a different nature and whatever has not changed is of a different nature. What has not changed is the self (soul) and whatever has changed is the body. This is science (knowledge) of the self viz., `atmajnana'.
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