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Chapter 2
Appendix:-The self cannot be known merely by hearing viz., by practice but can be known by having inquisition, by hearing from enlightened and experienced exalted souls—`yatatamapi siddhanam kascinmath vetti tattvatah' (Gila 7/3). 'Ascaryavadvadati tathaiva canyah'—it means that out of the enlightened exalted souls, only someone can explain its true nature to others. All the enlightened souls can't explain it.
As in the world a couple doesn't get married merely by hearing but the man and the woman accept each other as wife and husband and then they are married. Similarly no one can know God merely by hearing but after hearing, when he accepts Him himself and gets established in Him, then he will know Him by his own self. Therefore by hearing a man can learn the facts pertaining to knowledge, can narrate them to others, can write them, can lecture on them, can discuss them but can't realize the self or God.
One can't know God merely by hearing but can know Him by worshipping Him after hearing from others—'smtvanyebhya upasate' (Gita 13/25). If the person, who describes the Supreme Soul, is a God-realized soul and the listener (striver) has esteemed faith and inquisition, there can be immediate Self-realization.
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