Aham Brahmasmi – Is It Not Arrogance to Call Yourself God?

Some people have this confusion.
How can you say 'Aham Brahmasmi'?
How can you say 'I am God'?
Isn't this arrogance?
A religious person should be humble.
How can he say, 'I am God'?
But 'Aham Brahmasmi' is the most humble statement you can ever make.

Hiranyakashipu said – 'I am the God.'
Matsarasura said – 'I am the God.'
'Other than me there is no God.'
'Shiva is not the Lord anymore, Vishnu is not the Lord anymore.'
'I am the Lord, I am the God.'

This is arrogance. There is a lot of difference between this statement and 'Aham Brahmasmi'.
Even those who say – 'X is the only God', they are actually belittling God, ridiculing that entity whom they are calling God.
They all say that God is omnipresent, He is omniscient, He is omnipotent.
If what you are saying is true, then there cannot be anything other than Him.
How can you exclude something or someone and say that God is omnipresent?

So if you say that our God is specific to our community, He only favours our religion, then that means He has competitors.
Then how can you call such a God omnipotent, all-powerful?
With competition around, how can one God be all-powerful?
If there are multiple political parties today and another one tomorrow, you can't say one party is all-powerful.
So if God has to be omnipotent, there can't be a competitor for Him.

The confusion is so much that the person will say, 'Our God is omnipresent', and in the same breath say, 'He is greater than other Gods.'
If your God is omnipresent, then where is the scope for something or someone other than Him?
So if Vishnu is omnipresent, He is the Parabrahma, Paramatma.
And you are insulting Shiva?
Then you are insulting a part of Vishnu only.
If Shiva is Parabrahma, Paramatma, and then you are insulting Vishnu, then you are insulting Shiva only.
This I don't know why they don't realize.
There cannot be anything other than Parabrahma, Paramatma.

Or you say, 'My God is not Parabrahma, Paramatma, He is a little lesser.'
This you won't do.
You want to say that He is everything, and at the same time have someone who is not part of Him.

So if I am God, what is the difference?
Why am I not able to do what I want?
I am not able to do anything that God does.
I can't create universes.
I can't annihilate thousands of evil demons.
People don't come and pray in front of me.

The difference is like this:
There is an ocean, a Samudra – that is Parabrahma.
Take a cup of water out of it – that is you.
That water in the cup comes from Samudra only.
It doesn't have an independent source or existence.
But then, will the water in the cup have waves?
Can fishermen go fishing in it?
Can whales and sharks grow in it?
Can ships sail in it?
That's the difference.

It is still the same, but limited.
This limit – the cup, the holding cup – is the mind, put there by God with a purpose.
As you evolve from single-celled organisms into higher and higher beings, when you reach a stage...

A boy runs well. You realize this when he is four or five years old.
Then he keeps participating in competitions, keeps on growing.
When he has won a few races, proved himself, then you make him undergo real tough training under veterans.
This training is not easy.
But you can't do it when he is a child.
He has to achieve the right level.
Then you put him through real tough training, real hard work.
Then he emerges successful.

God gives Jivatma the mind when it has reached the right level of proficiency.
The beauty is that this mind self-generates all kinds of obstacles and resistance.
This is what the athlete also does.
He has to surpass all obstacles, all resistance.
Then he becomes really capable, successful.

Mind will generate confusions, resistances – that is the whole purpose of the mind.
Mind will make you suspect, mind will make you a non-believer, mind will make you an atheist.
But that is your training, that is your training ground.
The obstacles that you overcome there are the ones that take you towards success.
So mind has to do all these. That is the duty of the mind.

If you go to a gym, everything there is working against you.
You try to lift a weight – it won't allow you to do that easily.
But then you keep on trying.
Slowly your muscles will develop. Strength will develop.
That is the purpose of the mind.

If mind is not there, then there is nothing to work against.
If there is nothing to work against, you won't develop.
So mind is a positive thing, not negative.

It is this mind, these confusions, that those who say 'My God is the greatest' are always working with.
They are also developing, they are also progressing.
Let's wish them success.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi