I Am God

If you develop within yourself the sacred and lofty idea, "I am God", you will not be bothered by anything; nothing can come in your way. Of course, it is of no use to merely utter these words. You must first overcome your body consciousness and maintain a firm control over your senses. At the same time, you must develop an intense love for God and live it by continuously identifying yourself with the divine. This will lead you to the supreme wisdom. Or, you can express your love for God by following the path of the servant. This will quickly remove the egoism from your heart and fill you with bliss.

There are three successive stages on the way to God-realization. In the very beginning you will declare, "I am a devotee of God." Here there are two entities, one is God and the other is you, the devotee. God is believed to be away somewhere, and your approach will be to try to find God, to get closer to him, and become very near to him. Gradually you progress along this path and, in time, you will come face to face with God. Then you say to him, "Dear Lord, I belong to you." In this second stage, you stand erect before God and declare yourself as his own, very close to him. Then in the third stage you know yourself to be one with God and you state, "You and I are one."

The first stage, which is characterized by the declaration, "I am the servant of God," and where God is cognized as a faraway form, is dualism. The second stage, where you say directly to God, "O Lord, I am your devotee", and feel him inside your heart, is the stage of qualified non-dualism. The third stage, in which the ultimate truth dawns within you and you say to God, "I am you and you are me", is non-dualism. At that point there is no distinction between you and God.