It is not I AM GOD, but it’s correct to say the SELF IS GOD.+

The ‘I’ is not the source. The Soul is the source of the ‘I’. The Gurus who say you are the Source are propagating a half-baked knowledge from different sources.

That is why Bhagavan Buddha said: ~ “Believe nothing because a wise man said it, Believe nothing because it is generally held. Believe nothing because it is written. Believe nothing because it is said to be divine. Believe nothing because someone else said it. But believe only what you, yourself judge to be true

The Advaitic wisdom consists in knowing the truth, that everything (mind or physical existence) is consciousness.

Freedom (ultimate truth) is always there yet one does not know it. But to those whose reason is turned away from physicality and who have attained the serenity of the Soul or consciousness, the Self is quite near to realizing the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.

Katha Upanishad says:~ Fools dwelling in darkness, but thinking themselves wise and erudite, go round and round, by various tortuous paths, like the blind led by the blind. (Ch~ II-5 P-14)

Those who indulge in a perverted argument on their own standpoint and opinion are not seeking the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space. They just want to exhibit their accumulated knowledge accumulated from here and there. They think what they know is the ultimate truth.

They think whatever they propagate is the ultimate truth. The question never occurs to them, “Is what I know is really the truth.

Yoga Vasistha says: ~ “Self-knowledge or knowledge of truth is not had by resorting to a Guru (preceptor) nor by the study of scripture, nor by good works: it is attained only through inquiry inspired by the company of wise (Gnani). One’s inner light alone is the means, naught else. When this inner light is kept alive, it is not affected by the darkness of inertia.

Deeper self-search reveals the fact that the ‘Self’ is neither the body nor the ‘I’. Thus, one has to go beyond the ‘I’ means beyond the form, time, and space.

Swami Vivekananda said:~ "The Vedas teach that the Soul is divine, only held in the bondage of matter; perfection will be reached when this bond will burst, and the word they use for it is, therefore, Mukthi - freedom, freedom from the bonds of imperfection.

The Self is not the ‘I’. The ‘I’ is present in the form of the mind. The origin of the mind is the Soul. The mind is present in the form of the universe. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness. The root of the universe is consciousness.

Saying ‘I Am God’ keeps one in duality. The duality is not reality. Duality is the product of ignorance. The body, ego, and the world are of ignorance. When wisdom dawns the ignorance disappears.

When ignorance disappears the duality will never be a reality even though there is duality, it is merely an illusion created out of a single stuff. That single stuff is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.

The Soul is the Self. The Soul, the Self is God in truth. It is not “I AM GOD, but it’s correct to say ‘the SELF IS GOD because the Self is not the ‘I’ or ’I AM”.

People say Aham Brahmasmi -- I am God, I am Brahman. But when Brahman is, how can "I" remain? Only Brahman prevails not I.

People think the ‘I’ without the body is the Self. The seeker has to understand the fact that ‘I’ is not the Self, but the witness of the ‘I’ is the true Self, which is eternal.

That is why Ashtavakra Gita 16:10:~ If you desire liberation, but you still say 'I', if you feel the ‘Self’ is the ‘I’, you are not a wise man or a seeker. You are simply a man who suffers.

People are stuck with the reality of the ‘I’, which they take as real because some Gurus have propagated that the Self is the ‘I’. There is no need to convince such a mindset who refuses to accept other than their accepted truth.

The seeker of truth accepts only the truth nothing but the truth. The truth is hidden by the ‘I’ but it is without the ‘I’.

Some Gurus in the past glorified the ‘I’ without verifying what this ‘I’ is an actuality. And the follower of that ‘I-centric teaching got stuck with the ‘I’.

The ‘I’ is present only when the mind is present.

The mind is present only when the universe is present.

The universe is present only when the waking is present.

If the ‘I’ is absent then the mind, the universe, the waking, is absent.

~ It means the ‘I’, the mind, the universe, and the waking, are one and the same thing.

This is very important for the seeker to know to realize the ‘I’ itself is ignorance to overcome the ignorance they have to discard ‘I’.

Using the word ‘I’ for the ‘Self’ is the cause of ignorance.

The innermost Self is God. It is not “I AM GOD”, but it’s correct to say “SELF IS GOD” because the Self is not the ‘I’ or ’I AM”. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar