The Soul is prior to the ‘I’ because the Soul is the cause of the 'I'.+

The Soul is prior to the ‘I’. The Soul is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God. People say I AM THAT ~ I am God, I am Brahman. But when Brahman is, how can "I" remain? Only Brahman (God in truth) remains, not the ‘I’.

It is erroneous to use the word ‘I’ for the Self, because ‘I’ represents form, time, and space whereas the Soul, the Self is a formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.

You are not prior to the Soul, the Self. The Soul the Self is the real God. It is foolish to hold the Self as you because you and your experience of the world appear with the ‘I’ and disappear with the ‘I’.

Bhagvad Gita: ~ “You must first see the ‘I’ as illusory before you see others as illusory. ~ CH.2 v.16

The seeker has to make sure what is this ‘I’ supposed to be? The seeker has to make sure the unreal nature of the ‘I’ which comes and goes to realize the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space

That is why Bhagavad Gita: ~ “The permanent is always there, only the transient ‘I’ comes and goes. (2.18)

The ‘I’ hides the Soul, the Self, which is present in the form of consciousness.

People think the ‘I’ without the body is the Self. The seeker has to realize 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 'I' as real because some Gurus have propagated that the Self is the ‘I’. is no need to convince such a mindset. The seeker of truth accepts only the truth nothing but the truth.

That is why Sage Sankara says: - VC-65- As a treasure hidden underground requires (for its extraction) competent instruction, excavation, the removal of stones and other such things lying above it and (finally) grasping, but never comes out by being (merely) called out by name, so the transparent truth of the Self, which is hidden by Maya and its effects, is to be attained through the instructions of a knower of Brahman, followed by reflection, meditation and so forth, but not through perverted arguments.

People refuse to accept anything other than their Guru's words. For them, their Guru's words are the ultimate truth. They do not accept anything else other than their accepted truth. There is no need to convince such a mindset.

Such a mindset is not fit to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. The seekers of truth accept only the truth nothing but the uncontradictable truth. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar