“The ‘I-problem’ is what today’s topic.”

The ‘I-problem’ is what today’s topic. There are thousands of problems in the world, but not all human beings face one problem. This one problem almost all the human beings, every individual faces, every person undergoes it, either in one way or the other, everybody faces the problem of ‘I’.

What is actually the ‘I’-problem? Somebody went to Ramana Maharishi and asked, “Bhagavan, I want peace!” He said, “drop that ‘I’ and the ‘want’, what remains is peace.” “Drop that ‘I’ and the ‘want’, what remains is peace.” Throughout his life, he preached nothing but only one thing, one technique, ask “Who Am 'I'?” For any problem his standard-solution, “Who Am 'I'?”

Almost all the religions and all the Masters have spoken, explained on this ‘I’-problem. Upanishad says, ‘Aham Brahmasmi’. Jesus says, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ Islam says, ‘Anal Haq' - ‘I am the Truth.’ Buddha says, ‘Appo deepo bhava’ - ‘Atma is the Light’, ‘I’ is the Light.’ Jesus says, ‘I am the Path, I am the Goal.’ Krishna says, ‘I am Everything’. The ‘I’ you all should understand, when Krishna says, “I am everything,” He does not mean His form, He does not mean the Vasudeva Krishna. He means that Universal Krishna, that God, the Divine or the Energy who is called in the name of Krishna. When He says, “I am everything”, He does not mean that His form is everything or that the boy who has taken birth for Vasudeva and Devaki; not that small boy, He is the Enlightened Krishna, the Master Krishna.

In Krish...in Gita when Krishna says, “I am Everything”, He is in that ecstasy of Enlightenment. That’s why He says, “I am Everything.” Of course, when you are enlightened, you feel that your whole world is ‘you’ and you are the whole world. The energy which moves the sun, which moves the moon, which moves the Earth, the same energy will be moving your body. You will see, you will experience, it is one and the same. Then you will feel that you are everything and everything is you. Only in that Ecstasy everything is you, you are everything, not in the ordinary sense. Sometimes, I do say, Enlightened Master is God, when He was in that ecstasy, when He was in that Enlightenment mood, everything is He. Only in that meaning He said, not that the form of the Krishna.

People come and always tell Me, “Swamiji you are God, just by your word, such a big problem has disappeared and such a good things have happened.” I always tell them, “No, don’t think this form is God, this form is not God”. The energy which is beyond this form is God. If you catch this form, then again problem starts. I always tell them, “don’t catch this form. The energy which moves, which works through this form is God.”

The other day I went to some devotees house, they were asking Me, “Swamiji, I was following, I was worshipping the other Guru, another one Master.” Now I started, ah, feeling a deep reverence, respect, love for you. Is it any mistake, is there any problem? Am I doing something wrong?” I told, “perfectly all right. Nothing is wrong. It’s not like a shop, if you go to other shop, you should not come to My shop. You come to My shop, you should not go to other shop. No! It’s not like a business. I tell them, at least I tell them, “go wherever it is possible. Go to all the Masters, go to all the Gurus, go to all the religions, go to all the good places. Pluck flower from all the gardens and make a beautiful garland for you. Pluck flowers from all the gardens and make a beautiful maala for you.“

You, be very clear, go everywhere. If somebody says, “don’t go to other person,” don’t go only to that place. When somebody says, “don’t go anywhere else”, be very sure, be very clear, that man is fake. An Enlightened man can never say, don’t go to the other persons, don’t go to the other gurus or don’t go to other places. I always tell them, “go wherever you can.” Pluck flowers from all the gardens and make a garland for you, garland for your being. Pluck flowers from all the gardens and make a beautiful bouquet for your being.

It is your Ego, which makes you catch the form. Never, never be caught by the form, never be attracted to the form. Just beyond the form the energy which works, that is what is God, not this form.

Somebody asked Me, “Swamiji we are seeing, your photos are being worshipped everywhere. “What You feel?”, some of My close devotees asked, “What you feel, when Your photos are being worshipped or when Your name is being chanted? Thousands of people chant Your name as a mantra, thousands of people worship Your photo as a God. What You feel?” I told them, “I tell you very clearly, it’s a...My honest feeling, I don’t feel this form is Me, this body is Me. I don’t feel this name is Mine.” If you feel, this body is you, then you will have Ego. I don’t feel this body is Me.

That is why when somebody worships, I also do Namaskar. If you… if I go to some devotees house, there you will see in the puja room My photograph will be there. When I show the arthi, I show..I have to show for that also. I cannot say, “take out… take away My photo, only then I can do puja.” No. I show to that photograph also. So I always I tell them, I don’t associate Me or I don’t feel that I am only this 6-feet body. But if you feel, I am only this 6-feet body, then you will be missing something very big. I told them, the Krishna when He says, “I am the world, I am the God, everything is in Me”, He is in that ecstasy of Enlightenment - He means the energy, which is called ‘Krishna’, not the man who is Krishna. Not the ordinary man who is Krishna.

Then they asked Me, “No, when Krishna says, it is only the man who is Krishna, the form which is Krishna, what is the proof, it is not the man? Where is the proof, it is not the man, it is only the energy experience?” Then I quoted a small incident from Bharata, Mahabharata. I want to tell you the incident. After the Gita, after the Kurukshetra war, after the war, war which has happened for 18 days, once the war is over, after some two, three months, in a very relaxed way, Krishna and Arjuna, they were going for a outing, for a picnic, to a nearby forest. At that time again Arjuna is...Arjuna asked Krishna, “Oh Krishna, You said so many great things in the Gita, at the time of war. Because I was too busy with the war, I forgot all the truths which you uttered. I forgot Your great teachings. Please You repeat now once more, I wanted to record the whole thing for my future reference. Please can You repeat the whole thing? I have forgotten everything.” You should remember this one word. Krishna says, “Forgive Me! I have also forgotten. I have also forgotten.”

At that time He makes a beautiful statement, when I, when Arjuna is asking, “What do You say, what do You mean you have forgotten?” Krishna says, “I was in that inspired Consciousness. When I spoke Gita, I was in that enlightened mood. The enlightened energy was working through Me.” He says, “it is not Me! ‘Deham Naham. It is not this body which was speaking, when I gave the Gita, it is not Vasudeva Krishna, it is Parabrahma Krishna. It is not Vasudeva Krishna, it is Parabrahma Krishna. It is the divine energy which spoke those words. So, I do not know what I spoke! I can do one thing, whatever I remember, I’ll recollect and present it to you, give it to you; if you want, note down those things.” So second time, whatever He remembers, very little He repeats and that is compiled and titled, as ‘Anugita’. There is a one more Gita said by Krishna in the Mahabharata, which is a proof, Gita, Krishna does not mean the form of Krishna. It is something beyond, the energy. That is what Jesus also means, ‘Be still and know that I am God’, means he says that ‘I’ within Himself is God. And when Islam prophets say, ‘Anal Haq’ - ‘I am the truth’, the ‘I’ stands for the energy, ‘I’ stands for the Divinity. To prove when Krishna means, when Krishna says, “I Am everything”, He does not mean the Vasudeva Krishna, He means the Parabrahma Krishna. The energy is Krishna. The formless spirit, which is Krishna.

The ‘I’, the mistaking of the ‘I’ not only happens… it also not only happens in the Puranic Ages or between the Master and disciple, it also happens in your system. The ‘I’ if it is understood, it becomes just the Divine or the God. If it is not understood, it creates all sorts of trouble, all sorts of trouble.

Anybody you ask, “What is the reason for all the trouble?,” they will tell, “Ego Swamiji.” Everybody knows, which creates trouble, which creates the troubles. Everybody knows it is just the Ego. Everybody knows it is just the Ego, but nobody could overcome, nobody could cross it. In one side, people say, “Ego is the trouble.” The other side, the Masters, they declare, “I am the God, I am the truth, I am everything.” There also it is ‘I’, here also it is ‘I’. What is the difference between these two ‘I’? How can they say, “I am the truth.” There are beautiful sayings. There are beautiful utterances - vedAhametam puruSHam mahAntam, Amritasya Putra Shrinwantu Vishwe Amritasya Putra,” - “I have known the Ultimate Truth, you people are the Embodiment of Divine Consciousness.”

There are verses in the Upanishads, “You people are the expression of the Ultimate Intelligence.” In so many places so many Masters they declare, ‘I’ is God, ‘I’ is the Truth. In the Vedas there is a big Mahavakya called, “Aham Brahmasmi”, means - “I am the God.” There is one more Mahavakya called “Shivoham” - “I am the Shiva.” “Soham” - “I am That.” In all the religion the ultimate statement is, “I am the Truth, I am the God.” What do they mean, when I...when they say, “I”, “I”, “I”? With ordinary sense the ‘I’ only creates all the troubles. In our life the “I” only creates all the trouble, all the problems. In their life “I” only is felt as a God.

What is the difference between your ‘I’ and their ‘I’? What is the difference between our ‘I’ and their ‘I’? With our ‘I’ we continuously suffer. From morning till night, everything, what do you think: “What is there for me?” Any incident, any situation, you try to put your ‘I’ in front. The ‘I’ smells very badly in our life. It creates very bad smell, you...you should see there are people, as I was telling the other day, they will present one tube light to the temple. In that tube light their whole family name will be there. If you switch on, only the black lines will be there on the…, on the…, on the wall. No light will come, will be out.

Wherever we go, whatever situation comes, we always present, we always project, we are always first to say, “What is there for me?” in our mind. Any situation you deal only, “How can I be in front?” “How can I be in front?” You try your best to push yourself. You try your best to be in the front, to show your ‘I’, but finally you get only the blows. Whenever we work hard to keep our ‘I’ in front, we get only the blows, nothing else, nothing else but the blows.

With our life ‘I’ creates so much of problem. And not only that, the very ‘I’ itself becomes a problem. With this great Masters’ life, with this enlightened peoples’ life, the very ‘I’ is such a joy, ecstasy. What is the difference? For us the same ‘I’ is a hell. For them the same...the same ‘I’ is heaven. For us, the same ‘I’ is a problem. For them the same ‘I’ is Bliss.

There are verses you should ah read that “Sivoham, Sivoham,” by Shankara. He says, “I am the Shiva!”, “I am the God.” There is a beautiful Devi suktam, “ahaM rudre bhiR,” - “I am the Gods of all the Universe.” One side, the enlightened people worship the ‘I’, the other side, ordinary people are just crushed, disturbed continuously, facing problems after problems by this ‘I’. What is the difference between this two? Why they should suffer, they should have problems? And why Masters should have Bliss from the same ‘I’?