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

Mythological stories are a myth. Whatever is based on myth is merely a superstition.  Mythology was introduced in the past to the ignorant masses. It has to be discarded as one progresses in his spiritual advancement.  Mythology breeds superstition, blind belief, senseless rituals, and the most irrational and gives them a divine outlook.     

Religious Gods are not God in truth. One must realize God in truth.

The Puranas, including Vishnu Purana and Siva Purana, is based on the false idea of a personal God because the writers have thought of Him as a glorified man and woman.

The translations made till now of Indian philosophical works have represented religion and mythology, not philosophy. The greatest pundits do not understand it, for they do not understand science. What has this mythological teaching done for India? Look at its state today. Look at the conversions. Imagining that God has ashes on his forehead or blazing like the sun-- that is all poetry and depends only on faith.

Lord Krishna says Ch. V:~ “Those who know the Self in truth." The last two words (tattvataha) are usually ignored by pundits, but they make all the difference between the ordinary concept of God and the truth about God.

Jesus said:~ "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all." (Gospel of Thomas 2)

Jesus said:~"Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. (THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS- Saying 5)

"The Kingdom of God is inside you and all around you, Not in a mansion of wood and stone.  Split a piece of wood and God is there, Lift a stone and you will find God." (Gospel of Thomas)

Gospel Thomas logian 22: ~ Jesus saw infants being suckled.  He said to his disciples, “These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom.”

They said to him, “Shall we then, as children, enter the kingdom?”

Jesus said to them:~“When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female is female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye,  and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom.

Swami Vivekananda: ~ STICK TO TRUTH.  Beware of everything untrue. stick to the truth and we shall succeed, maybe slowly, but surely.

Meher Baba said:~ God is your innermost Self. Do not search for God outside of you.  Let these words be inscribed in your heart. Nothing is real but god. Nothing Matters but love for god. God is everywhere and does everything. God is beyond us and is everything. God alone is and all else is an illusion.

SK:~ To know what is God we must know what self is. In deeper self-search, we become aware of the fact that our body, ego, and our experience of the universe are created out of single stuff, which is consciousness or Soul.  

Due to ignorance, we identify the soul with the body and we become egocentric.  When we become aware of the fact that, the Self is not the form,  but the Self is formless,  then we become soul-centric and realize the fact that all the three states are merely an illusion created out of consciousness.  Thus, consciousness is the ultimate truth. Consciousness is the Self in truth.    The ultimate truth is God or Brahman.    

Thus, we have to share and interact with fellow seekers and move ahead and reach the nondual destination through this mental (inner) journey.

Remember:~

Meher Baba said: - give no importance to creed, dogma, caste, or the performance of religious ceremonies and rites.

The only Real Existence is that of the One and only God Who is the Self in every (finite) self.

The only Real Love is the Love for this Infinity (God), which arouses an intense longing to see, know and become one with its Truth (God).

The only Real Sacrifice is that in which, in pursuance of this Love, all things—body, mind, position, welfare, and even life itself—are sacrificed.

The only Real Renunciation is that which abandons, even in the midst of worldly duties, all selfish thoughts and desires.

The only Real Knowledge is the Knowledge that God is the inner dweller in good people and in so-called bad, in the saint and in the so-called sinner. This Knowledge requires you to help all equally as circumstances demand without expectation of reward, and when compelled to take part in a dispute, to act without the slightest trace of enmity or hatred; to try to make.

Real love is the love for the  Soul, the Self. Thus ‘Love the Soul, which is the real Self.

God stands here for the ultimate truth or Brahman. All that is needed then is to realize the fact that, that self is not the body (you), not the mind, but the Soul, the innermost Self. The Soul is present in the form of consciousness (Spirit). Thus consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman. Brahman is God.   Firm conviction about the Soul as the Self-leads to nondualistic Self-awareness. Self-awareness is God-awareness.

Rig Veda:~Soul is the cause; the Soul is the support of all that exists in this universe. May ye never turn away from the soul, the innermost self. May ye never accept another God in place of the soul, nor worship him." ( 10:48, 5.)

Rig-Veda 1-164-46 and Y.V 32-1 clearly mention that~ God is “One”; wise men call Brahman by different names. The souls in all human beings are the subtle particles (ansh) of the same Supreme Soul- Paramatma.

Kena Upanishad 2-5: ~mentions that God can be realized in one life.  If you do not realize in one life, you are a great loser.

The Bhagavad Gita says:~ Among thousands of men, scarcely one strives for perfection, and of those who strive and succeed, scarcely one knows the Self in truth.

Bible says:~ “God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24)”. 

Yajur Veda also says:~“Nathasya prathima asityasya nammahastha (32.3)”, God has no image and His name is Holy.

Mythreyi Upanishad 2:26 says:~ “Pashanalogamani moonmayavigrahashi pooja punarjanana bohahari mumusho tasmatati: swahdayarja nameva kuyarta hayacharam parihareta punarbhavaya”, All those who desire to have salvation without taking several births, should worship God in spirit and truth.  

Brahman— The One Without A Second:~  The Atman is self-evident (Svatah-Siddha). It is not established by extraneous proofs. It is not possible to deny the Atman because It is the very essence of the one who denies It. The Atman is the basis of all kinds of knowledge, presuppositions, and proofs. Self is within, Self is without; Self is before, Self is behind; Self is on the right, Self is on the left; Self is above and Self is below. Brahman is not an object, as it is Adrisya, beyond the reach of the eyes. Hence the Upanishads declare: “Neti Neti—not this, not this....” This does not mean that Brahman is a negative concept, or a metaphysical abstraction, or a nonentity, or a void. It is not another. It is all-full, infinite, changeless, self-existent, self-delight, Self-knowledge, and Self-bliss. It is Svarupa, essence. It is the essence of the witness. It is the Seer (Drashta), Transcendent (Turiya), and Silent Witness (Sakshi).

Sage Sankara’s:~ Supreme Brahman is impersonal, Nirguna (without Gunas or attributes), Nirakara (formless), Nirvisesha (without special characteristics), immutable, eternal, and Akarta (non-agent). It is above all needs and desires. It is always the Witnessing Subject. It can never become an object as it is beyond the reach of the senses. Brahman is non-dual, one without a second. It has no other besides it. It is destitute of difference, either external or internal. Brahman cannot be described because the description implies a distinction. Brahman cannot be distinguished from any other than It. In Brahman, there is not a distinction between substance and attribute. Sat-Chit-Ananda constitutes the very essence or Svarupa of Brahman, and not just Its attributes. The Nirguna Brahman of Sage Sankara is impersonal.

The Self is not the ‘I’.  ‘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.  Thus 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 ignorant. 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 single stuff. That single stuff is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.  The Soul is the  Self. The innermost self is God.  It is not “I AM GOD, but it’s correct to say the "SELF IS GOD".   

Everyone likes religion because it belongs to the world of sentiments and emotions. Religion changes as it appeals to different emotions. One will find at one pole the nude Sadhu is admired; at the other, the gorgeous life-styled Godman is revered. Belief in religious prohibitions arises out of fear of God's punishment.

The man himself suggests that there must be a God. It is an auto-suggestion.  To say that one knows God exists always implies he must also exist always. It would be correct to say at this point, that he does not know about the existence of God because God's existence depends on individualized belief.

People magnify every minor coincidence or every petty fact where yogis or Good men were concerned, and they see the miraculous or esoteric significance therein.

Religion is “believers Truth.  Spirit  is  the ultimate truth.” This means a believer takes his feeling of truth whereas the seeker of truth takes his reasoned judgment, which will be the same under test everywhere in the universe.

The position of the seeker of truth is this: he has not seen God. He does not know his capacities, what God can do, and what God cannot do. Therefore, any statement he might make about God would only be a lie. The seeker of truth does not wish to tell a lie. Therefore, he does not accept God nor deny Him; he simply refuses to make any statement about God.

Remember:~

Each sect concocts a God to suit its own purposes. Belief in such concocted Gods is a great hindrance in the pursuit of truth.  The man himself suggests that there must be a God. It is an auto-suggestion. Prayers and sacrifices belong to a premature stage of development. When no answers come to prayers to their belief in God, then doubt arises about the existence of such God. Belief in religion weakens as the man pays more attention to the facts of his practical life within the practical world.

People who argue that truth is only in their religion are vain logicians based on mere ideas, and imaginations.  Religions that say "If one follows the religion they will go to heaven, while others “go to hell," are stories invented on the base of the false self within the false experience.

Religious truth is not the truth because it always shows a contradiction. A contradiction arises because a different person's interpretation may disagree with others.

Poets are at liberty to imagine whatever they like, but the only thing wrong is that they take their feelings and sentiments for reality, or when they think that whatever seems, must exist.

"Religions place God as the unknown reality”.  Every religious believer has a different idea of God. Every man has a different idea of the real. Hence the need for definition before the study.

The fallacy of orthodoxy’s appeal to scripture lies in the varying and conflicting interpretations of the same scripture that different men feel entitled to give or hold.

The mystic who sees or experiences something in his and takes it as the highest does not know the ultimate truth or Brahman.   

There is in religion the element of imagination and sentiments. The ordinary man is happy because religion gives him satisfaction, and pleases his taste. In pursuit of truth, the seeker has to discard religion because religion is based on the false self within the false experience.

How is one to know that the scriptures are true? The seeker has to look into the facts, for the proof of what has the worship of God done for the people! When a tsunami occurred in Japan God did not save the believers of Japan. Thus, God saves the one who prays such an argument is of no value in the pursuit of truth.

One has to investigate “Why Yoga is right and other paths can't give the truth?" Or how is one to know that Yoga leads to the final truth?"

People believe that they have their religion inherited from their forefathers, therefore, why bother to acquire self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana. The ultimate truth or Brahman will interest only less than 5% of people. Religion pleases minds that are stuck believing their practical life within the practical world as reality. 

Remember:~ 

People say Aham Brahmasmi ~ I am God, I am Brahman. But when Brahman is, how can "I" remain? Only Brahman remains, not I. But there is no other way to express it.

Temple worship, pilgrimages, the Gods, and Goddesses are important to the Hindus. Hindu Gods are Rama, Krishna, Kali, Ganesh, Hanuman, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and the respective consorts of the last three, namely, Saraswathi, Lakshmi, and Shakti. None of these deities figured prominently in the Vedic pantheon and some of them are clearly non-Vedic. The major Gods of Hinduism like Vishnu and Shiva are non-Aryan in origin. Though they may have belonged to the Vedic tradition they played no major role in the Vedas. The more important religious sects among the Hindus, like Vaishnavism, Saivism, and so on, did not have a Vedic origin but had come into existence in much recent times.

Originally Shiva and the cult of the Mother Goddess belonged to the religion of the Indus Valley people. As one goes in deeper into the annals of the Indian religious history  Vishnu and Shiva cult is a melting of at least two cultures, if not three, namely, the Aryan culture, the pre-Aryan culture of the Ganges Valley, and the Indus Valley culture. These three cultures were closely knit by the first century of Christianity and in the later period underwent further developments, and probably also a fourth tradition of the indigenous tribes that stood outside the four classes of the caste system as outcastes.

Vedic worshippers did not use temples and idols as Hindus of today do. For them, the sacrificial rituals were more important than the temple or idol worship the major Hindu feasts of today are based on the epic feats of Rama and Krishna and the Puranic lore pertaining to Shiva and the Goddess.

Hindus are idol worshipers of a large number of Gods and Goddesses whereas the in Vedas the God has been described as:~

v  Sakshi (Witness)
v  Chetan (conscious)
v  Nirguna (Without form and properties).
v  Nitya (eternal)
v  Shuddha (pure)
v  Buddha (omniscient)
v   Mukta (unattached).

The nature of the Atman (soul) is:~

v  Witness
v  conscious
v  Without form and properties
v  eternal
v  pure
v  omniscient
v  unattached

Thus, it refers to a formless and attributeless God, which is the Atman (soul), the innermost self within the false experience. Thus, it indicates clearly all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imaginations based on the false self.  Thus Atman or soul, the innermost self is God. 

The Vedas do not talk about idol worship. In fact, till about 2000 years ago followers of Vedism never worshipped idols. Idol worship was started by the followers of Buddhism and Jains.  There is logic to idol worship. Vedas speak of one God that is the supreme Self i.e. Atman or Soul but Hinduism indulges in worshiping 60 million Gods.

As indicated in ISH Upanishads:~By worshipping gods and goddesses you will go after death to the world of gods and goddesses. But will that help you? The time you spend there is wasted because if you were not there you could have spent that time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is your goal. In the world of Gods and Goddesses, you cannot do that, and thus you go deeper and deeper into darkness.

It clearly indicates that:-If the human goal is to acquire Self-Knowledge then why indulge in rituals and glorify the conceptual gods, goddesses, and gurus to go into deeper darkness. Instead spend that time moving forward towards Self-knowledge, which is one’s prime goal.  

Since it is eternal and infinite, it comprises the only truth. The goal of Vedic religion, through the various yogas, is to realize that consciousness (Atman) is actually nothing but Brahman. The Vedic pantheon of gods is said, in the Vedas and Upanishads, to be the only higher manifestations of Brahman. For this reason, "ekam sat" (all is one), and all is Brahman. Thus, the goal is to realize Atman (consciousness). 

If Atman (consciousness) is nothing but Brahman and by realizing Atman (consciousness) as Brahman (ultimate truth) is truth realization or Self-Realization, then there is no need to follow a religion, study scriptures or glorify gods or gurus and follow the path of doubts and confusion by losing oneself in the labyrinths of philosophy, when there is an easier path.  By mentally tracing the source of the mind from where it rises and subsides one becomes aware of the fallacy of the mind, which rises as waking or dream and subsides as deep sleep.  The mind raises from consciousness and subsides as consciousness.

Yajurveda says: - if one worships what is not God: ~

Translation 1.

They enter darkness, those who worship natural things (for example air, water, sun, moon, animals, fire, stone, etc.).

They sink deeper into the darkness than those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc.) - (Yajurveda 40:9)

Translation 2.

"Deep into the shade of blinding gloom fall asambhuti's worshippers. They sink to darkness deeper yet who on sambhuti is intent.~("Yajurveda Samhita by Ralph T. H. Giffith pg 538)

Translation 3.

"They are enveloped in darkness, in other words, are steeped in ignorance and sunk in the greatest depths of misery who worship the uncreated, eternal prakrti -- the material cause of the world -- in place of the All-pervading God, But those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time."~(Yajur Veda 40:9.)

So, Yajur Veda indicates that:~ 

They sink deeper into darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc. - (Yajurveda 40:9)

Those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time."~ (Yajurveda 40:9.)

New non-Vedic religion was introduced by Sage Sankara a great Advaita Sage to help the ignorant Indian populace.   Sage Sankara was unable to revive the Vedic culture and Santana Dharma to its original form because the ignorant populace of India wanted something to cling to.  18 Puranas are introduced in the name of Veda Vyasa not by Sage Sankara but by someone else because the Puranic gods are non-Vedic Gods. Worship of Such Gods is barred in Vedas.  

Sage Sankara gave religion; such as rituals and worship, etc.--to the ignorant masses, as well as Advaitic wisdom to those who are capable of grasping it. 

That is why Swami Vivekananda:~ 

The masses in India cry to sixty million Gods and still die like dogs. Where are these gods?

 Knowing this, stand up and fight! Not one step back that is the idea. ... Fight it out, whatever comes. Let the stars move from the sphere! Let the whole world stand against us! Death means only a change of garment. What of it? Thus fight! You gain nothing by becoming cowards. ... Taking a step backward, you do not avoid any misfortune. You have cried to all the gods in the world. Has misery ceased? The masses in India cry to sixty million Gods and still die like dogs. Where are these gods? ... The gods come to help you when you have succeeded. So what is the use? Die game. ... This bending the knee to superstitions, this selling yourself to your own mind does not befit you, my soul. You are infinite, deathless, birthless. Because you are the infinite spirit, it does not befit you to be a slave. ... Arise! Awake! Stand up and fight! Die if you must. There is none to help you. You are the entire world. Who can help you? ~ Swami Vivekananda  (Delivered In San Francisco, on May 28, 1900) -The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Gita II

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:~ The Self is indeed Brahman, but through ignorance, people identify it with intellect, mind, senses, passions, and the elements of earth, water, air, space, and fire. This is why the Self is said to consist of this and that and appears to be everything. 

God is not physical. God means the ultimate truth or Brahman.  Therefore,   Self-Knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana or Christ-Consciousness is necessary to realize the ultimate truth. Self –Knowledge or Brahma Gnana is only for those who have an intense urge to know the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.

The devotion, devotee, and the world are one in essence. That essence is consciousness. Consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman. Brahman is God in truth. 

Thus, there is no devotee, devotion and deity, worship, and the world in Nondualistic reality, because everything is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.  

The Soul is the Self. The Soul or consciousness is God in truth.   Thus Atman is Brahman, Thus, God is the Self.  Love Thyself.  :~Santthosh Kumaar