You Are God

“An impure mind, no matter how intelligent, has many limitations. It cannot know anything beyond the domain of sense perception or what lies beyond the world of time and space. It cannot know what is going to happen the next moment or what happened in the distant past. Metaphysical truths, such as the knowledge of the existence of God or the hereafter, are beyond the scope of such a mind. But when that same mind is purified or transformed through spiritual discipline into an extraordinary mind, it can transcend the barriers of the sense world and reach the outermost frontier of the world of time and space. It can then glimpse what lies beyond the domain of the senses. It gains extraordinary capabilities. It becomes all-knowing; it can know all the events of the past, present and the future. A genuine saint possesses such a pure mind. With the help of that mind the saint comes to know the truth about God, the soul, creation, etc. Such truths are called supersensuous or metaphysical truths…

The most important message of the Vedas is that everything and every being is divine. There are four very important statements in the Vedas. They are called Mahāvākyas or “great sentences.” Three out of these four great sentences speak of the divinity of every soul, the fourth speaks of the nature of God:

•    Aham Brahmāsmi—I am Brahman (God)
•    Tat tvam asi—You are That (Brahman)
•    Ayam ātmā Brahma—This indwelling Self is Brahman
•    Prajnānam Brahma—Supreme Knowledge is Brahman

         Even though God is equally present everywhere He is not equally manifest in every being, every thing or every place. To explain, let us consider four light bulbs of 100 watts each. If turned on, each one will give the same amount of light. Let us now cover the first bulb with one layer of paper, the second with two layers, the third with three layers, and leave the fourth uncovered. When we turn the bulbs on, they will not give the same amount of light. And yet, it cannot be denied that the same amount of light is present in each one. Similarly, God is equally present everywhere, but not equally manifest. His manifestation is greatest in Divine Incarnations and spiritually- illumined souls, and least in a non-living object, such as a rock. Vedic literature asserts the inherently divine nature of man and provides means and methods to manifest this divinity…”

~ Swami Bhaskarananda, The Essentials of Hinduism