Guiding Light: 'I Am Nothing!'

Once there was a rich young man: his father passed away, leaving him wealth untold. His heart was fired with the love of God. And he set out in search of a Guru, who might lead him out of untruth into Truth, out of death into the Life Undying.

He learnt of a great teacher of spiritual wisdom. The teacher had an ashrama, and whosoever would join it must first dedicate all his property and possessions to the ashrama. Accordingly, the young man sold all he had and gave the money to the guru, who, in turn, passed on to him the secret, which was supposed to emancipate him!

What was the secret? The young man was asked to affirm again and again, "Aham Brahmasmi!" which means "I am God!" "I am the Supreme!" The young man did so with all the sincerity and faith of which he was capable. He repeated to himself, again and again, "Aham Brahmasmi!" The words were uttered with every tick of the clock. What was the result? Far from being emancipated and free, the young man's condition grew more and more miserable; he felt distressed in mind and was unhappy. In due course, he fell ill. He could no longer stay at the ashrama. Penniless, having given away all he had to the Guru, he came out of the ashrama and, as good fortune would have it, came in contact with another teacher who advised the young seeker to give up saying, "I am God!" and to affirm instead, "I am nothing!" This the young man did, and it was not long before he became sound in body, mind and spirit.

No man can ever attain by affirming what he is not. When an ordinary man affirms he is God, he is becoming, firstly, insincere and hypocritical, and secondly, egoistic.

The bhakta knows he is nothing, so aspires to become a speck of dust on the lotus feet of the Beloved. At every step, he realises his own smallness and weakness and bows down before the greatness and the omnipotence of God. In his heart rises, again and again, the ancient prayer— "Thou, O Lord! Art is so great! And Thy mercies endure forever!"

Dada J P Vaswani was a humanitarian, philosopher, educator, acclaimed writer, powerful orator, messiah of ahimsa, and non-sectarian spiritual leader.