I am the light that is above them all, I am the all,

and the all came from me and the all attained to me.

Cleave a piece of wood and I am there;

lift up the stone and you will find me there.

You can find thousands of sayings like this in the Upanishads, in the Gita, in Buddha, but you cannot find a single parallel in the Old Testament. So which scriptures has Jesus come to fulfill? He has come to fulfill some other scriptures, some other traditions. This saying is absolutely Vedanta, so try to understand first the standpoint of Vedanta, then you will be able to understand this saying.

Jesus was born as a Jew, lived as a Jew, died as a Jew – but this is only as far as the body is concerned; otherwise Jesus was a pure Hindu. And you cannot find a purer Hindu than Jesus, because the base of Upanishadic religion is his base. He created the whole structure on that base, so try to understand what that base is.

Jews say, “God is the creator and this universe is the created, and the created can never become the creator. How can a painting become the painter? How can a poem become the poet? Impossible! And if the poem tries to become the poet, the poem has gone mad; and if the painting tries to prove and assert and claim that ‘I am the painter,’ then the painting has gone wrong. Man is the creature and God is the creator. And this distance can never completely go, this space will remain. You can come closer and closer and closer to God, but you can never become God.”

This is the base of Jewish thought. And Mohammedans learned this from Jews. Mohammedans are more Jewish than Jesus; as far as the thinking, the way of thought is concerned, Mohammed is nearer to Moses than Jesus. Mohammed did not learn much from the Hindus. But Vedanta says, “God is the creation, there is no distinction between God and the creation. He has not created the universe like a poet creates a poem; the relationship is just like a dancer and the dance: they remain one. If the dancer stops, the dance disappears; and if the dance disappears, the person is no longer a dancer. The Universe is not separate, it is one. The universe was not created in time and finished, it is created each moment; it is being created each moment because it is God’s own being. Just as you move, you sing, you love, so God creates – every moment he is creating. And the creation is never separate, it is his movement, his dance.”

That’s why the Upanishads can say, “Aham Brahmasmi.” The Upanishads can say, the seers who have come to know this secret can say, “I am God.” And nobody thinks this is blasphemy – this is a truth.

Jews can never say, “I am God” – this is blasphemy, nothing can be worse than this assertion. You trying to be God? A creature trying to be God? A slave trying to assert that he is the master? This is egoism! What is pure religion in Vedanta is egoism for Jews and Mohammedans. Vedanta says this is not ego, because this feeling that “I am God” happens only when the ‘I’ has disappeared completely. When you are no more, when the house is vacant and the boat is empty, then suddenly you become aware that you are the all. If you are there, how can you think that you are the all? If you are there then you have a boundary, a personality – then your assertion false. When ‘I’ disappears, when there is egolessness, only then you feel you are the all. Jesus’ assertion comes from the Upanishads.

The first thing to be remembered: the creation and the creator are not two, they are one.

From The Mustard Seed, Osho, Element Books. ISBN: 1852304987
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