On Guru Granth Sahib: When are you God? When are you not?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

He himself acts, and he himself contemplates. He Himself is the Master of both worlds. He plays and He enjoys; He is the Inner-knower, the Searcher of hearts. As He wills, He causes actions to be done. Nanak sees no other than Him. ||2||

Tell me — what can a mere mortal do? Whatever pleases God is what He causes us to do. If it were in our hands, we would grab up everything. Whatever pleases God — that is what He does. ||3||

~Guru Granth Sahib

Page: 277

Question: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! I am reading Guru Granth Sahib, and loving it. Strangely, I agree with what is written there but disagree with what it implies. In some of the lines, it is stated that He wills, contemplates, acts, and causes actions to be done. It is also said that there is no other than Him.

These are harmless and acceptable assertions. However, they imply that there is no suffering, and hence no ‘I’. I resist this implication. Is it His will that ‘I’ exists, ‘I’ resists, and ‘I’ claims to be suffering?

Am I, Him?

He cannot be suffering. What I believe is, that I am suffering.

Please resolve this paradox.

Acharya Prashant (AP): That which makes you suffer, the ‘I sense’, the ‘I sense’ too comes from Him. The ‘I sense’ is the suffering, the ‘I sense’ makes you suffer.

In other words, the ‘I sense’ makes itself suffer. That too is coming from Him. So, all the actions that are generally attributed to the ‘I’, the Saints say that they actually come from Him.

There is a reason.

Does the ‘I’ really know what it is doing? If the ‘I’ is the originator of the action, then it must know what it is doing? Does it really know? If it does not know what it is doing, then surely the action does…