"Ekoham bahusyam"

Playwright thinks he is God!

Delusional or just a ego trip?

Shankaracharya realized that Oneness (Ekatvam) is the essence of all knowledge. This is the doctrine of "ADVAITA"."Ekameva Adviteeyam Brahma" (The absolute is one alone, not two) There is no second, but there is the appearance of an enormous multiplicity. How, then, can oneness be claimed? Here is an example. You have the number 1 and the number 9. Of the two numbers which is the bigger? The natural answer will be: 9. But this is not so. One is really the bigger number 1+1+1+1+... up to nine, makeup nine. Hence, the vedas declare: "Ekoham bahusyam". "I am one; I willed to be many, only the one exists". But it has assumed numerous forms. Shankara declared that the many(Anekatvam) is subsumed by the one (This is the unity in diversity). There may be many stalks of sugarcane, but the juice from all of them has the same sweetness. Beings are many, but the breath is the same. Nations are many, but the earth is one.

Satya Sai Baba talking about the Primal Cause says

The universe is itself the manifestation of the Divine Mind, which willed, Ekoham Bahusyam; "I am One, let Me become many!"

Living implies the operation in the individual of the life principle that activates all beings. The attributeless Divine assumes certain qualities as Its nature and become form. The individual thus formed seeks to know and experience the variety names and forms that are exposed to its senses of perception and its mind. This in short, is the process of living, the project of "knowing", of expanding one's awareness. The process has a beginning and an end; it involves success and failure, good and evil.

In ‘Bliss Divine’ by Sri Swami Sivananda talking about Creation and expanding his views on Ekoham Bahusyam says,

‘Earth, food, fire and sun are forms of Brahman. East, west, north and south are parts of the Lord. The sky, heaven, ocean are portions of Brahman.

‘Breath is a part of Brahman. Sight is a part of Brahman. Hearing is a part of Brahman. Mind is a part of Brahman. This life is Brahman. Brahman or Truth is the essence in which the universe has its being, from which it is born, and in which it dissolves at the end of each world-cycle.

‘An effect does not exist apart from its cause. A pot does not exist apart from clay. This universe does not exist apart from Brahman. It has no independent existence. It is one with Brahman.

‘If you have candlelight, and from it you light a thousand other candles, is not the first light in all the other candles? So it is with God. Creating all things, He is in all by spirit, breath and being.

‘The world is charged with the splendor, glory and grandeur of God. Just as sugar-cane juice pervades the sugar cane, just as salt pervades the water when a lump of salt is dissolved in it, just as butter pervades milk, so also, Brahman pervades all the objects, animate or inanimate.

‘Brahman is one. Manifestation is many. One has become many.

‘As from a blazing fire, sparks all similar to one another, come forth in thousands, so also, from the one imperishable Brahman proceed all breathing animals, all worlds, all the gods, and all beings’.

In Essentials of Hinduism Sri Abhinav Dwivedi explaining Ekoham Bahusyam says, ‘Divine, the ultimate reality, Brahman, God has become many for its own reasons, presumably for its Lila, enjoyment. And in becoming many — from the smallest atoms to the mightiest galaxies — it has hidden itself…. This is going on in endless cycles…’

This very profound Hindu philosophical concept from the Vedas is appropriated by Hamukh Baradi to elevate his status as a playwright and a ‘man of theatre’.

Writing on his web page as a self-introduction he in essence compares himself with this Vedic philosophical dictum that describes divine reality.One prominent playwright from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India reduces it to self-serving dictum. Here is what he says, ‘Theatre gives me freedom, freedom from the limits of space and time. I become someone else, even as a playwright, Ekoham Bahusyam, one trying to become many.
I am tempted to call this delusional.