I” or “I AM” is mere illusion.

 The ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ is intoxication of illusion. Until and unless one comes out of this intoxication the self-realization is impossible. It is not ‘I AM THAT’ it is ‘SELF IS THAT’ because ‘I’ or ‘I AM’ is not the self. 

  “I “or “I AM” is not the true self. “ I” or “I AM” is mere illusion. The self is not “I” or “I AM” but the self is the formless witness or knower of “I” or “I AM”. Clinging to “I” or “I AM” as self leads to a hallucination. 

People are not ready to investigate and verify deeply to know the facts. They sentimentally involve with the teacher and teaching and get stuck. They think they are self-realized because they know “I AM THAT”.     

Mind is consciousness, and consciousness is mind   . The three states are absorbed in the consciousness.

Even the Vedas indicate that the Self is consciousness:-

v  Tat tvam asi: -Thou art That (Sam Veda). “Self is  that”

v  Prajnanam Brahma: - Consciousness is ultimate reality (Rig Veda).

v  Ayam Aatma Brahma: -The Self is the ultimate truth (Atharva Veda).

v  Aham Brahma Asmi: -Self is ultimate reality (Yajur Veda).

People have the notion that more and more they gratify their senses for attaining worldly pleasures, the happier they will be is not true at all, because they think the physical self is real self, therefore they are unaware of the fact that the self not physical but formless consciousness. The consciousness can stay with or without the mind or ’I’.  

It is the illusory sense-pleasure that is responsible for the forgetfulness of the Self, which is in the form of consciousness, which result in one’s sorrows and sufferings.

Suffering is the reminder to search for the remedy to overcome the suffering caused by the ignorance of the true self. Pleasure is the cause of ignorance .but if the real self is realized, and then, illusion will not prevail as reality.