Every day newspapers carry one criticism about me: that I am a self-appointed God. That means a committee is needed to appoint. Maybe a government has to issue certificates saying who is God and who is not God, or maybe a university has to issue certificates. The people who criticize me as a self-appointed God have taken it for granted that God should be appointed by others. Who are these others, and what right have they, and who has appointed them? Now it will be a regress, ad nauseam.
Buddha declared himself, Krishna declared himself, Jesus declared himself; they were all self- appointed Gods. But there is no other way. When I have come to know, when I have come to see who I am, what can I do? I have simply to state the fact. It is a bare, naked truth – and it is not only my truth.
If I were declaring that I am God and you are not, then it would be just an ego-trip. But my declaration includes you, includes the whole existence. It has nothing to do with me as such; in fact I am no more there, and only God is. I have dropped the self that you are carrying; the self that is created by others, I have dropped. And in dropping that, the real self is discovered.