In plain words
Whatever does not change with place, time and circumstance, that is the Ātma principle. That itself is the 'I'. Aham, aham is not a name. Aham is not a form. Even when the gross, the subtle and the causal change, what is called 'I' has not changed; whatever has not changed, whatever does not change with any time or under the sway of place, time and circumstance, that is the Ātma principle. That itself is the 'I', Aham. Aham is not a name. It is not a form. Aham is sound, and so it is God.
Made of Śabdabrahman, made of all that moves and all that is still, made of light, made of speech, made of eternal bliss, made of what is beyond the highest, made of Māyā, made of Śrī.
The first is sound. Sound itself is the principle of God. Made of Śabdabrahman. The Veda is the very form of sound. It is sound alone; it is neither form nor name. This is divinity. Then where is this 'I'? 'Ekovaśī sarvabhūtāntarātmā': I am present in all beings. How is it present? I asked, 'Who is Anel Kumar?' This one says, 'I.' When I ask, 'Who is Narasimhamurthy?', there he says, 'I.' When I ask, 'Who is Shah?', Shah says, 'I.' Anel Kumar, Narasimhamurthy, Shah: forms and names, and though the names differ, my question received one and the same answer, 'I, I.' So it is in each and every thing. It is in everyone. That is, whatever does not change and is present equally in all, that is the Ātma principle. If we are to understand spiritual matters rightly, we must take up just this small path. The 'I' is present in all. That itself is 'Īśāvāsyam idaṃ sarvaṃ' Īśvaras sarva bhūtānāṃ'. What does that mean? Īśvaratva means that which is auspicious always. That is, there is no change in it at all. It stays auspicious always. Take a small example. Its name is 'dog'. Even when the dog dies, the dog's form is gone, but the dog's name remains. That name alone does not go. Before the dog was born the name was there; while it lived, that name was there; after it perished, that name is there. No one can wipe out this sound. That itself is the form of sound. The 'I' is not a name. It is not a form. Where has this 'I' come from? If we inquire into what is called 'I', 'I' comes up from within, from the navel, from the Ātma principle.
A small example. When Pōtana began the Bhāgavatam:
What is spoken is the Bhāgavatam, they say; the One who makes me speak is Rāmabhadra, they say; what I speak ends the round of birth, they say.