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Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta
that  aham  means “I” and that “I” refers to a personality. Therefore, the Personality of Godhead, speaking to Brahmā, uses  aham  while describing His own transcendental form.  Aham  has a specific meaning; it is not a vague term that can be whimsically interpreted.  Aham , when spoken by Kṛṣṇa, refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and nothing else.
Before the creation and after its dissolution, only the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His associates exist; there is no existence of the material elements. This is confirmed in the Vedic literature.  Vāsudevo vā idam agra āsīn na brahmā na ca śaṅkaraḥ . The meaning of this  mantra  is that before creation there was no existence of Brahmā or Śiva, for only Viṣṇu existed. Viṣṇu exists in His abode, the Vaikuṇṭhas. There are innumerable Vaikuṇṭha planets in the spiritual sky, and on each of them Viṣṇu resides with His associates and His paraphernalia. It is also confirmed in  Bhagavad-gītā  that although the creation is periodically dissolved, there is another abode, which is never dissolved. The word “creation” refers to the material creation because in the spiritual world everything exists eternally and there is no creation or dissolution.
The Lord indicates herein that before the material creation He existed in fullness with all transcendental opulences, including all strength, all wealth, all beauty, all knowledge, all fame and all renunciation. If one thinks of a king, he automatically thinks of his secretaries, ministers, military commanders, palaces and so on. Since a king has such opulences, one can simply try to imagine the opulence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When the Lord says  aham , therefore, it is to be understood that He exists with full potency, including all opulences.
The word  yat  refers to Brahman, the impersonal effulgence of the Lord. In the  Brahma-saṁhitā  (5.40) it is said,  tad-brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtam : the Brahman effulgence expands unlimitedly. Just as the sun is a localized planet although the sunshine expands unlimitedly from that source, so the Absolute Truth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but His effulgence of energy, Brahman, expands unlimitedly. From that Brahman energy the creation appears, just as a cloud appears in sunshine. From the cloud comes rain, from the rain comes vegetation, and from the vegetation come fruits and flowers, which are the basis of subsistence for many other forms of life. Similarly, the effulgent bodily luster of the Supreme Lord is the cause of the creation of infinite universes. The Brahman effulgence is impersonal, but the cause of that energy is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. From Him, in His abode, the Vaikuṇṭhas, this  brahmajyoti  emanates. He is never impersonal. Since they cannot understand the source of the Brahman energy, impersonalists mistakenly choose to think this impersonal Brahman the ultimate or absolute goal. But as stated in the  Upaniṣads , one has to penetrate the impersonal effulgence to see the face of the Supreme Lord. If one desires to reach the source of the sunshine, he has to travel through the sunshine to reach the sun and then meet the predominating deity there. The Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person, Bhagavān, as the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  explains.
Śat  means “effect,”  aśat  means “cause,” and  param  refers to the ultimate truth, which is transcendental to cause and effect. The cause of the creation is called the  mahat-tattva , or total material energy, and its effect