16 Oct 2011 Q & A 13

Jai Gurudev, personally I have a hard time connecting to concepts like the Divine or Supreme Consciousness or God. Can agnostic or atheist become an Art of Living teacher?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Definitely, don’t worry as long as you acknowledge there is form and there is formless and the world is an interplay of form and formless. You did this meditation, did you all enjoy? Was it good? You don’t have to see God with a nose, with hair, with a beard sitting somewhere up in heaven, there is no such God. If you believe in Godliness then that is good enough. If you think God is an energy that is good enough. You don’t have to see God as a person, telling you or talking to you or something. Like there is an electric field, biometric field there is also a field of love. If you acknowledge that then that is good enough. And the highest goal of a human life is to grow and feel connected with the entire cosmos. That is why Lord Buddha never talked about God. Also Pantanjali, when he described Yoga, in only one place he mentioned God, other than that he only talked about the consciousness, the mind. You know the Jains, they only talk about the self. They didn’t say there is a God up there somewhere. So even those who talked about God they said God is love. Jesus said God is love and love is God.