3 Mar 2012 - QA 2

Dear Guruji, in the Gita it says, ‘Avyaktahi Gatir Dukham’, when we worship the un-manifest it leads to misery. Is it necessary to have a form for worship or can we meditate without a form?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Meditation happens without a form, but before getting into meditation a form would be essential. It could be any form.
That is why Lord Krishna says, you need to have a guide, a teacher, a Guru.
Jesus also has said the same thing; if you want to go to my Father you have to go through me. It is like that.
Lord Krishna said the same thing. ‘Avyaktahi Gatir Dukham Dehvadvir Vapyate.’ People who are body conscious, for them, going directly to the un-manifest brings a lot of sorrow and a lot of trouble in their lives and this is true, we have seen it.
If you see Judaism, they underwent so much trouble, so much suffering. He is not saying this path is wrong or bad. The path of the un-manifest is there but the way is very gruesome, it is a very tedious road and it brings a lot of pain to the walkers on that path.
We have seen this happening to the Jews in the world. And it has happened to the Muslims. In the Muslim religion this is happening from the very inception. But if you see Christians on the other hand, though there was trouble but not as much.
Buddhists, Jains, Tao , Shinto, all these paths were smooth sailing and there was not so much suffering that people had to face as in the time of Muhammad.
In Prophet Muhammad’s time, he himself had to face so much difficulty. Same is with the Prophet of Judaism. Their whole life, their paths were filled with sorrow, filled with hardship, filled with struggle and fight all the way through. And to some extent even the Sikhs had to go through this. Sikhs also worshiped the Avyakta – the unseen and the un-manifest.