THE VOICE OF GOD

God is revealed to us at AGGS. And we, who are reflections of God, we who
are part of God, are therefore, revealed to ourselves. This theme is
picked up in a variety of ways by Sikhi tradition and its contemporary interpreters.

We often use sensory metaphors to convey moments of understanding, apprehension and connection. For instance, people remark: "I see what you're saying" or "I can hear your exhaustion" or "That speech really touched me" or "It was the sweet smell of success" or "The finish line was so close, I could taste it." The people "saw" God's voice in the same way--they experienced the presence and the truth of that Voice with all of themselves. When God spoke to them, they could see and taste, hear and smell and feel God's truth. They knew God with all that they were.

Personal revelations come to us in the same mysterious way. In moments of
Truth, we experience ourselves simultaneously receiving a gift from outside
and discovering something that always has been part of us. The Truth of
God's revelation is experienced like the Truth of falling in love, like the
Truth of a breakthrough moment in therapy, like the Truth of figuring out
what we're meant to do with our lives. All are gifts received from outside
which have, paradoxically, been waiting to be discovered within us all
along. The people recognize their Truths in God's Voice and had "no need to 'believe' the Hukam because they saw the voices." They already recognized their Truth in God's Voice.

With the Ten Gurus , the voice of Akal Purakh came to bear the voice
of God within them. We who believe that revelation is not a onetime event,
but an ongoing process, must, with fear and trembling, with deep humility
and "holy audacity," allow our voices too to become bearers of that voice.
The sound of Waheguru is a 'great voice that never ceased.' Today it needs us to be its trumpet.

Finding the correct combination of humility and "holy audacity" necessary
to become God's trumpets may be the central task and the most difficult
challenge of religious living. But how desperately the world (and God?)
need us to make the attempt to let God's music sing through us. May such
moments of revelation be our gift from life and to life.


Claudia Gaspar Soares Martins

sikhbrazil@yahoo.com